# David Bliss — Hay Fever character guide

> David Bliss in Hay Fever by Noël Coward.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** David, David Rising, David Do, David The Sinful Woman, David Reading, David Smug

**First appearance:** 0002-hay-fever

## Snapshot

Judith's novelist husband, pleasantly marooned in his study while his family stages dramas he neither notices nor quite escapes.

## Who they are

David presides over a house strewn with his son's cartoons and his wife's theatrics, but his real address is the library and whatever book he is writing. He surfaces mainly to complain that everybody talks too much, then drifts back to work while Judith schemes and the children bicker. His obliviousness is both comic and structural: the one person who might referee the weekend is permanently elsewhere, leaving the guests to the Bliss family's mercy.

## Relationships

### [Judith Bliss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hay_fever_se/characters/judith_bliss)

_family_

Husband and wife with a long-standing, affectionate but chaotic marriage built on mutual theatricality.

### [Sorel Bliss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hay_fever_se/characters/sorel_bliss)

_family_

Father and daughter with a warm, supportive relationship, though David is often distracted by Judith.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hay_fever_se/characters/david_bliss
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hay_fever_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hay_fever_se/characters