70 pages • 2 hours read
The House Is on Fire
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Character Analysis
Sally Henry Campbell
Sally Henry Campbell starts off the novel as a childless widow trying to regain some of the excitement and joy she lost when her husband died. During the fire, she rises to the occasion, going back to look for Margaret, saving Mr. Scott, and encouraging other women to jump out the window. She continues this work in the aftermath, helping Mrs. Cowley care for the injured and arguing on behalf of the fire’s female victims. These experiences lead her to become disillusioned with women’s place in society and how men treat them. This is expressed in an exchange between her and Margaret in the aftermath when both women remark that they cannot return to their old lives thanks to what they know now.
Sally is very caring, showing this repeatedly in how she looks after Margaret and the other injured survivors. She is observant and a quick judge of character, able to read others’ emotions and react accordingly. This also has the effect of making her annoyed with the way men treat her, as she can see how they disregard her reasoning and choices. For example, she is irritated at still being thought of as only Patrick Henry’s daughter, reflecting that “She took Robert’s name a dozen years ago now, as a girl of nineteen, but plenty of men still refuse to think of her as anyone other than Patrick Henry’s daughter” (10). While this identity still primarily associates her with a man, she is not even able to choose which man, as others choose for her.
Sally is also quick to take action, as shown by her shepherding women to the window during the fire, advocating for Margaret’s rights, intervening in the Price family’s abusive dynamics, and arguing with Thomas Ritchie over the women’s experiences in the fire. Though she behaves with intelligence and care before going through the fire, the tragedy forces her to push these traits to new ends and show her just how capable she is.
Despite her comprehending the inequalities inherent to contemporary Richmond society, Sally is unable to fully overcome the views of her time. She understands that enslaved Black people have little reason to care for their enslavers and is uncomfortable with Elliott’s treatment of Cecily and Della, but she does not bring these observations to their logical conclusion that enslavement is wrong. Even as she encourages Maria to help Cecily and argues for Mrs. Cowley’s expertise to be recognized, her championing lies in her relation to wronged white women from her social class, not the Black women who are also suffering.
Cecily Patterson
Cecily Patterson is a 19-year-old girl enslaved to the Price family. She begins the novel devastated, as Elliott Price Jr., the family’s son, has told her he is being given Cecily as a wedding present the following week. Elliott has been abusing Cecily since they were children, raping her and forcing her to do anything he wishes. When the theater catches fire, Cecily realizes she has a chance at freedom and decides to run. Her ensuing escape from Richmond shows her how much she is capable of and forces her to confront losing everything and everyone she has ever known. At the same time, this community makes her escape possible, helping her evade the slave patrol and giving her the needed resources to flee north. As such, Cecily’s relationships highlight her care for others and theirs for her.
Cecily repeatedly shows her intelligence, having had to be cautious and prudent to first survive Elliott and then escape from him. She remains calm in tense situations, able to quickly make a plan when she decides to run and keep to it. She is also talented at disguising her emotions, as her mother describes her as being “good at pretending things is all right” (202). She is incredibly adaptable, adjusting quickly to life as a fugitive from slavery. Cecily is able to analyze her options and make educated choices despite the heightened emotional state of her circumstances. This likely influences Cecily’s tendency toward and desire for self-sufficiency. She feels guilty for depending on her family’s aid (and thus putting them in danger) when she runs. These feelings are exacerbated by how isolated and afraid Elliott Price has made her feel for most of her life.
Family is very important to Cecily. She maintains this as one of her core values, thinking that though her younger brother Moses is acting without the caution she wishes, he knows that “family is all that matters” (221). She worries over her decision to return to the Price estate after the fire for fear that she will put her family in harm’s way. While in hiding, she realizes just how much her family cares for her, seeing how Moses wants to look out for her, Della protects her, Gilbert provides money and a forged pass, and her father loves her even though she isn’t his biological daughter. The fire acts as a crucible for Cecily’s familial relationships, exposing their strength and values. Though she has gained this new understanding, the system of enslavement her to find it by leaving all she loves behind.
Gilbert Hunt
Gilbert Hunt is an enslaved blacksmith who repeatedly shows himself to be hardworking and kind. He is reliable and responsible, committed to his wife and his extended family, and diligent in his studies of reading and religion. He looks out for not only his family but all those around him, immediately rushing to the aid of the fire victims, even though “He doesn’t have much use for white people, hasn’t met many decent ones in his life” (45). He is hopeful and optimistic while still being a realist. He does not take unnecessary risks and is reluctant to believe in solutions that appear too easy, but he still continually reaffirms his hopes for the future to be brighter. As he says to his wife, he truly believes that “It ain’t always gonna be like this” (25).
Gilbert’s repeated choice to do the right thing not only expresses an aspect of his personality but also his needs and desires. The color of his skin and his enslavement mean he is denied freedom and equality, which is a continual source of pain for him. He acts like a gentleman, far more than any other man in the book, but is not allowed to be recognized as such. That he finally receives it in response to his heroics reaffirms his moral code. Where other men leave their wives to die and avoid their responsibilities, Gilbert continually commits to doing the right thing, behaving more in line with how the popular edicts of Richmond high society claim a man should act than his white counterparts.
Throughout the book, Gilbert increasingly realizes how tenuous and ideologically unsound the system he is trapped in is. Helping Cecily escape helps him to feel more confident in his own powers of self-determination outside of the system of enslavement, as he considers forging his own free papers for the first time. This is a change from Gilbert’s views at the start of the book, as he felt he needed to work to be free in order to feel he had earned it. His experiences with the fire and Cecily allow him to experience external and internal recognition of his own value. This further reinforces his inherent optimism. Even at the conclusion of the novel, with his good deeds going unrewarded and his situation worse than it was before the fire, he continues to have hope for the future.
Jack Gibson
Jack Gibson is a 14-year-old orphan who has been working with the Placide and Green theater company for a short time before the fire breaks out. Jack has grown up around educated and principled men, having had an intelligent father and attended school, and he is friends with his teacher and local intellectual, Professor Girardin. Jack wants to maintain the good principles he has seen these men model, but he is young and lacks protection. His desire to impress the others in the theater company leads him into a struggle between his conscience and the less-than-morally-sound practices of Placide and Green. At Green’s urging, Jack raised a lit chandelier into the rafters, which started the theater fire.
As the false story about the revolt is crafted, Jack’s immediate reaction is disgust. He admired the company up to this point because he is enamored with acting, but he realizes that they are self-serving, remarking that “they are not virtuous” (98). He genuinely loves the theater and is told that he will never have the chance to be on stage if he does what he knows to be the right thing. Jack’s story is a coming-of-age narrative; having been thrust into the center of a tragedy, he has to decide if he will become a man his father would be proud of or look to new authorities for guidance.
Jack is another example of how those in power can harm those under them. When Jack’s father died, Jack was stuck with an abusive uncle until Professor Girardin took him in and found him a job with the company. Pushing against the revolt narrative leads to further violence against Jack; Anderson threatens to kill him should he tell the truth and at one point nearly does so. Jack’s youth, lack of connections, and low social class make him an easy target and increase the difficulties he faces on his moral journey as going against the grain can hurt him. His eventual resolution to do the right thing comes because he realizes that it is the only way to maintain his morals, and he values those over his place with the theater company. He becomes a man when he comes clean, represented by his determination to leave Richmond and live in a city where his father never lived; while still respecting his father’s memory, he is able to stand on his own now.
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