Goodhue Coldfield

Goodhue Ellen Coldfield Sutpen stands as a representative of a particular vision of antebellum Southern morality—rigid, judgmental, and ultimately ineffectual against the greater forces of ambition and tragedy that will consume his daughters and their families. As a merchant and a devout Methodist, Ellen Coldfield Sutpen has built his identity around principles of propriety, moral rectitude, and the condemnation of those who violate these principles. Yet his certainty proves powerless against the machinations of Thomas Sutpen, and his disapproval of Ellen Coldfield Sutpen's suit for Ellen Coldfield Sutpen's hand is overridden by his daughter's determination or her mother's acquiescence. Ellen Coldfield Sutpen's death, though only minimally described in the text, nonetheless plays a role in the family's trajectory. His legacy is one of moral rigidity rather than moral wisdom, of judgment rather than compassion, and his daughters—both Ellen Coldfield Sutpen and Rosa Coldfield—are shaped by their reaction to his stern, unyielding approach to morality and relationships.