Character analysis
Molly Cunningham
in Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson
Molly Cunningham arrives at Seth and Bertha Holly's Pittsburgh boardinghouse as a confident, sharp-witted young Black woman who knows what she wants out of life—and what she won't tolerate. Unlike the other residents, she shows no visible scars from the Great Migration; she travels light, both emotionally and materially, and doesn’t apologize for it. Her defining trait is a straightforward, unapologetic self-reliance: she tells Jeremy Furlow outright that she won’t cook, clean, or serve any man, and she means it. This statement isn’t just bravado; it’s a hard-earned philosophy shaped by witnessing women around her sacrifice everything for men who offered nothing in return.
Her journey is one of conscious self-preservation rather than transformation. When she first appears, she instantly captures Jeremy's attention and flirtatious energy. She matches him wit for wit, and the two engage in a brief, pleasure-focused relationship. However, when Jeremy loses his job and suggests that Molly travel with him as a guitar-playing drifter, she declines without sentiment—she refuses to tie her survival to a man who has no solid foundation. She walks away decisively, proving that her independence is rooted in principle, not mere performance.
Thematically, Molly serves as a counterbalance to the play's haunted, searching characters. While Herald Loomis is consumed by an unresolved past and Martha is driven by spiritual duty, Molly insists on living fully in the present on her own terms. She embodies a specific kind of Black female agency—pragmatic, sensual, and unashamed—that August Wilson presents at the boardinghouse table as a vital, living force.
Connected characters
- Jeremy Furlow
Molly's most direct relationship in the play. Jeremy pursues her with charm and guitar-playing confidence, and she accepts his company on her own terms. Their pairing is warm but transactional; when Jeremy proposes she join his rootless rambling life after losing his job, Molly refuses, choosing security and self-determination over romantic adventure. Their split crystallizes her core philosophy.
- Seth Holly
Seth is Molly's landlord and a skeptical observer of her independence. His practical, property-minded worldview contrasts with her free-moving lifestyle, and he regards her with mild suspicion, though she navigates his household rules on her own schedule.
- Bertha Holly
Bertha offers Molly the warmth of the boardinghouse's domestic center. While Bertha embodies nurturing and communal care—values Molly consciously rejects for herself—there is no hostility between them; Bertha's acceptance provides Molly a temporary safe harbor.
- Bynum Walker
Bynum's spiritual preoccupation with binding people together stands in quiet thematic opposition to Molly's insistence on remaining unbound. He observes her with the knowing eye he turns on all the boardinghouse residents, recognizing her self-possession without trying to alter it.
- Herald Loomis
Molly and Loomis occupy opposite poles of the play's emotional spectrum—his tortured, haunted searching versus her deliberate, present-tense freedom. They share little direct interaction, but their contrast underscores Wilson's exploration of how Black Americans carry or shed the weight of the past.
- Martha Loomis (Pentecost)
Martha and Molly represent two distinct models of Black womanhood in the play: Martha defined by spiritual duty and the obligations of family, Molly defined by personal autonomy and refusal of obligation. Their implicit contrast enriches the play's meditation on freedom and responsibility.