# Shadrach Jolliffe — Short Fiction character guide

> Shadrach Jolliffe in Short Fiction by Thomas Hardy.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Captain Jolliffe, Shadrach, Jolliffe, old Jolliffe, Captain Shadrach Jolliffe

**First appearance:** 0002-destiny-and-a-blue-cloak

## Snapshot

A sea captain whose mysterious past shadows his present, carrying secrets that surface with the slow inevitability of a tide returning to shore.

## Who they are

Captain Shadrach Jolliffe belongs to Hardy's world of coastal Wessex, where the sea shapes men as much as it shapes the land. His authority as a captain sits uneasily alongside whatever private history he carries, and that tension between command and concealment defines him. He matters because the past he cannot quite bury keeps pressing against the surface of his present life.

## Relationships

### [Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/anna)

_romantic_

Anna and Shadrach are lovers, their relationship marked by passion and eventual tragedy.

### [Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/anna)

_romantic_

Anna and Shadrach are lovers, their relationship marked by passion and eventual tragedy.

### [Anna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/anna)

_romantic_

Anna and Shadrach are lovers, their relationship marked by passion and eventual tragedy.

## In the story

### [XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/xvii)

Not present in this chapter.

### [To Please His Wife](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/to-please-his-wife)

A sea captain who returns home and marries, then goes to sea again to please his wife.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/i)

Returns to Havenpool after years at sea, offers thanksgiving in church, and becomes romantically involved with both Emily and Joanna.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/ii)

Joanna's husband, a former sailor turned reluctant grocer, who agrees to return to sea to improve the family's fortunes.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/iii)

Joanna's husband, who sailed with their sons and has not returned; his chalked farewell and imagined kneeling in church haunt Joanna.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/i)

Referred to as the Captain quartered at the cavalry barracks, though not by name in this excerpt; the Captain is identified as Captain Maumbry.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/shadrach_jolliffe
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters