Character analysis
The Fellow Prisoner
in Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
The Fellow Prisoner is a minor yet symbolically significant character in Thoreau's Civil Disobedience (1849), appearing briefly during the one night Thoreau spends in the Concord jail for refusing to pay his poll tax. Thoreau depicts him as a man accused of burning a barn—an act whose moral implications Thoreau neither endorses nor disputes—and presents him as a seasoned, even cheerful, inhabitant of the cell. He has spent enough time there to make the space feel like his own: he shows Thoreau where to hang his hat, points out the best spot on the wall for a view through the window, and generally serves as an experienced guide to life behind bars. In this way, he functions more as a symbol of those whom the State routinely discards and forgets rather than as a fully developed individual. His easy familiarity with prison life subtly criticizes a society that locks up the poor and marginalized without thought. Thoreau contrasts the fellow prisoner's resigned acceptance of confinement with his own principled refusal to be spiritually imprisoned, implying that the more profound captivity is the one most citizens accept willingly. The man's specific crime remains unclear, reinforcing Thoreau's larger argument that the law's judgments do not equate to moral judgments. Though he disappears from the essay after a single scene, the fellow prisoner grounds Thoreau's abstract political philosophy in real, human experiences, making the injustice of the State tangible rather than theoretical.
Connected characters
- Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau's brief cellmate during his one night in jail. The fellow prisoner serves as Thoreau's unwitting host and guide to prison life, showing him where to hang his hat and which window gives the best view. Thoreau uses him to humanize and ground his philosophical argument about state injustice.
- The State (Massachusetts Government)
The State has imprisoned him on a charge of barn-burning. He represents the class of people the Massachusetts government routinely incarcerates and forgets—casualties of a legal system Thoreau argues operates on expediency rather than conscience.
- Sam Staples (Tax Collector)
Sam Staples, as the enforcing agent of the State, is indirectly responsible for the fellow prisoner's confinement just as he is for Thoreau's. The fellow prisoner's longer, unresolved stay in the cell contrasts with the brevity of Thoreau's detention, highlighting how differently the State treats its various captives.