A Kestrel For A Knave

Jud is Billy’s elder brother. He has to rise early to go to work in the pit every morning, as Billy is expected to begin doing in just a few weeks. He shares a bed with Billy and spitefully wakes him every morning, a habit that makes it difficult for Billy to stay awake in class. Jud shows little interest in Billy’s passions and often regards them with mockery or derision. When he sees Billy reading a book about falconry, he mocks him; when Billy says he stole it, Jud genuinely can’t understand why someone would take an interest in something so far removed from the realities of their town and the pit. Jud is thus presented as the typical young adult male in their environment, so immersed in the life expected of him that he can’t imagine anything else.

Jud represents the fate Billy dreads. If Billy goes into the pit, he fears that in time he will become as hopeless and insensitive as Jud. When Jud arrives home blackout drunk, Billy reacts with fear and disgust. Jud stumbles into bed, demanding that Billy help him get ready to sleep. Billy starts lambasting Jud, calling him a disgusting pig and eventually punching him. What little loyalty Jud can command from Billy isn’t based on respect, but on fear—a natural reaction to Jud’s constant displays of toxic masculinity. Jud refuses to be vulnerable and bond with his brother, so Billy is generally unwilling to speak openly with or do things for Jud. When Jud directs Billy to bet two pounds on the horse races, Billy decides to keep the money rather than allow it to be wasted. 

When Jud learns of Billy’s deception and that he’s been robbed of winning 10 pounds from the bet, Jud flies into a rage and kills Kes. Instead of communicating how his restrictive socioeconomic circumstances make him feel pressured to take chances like betting on horses—Jud instead simply lashes out and takes away the things he knows Billy values most. The very person that Billy is afraid of becoming kills his chance at escape. To Billy, Jud embodies the oppressive and seemingly inescapable cycle of working-class life. While the kestrel gives Billy a means to imagine a better, freer life, Jud has no such imaginative outlet. Jud is thus a version of Billy utterly without hope for a different life.

Billy and Jud’s mother is a working-class, unemployed woman whose neighbors judge her harshly for her numerous sexual partners. She is not often present, and her parenting style is neglectful. Many of the boys mock Billy because local gossip holds that he is the product of an extramarital affair. Billy’s mother has a harsh temper and is resistant to displays of empathy or comfort, reinforcing themes of Toxic Masculinity and Vulnerability. Her unwillingness to speak kindly to her children or show interest in their needs leads Billy and especially Jud to express their feelings through rage, coldness, and violence.

In the novel’s climax, she rebuffs Billy when he grows upset about Jud killing Kes. Jud is the sole earner of income in the house, and she is thus unwilling to challenge his actions. She doesn’t allow Billy to seek comfort in her, and Billy recalls after this how his father left because they discovered Mother cheating on him. She is yet another adult whose disinterest in her children’s individuality and needs leaves them stuck in a cycle of toxic masculinity, poverty, and depression.

Mother is a static character whose ostracization reflects the misogyny endemic to her community. Her sexuality—one of the few sources of pleasure and agency available to her—is explicitly condemned by the entire town. She is criticized less for her temper or neglect and more for having multiple relationships with men, showing how women were held to a different standard than men and faced different social barriers, even within the same classist structures.