Gus Coverly

Character Analysis

Gus is the youngest of the present-day Coverlys, and the most mysterious. His silence sets him apart from the other present-day characters, as does the fact that he seems to have a foot in both the play's centuries. He's played by the same actor who plays Augustus (and, as you probably noticed, their names are almost the same; Gus is, of course, a nickname for Augustus). He's also frequently seen carrying objects that appear in both eras. How does Gus's silence shape his role in a play so driven by language? And how does having him kinda-sorta there in both the past and present relate to the play's exploration of time and what survives across centuries? Does he symbolize how things stay the same over time, or how they change?