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.
Who is Jeremy Furlow?
Jeremy Furlow arrives at Seth Holly's Pittsburgh boarding house as one of August Wilson's most transparently youthful figures: a Southern-born guitar player in his early twenties whose defining quality is mobility. He has come north with the Great Migration wave of 1911 carrying almost nothing except his instrument and an easy confidence in his own appeal. While other residents of the boarding house—particularly Herald Loomis—are visibly weighed down by history and grief, Jeremy moves through the world as if consequences haven't caught up with him yet. That lightness is his most revealing characteristic, both charming and limiting. Wilson depicts him not as a villain or a fool, but as a relatable young man who mistakes pleasure for purpose and charm for depth.
What is Jeremy Furlow's arc and motivation?
Jeremy's arc is one of repeated lateral movement mistaken for progress. His central motivation is recognition and belonging—he wants to be seen, desired, and admired—but he pursues these through surfaces: music, romance, and good looks rather than inner reckoning. Early in the play, he wins a juke-joint guitar contest, solidifying his self-image as a man whose talent earns him a place. His professional life fractures when he refuses to pay a white foreman a weekly bribe to keep his road-gang job. This refusal is Wilson's most genuinely dignified act for him—a small, costly assertion of self-respect—but Jeremy cannot build on it due to a lack of the deeper foundation Bynum urges him to locate. His arc concludes not with revelation but with departure: he leaves the boarding house with Molly Cunningham, who clarifies that their arrangement will operate entirely on her terms. He ends the play as unmoored as he began, having exchanged one incomplete arrangement for another.
What are Jeremy Furlow's key moments?
The juke-joint guitar contest (Act One) establishes Jeremy's confidence and connects performance with worth. Winning feels like proof of belonging, yet it's contingent on applause rather than rooted in identity.
His job loss is pivotal. Refusing the foreman's bribe is an act of dignity, yet its consequence—financial precarity—exposes the gap between principle and practical survival that Jeremy hasn't considered. He shrugs it off with characteristic lightness.
The shift from Mattie to Molly (Act Two) is the play's clearest demonstration of Jeremy's emotional shallowness. He had offered Mattie companionship and a shared room, presenting himself as a reliable partner. The moment Molly appears, that offer evaporates. Wilson's treatment of the transition highlights this point.
Jeremy's conversations with Bynum about finding one's "song" punctuate the play as recurring diagnostic moments. Each time, Jeremy hears the advice but fails to absorb it.
What are Jeremy Furlow's most important relationships?
Bynum Walker serves as the play's spiritual diagnostician, providing some of the sharpest readings of Jeremy. He tells Jeremy that drifting from woman to woman is not freedom but avoidance, and that a man without his song is lost, regardless of how far north he travels. Jeremy listens politely yet continues drifting, making Bynum's counsel feel less like failure and more like prophecy.
Molly Cunningham ultimately outsmarts Jeremy in their dynamic. He is drawn to her independence—she refuses to cook, clean, or subordinate herself to any domestic arrangement—but he doesn’t realize that her self-possession won’t accommodate his need for uncomplicated admiration. Their exit together at the play’s conclusion is less a triumph for Jeremy than a quiet correction.
Mattie Campbell embodies what Jeremy discards in favor of appetite. Mattie is genuinely vulnerable, seeking real companionship, and Jeremy's abandonment of her illustrates the human cost of his lightness.
Seth Holly's impatience with Jeremy represents a generational conflict: Seth has built something through discipline and property ownership, and he interprets Jeremy's rootlessness as irresponsibility. The eviction over Molly's unchaperoned presence showcases Seth enforcing a worldview that Jeremy simply does not share.
How is Jeremy Furlow connected to the other 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.
Questions readers ask about Jeremy Furlow
Who is Jeremy Furlow in Joe Turner's Come and Gone?
Jeremy Furlow is a young Black Southern migrant and guitar player who boards at Seth Holly's Pittsburgh rooming house around 1911. He travels north with the Great Migration wave carrying little more than his instrument and easy confidence, representing the restless, pleasure-seeking younger generation. Wilson uses him as a cautionary counterpoint to the more spiritually burdened Herald Loomis, showing the costs of mistaking charm and mobility for genuine freedom.
Why does Jeremy Furlow lose his road-gang job?
Jeremy loses his job after refusing to pay a white foreman a weekly bribe to keep his position. The refusal is his most principled act in the play—a small but costly assertion of dignity. Wilson frames it as genuinely admirable yet ultimately hollow because Jeremy lacks the deeper self-awareness to build on it, and he shrugs off the financial consequences with characteristic lightness rather than reckoning with them.
Why does Jeremy Furlow abandon Mattie Campbell for Molly Cunningham?
Jeremy leaves Mattie for Molly the moment Molly's boldness and self-assurance catch his attention. He had offered Mattie companionship and a shared room, presenting himself as a reliable partner, but that offer evaporates instantly. Wilson frames the switch as the clearest demonstration of Jeremy's emotional shallowness—he pursues recognition and appetite rather than genuine connection, and Mattie's vulnerability cannot compete with Molly's captivating independence.
What is Jeremy Furlow's relationship with Bynum Walker?
Bynum acts as an informal spiritual mentor to Jeremy, repeatedly urging him to find his own 'song'—an authentic, grounded sense of self—rather than drifting from woman to woman in search of easy admiration. Jeremy listens politely but never truly absorbs the lesson. His departure with Molly at the play's end signals his continued spiritual unrootedness, making Bynum's counsel feel less like failure on Bynum's part and more like unfulfilled prophecy.
How does Jeremy Furlow's relationship with Molly Cunningham end?
Jeremy leaves the boarding house with Molly at the play's conclusion, but the arrangement is firmly on her terms. Molly has made clear throughout that she will not cook, clean, or subordinate herself to any domestic expectations. Rather than a romantic triumph, Jeremy's exit is a quiet correction: he is drawn to her independence without recognizing that her self-possession will not accommodate his need for uncomplicated admiration, leaving him as unmoored as when he arrived.
What does Jeremy Furlow's guitar represent in the play?
Jeremy's guitar represents performance and the desire for recognition rather than true identity. Winning a juke-joint contest early in the play reinforces his self-image as someone whose talent earns him belonging—but that belonging depends on applause rather than inner foundation. Wilson contrasts this with the 'song' Bynum describes, a deeper authentic selfhood that Jeremy's musical showmanship never reaches, illustrating the gap between surface accomplishment and genuine self-knowledge.
How does Seth Holly's treatment of Jeremy Furlow reflect a generational conflict?
Seth views Jeremy as irresponsible and too free-spirited, ultimately evicting him after Jeremy brings Molly to share his room without permission. Seth has built stability through discipline and property ownership, and he interprets Jeremy's rootlessness as a failure of character. The conflict exposes a generational divide between the settled, property-owning migrant who has made the North work and the younger drifter who has not yet accepted that freedom requires an inner foundation, not just movement.
Is Jeremy Furlow meant to be a villain or a sympathetic character?
Jeremy is neither a villain nor a simple fool—Wilson presents him as a relatable young man whose flaws are rooted in immaturity rather than malice. His abandonment of Mattie causes real harm, and his refusal to heed Bynum's guidance marks a missed opportunity for growth, but Wilson treats his unmoored optimism as both a personal limitation and a product of his historical moment. He is a cautionary figure, not a condemned one.
Use this in your essay
Jeremy as cautionary counterpoint to Loomis: How does Wilson use Jeremy's lightness and Loomis's tormented interiority to convey the full range of male migrant experience? What does this contrast indicate about the varying psychological costs of the Great Migration?
Music as identity versus performance: Jeremy's guitar wins contests but does not embody the "song" Bynum describes. Formulate an argument about Wilson's distinction between artistic performance and authentic selfhood.
The bribe refusal as ambiguous dignity: Jeremy's refusal to pay the foreman represents his most principled act, yet it produces no meaningful change in his life. What does Wilson suggest about the limits of individual acts of resistance without deeper self-awareness?
Gender and power in Jeremy's romances: Examine how Molly's explicit refusal of domesticity and Mattie's quiet need for stability expose the underlying assumptions in Jeremy's approach to women and freedom.
Youth and the Great Migration's broken promise: To what extent does Jeremy symbolize the northern promise that ultimately fails? Does Wilson treat his lack of roots as a personal failing, a structural condition, or both?