Character analysis
Jeremy Furlow
in Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson
Jeremy Furlow is a young Black Southern migrant and guitar-playing drifter who comes to Seth Holly's Pittsburgh boarding house around 1911, embodying the restless, pleasure-seeking spirit of the younger generation during the Great Migration. Unlike the spiritually burdened Herald Loomis, Jeremy travels light—he carries no heavy past, just ambition, appetite, and music. His guitar defines him: he wins a juke-joint contest early in the play, showcasing both his talent and his desire for recognition and a sense of belonging.
Jeremy's journey illustrates a lesson in romantic disillusionment. He initially pursues Mattie Campbell, offering her companionship and a shared room, but he quickly leaves her when the more worldly and self-assured Molly Cunningham arrives. Molly flatly refuses to cook, clean, or adhere to any man's rules, and Jeremy, drawn in by her boldness, chooses to leave with her at the play's conclusion—only for Molly to clarify that their arrangement will be strictly on her terms. Jeremy never fully understands that his easy charm cannot replace the deeper self-awareness that Bynum encourages him to seek.
He also loses his road-gang job after he refuses to pay a white foreman a weekly bribe, a small act of dignity that ultimately leaves him struggling financially. Jeremy represents the generation that moved north in search of freedom but has yet to find the inner "song"—the grounded sense of self—that Bynum highlights as essential for true liberation. His youth, musical talent, and unmoored optimism make him both relatable and a cautionary figure within the play's thematic landscape.
Connected characters
- Seth Holly
Seth is Jeremy's landlord and a recurring source of friction. Seth views Jeremy as irresponsible and too free-spirited, and he evicts him after Jeremy brings Molly to share his room without permission, illustrating the generational and temperamental divide between the settled, property-owning Seth and the rootless younger migrant.
- Bertha Holly
Bertha is more tolerant of Jeremy than her husband is, treating him with maternal warmth. She mediates between Jeremy's carefree nature and Seth's strict household rules, representing the nurturing stability of the boarding house that Jeremy ultimately cannot hold onto.
- Bynum Walker
Bynum serves as an informal spiritual mentor to Jeremy, encouraging him to find his own 'song'—his authentic self—rather than drifting from woman to woman. Jeremy listens but does not truly absorb the lesson, and his departure with Molly signals his continued spiritual unrootedness.
- Molly Cunningham
Molly is Jeremy's most consequential relationship in the play. He is immediately captivated by her independence and beauty, abandons Mattie for her, and ultimately leaves the boarding house with her. Molly's frank refusal to be domesticated challenges and ultimately outmaneuvers Jeremy's romantic assumptions.
- Herald Loomis
Jeremy and Loomis occupy the same boarding house but represent contrasting migrant experiences—Jeremy's lightness and sociability stand in sharp relief against Loomis's tormented, driven interiority, highlighting the play's spectrum of Black male identity in the post-Reconstruction North.