Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner is the story of a man who outraged the land that then turned and destroyed the man's family (Serafin 356). Growing up as a poor mountain white, Thomas Sutpen yearns for more than what he has ever had. He marries a young woman and fathers a son, but soon after it is revealed to him that his wife has Negro blood. Abandoning his new wife and child, Sutpen leaves to create a life for himself of wealth, family, and social acceptance. Thomas Sutpen marries a gentlewoman, Ellen Coldfield, with whom he begets two children, Henry and Judith. Although he is a man of accomplished dreams and affluence, everything that he has achieved and established crumbles around him (Magill, Magill's Survey of American Literature 675). The events transcend into a twisted plot of revelation, revenge, and murder. When Henry goes off to college, he becomes good friends with Charles Bon, the first son of Thomas. Charles meets and then falls in love with his half-sister Judith, which causes Henry to kill him because he is committing incest. As a result of this incestuous relationship and murder, the fabulous life that Sutpen has worked to maintain is torn apart by the revengeful attitudes of the family members. William Faulkner's novel Absalom, Absalom! contains an allusion to the Biblical account of King David and his family and to William Shakespeare's play Hamlet in order to develop the characters in the conflicts that revolve around four thematic ideas.
             Faulkner's allusion to the Bible and Hamlet allows for the development and shaping of the characters in Absalom, Absalom! (Brooks 51). In the novel, there is a similarity between the lives and the characters of Thomas Sutpen and Charles Bon and King David and his son Amnon. A comparison is made between Thomas and King David as well as between Charles and Amnon (Vogel 69). With the description of and the reference to King Dav...