Mrs. Hightower Character Analysis in Light in August

The unnamed wife of Rev. Gail Hightower is already long dead by the time the main events of the novel take place. Before she died, she acted strangely, causing a scandal in Jefferson. It eventually transpired that she was having an affair with a man in Memphis, pretending to be married to him. She ended up dead, although it is not clear if this was an accident, murder, or suicide.

Mrs. Hightower Character Timeline in Light in August

The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Hightower appears in Light in August. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The townspeople gossip about Hightower, saying that his wife Mrs. Hightower “went bad on him” and ended up getting killed in Memphis. Hightower was forced to... (full context)

Hightower’s neighbors often overheard Mrs. Hightower sobbing; sometimes she even failed to show up at her husband’s church services. She disappeared... (full context)

Then one day, the people of Jefferson found out that Mrs. Hightower had either jumped or fallen out of a hotel window in Memphis and died. There... (full context)

...that this was not so.” Hightower kept the same black cook that he’d had when Mrs. Hightower was alive, but suddenly the townspeople got suspicious about the fact that he was spending... (full context)