.
The Judge, just like the man before him, the late Colonel Pyncheon, plays the role of a greedy and manipulative carouser. Jaffrey as we discover is the cause of much grief in the novel. He is the reason Clifford is in such a poor mental state and why Hepzibah is always scowling and forlorn. In the novel Jaffrey acts like a man possessed by the spirit of the colonel. He takes on all the tell tale attributes of the founder including his greed and disregard for life. Jaffrey was second in line to inherit the family fortune after Clifford. Being second to anyone was like being inferior or having the domestic stature of a wife or child. Instead of being a good cousin and being content with having the name Pyncheon, he framed his cousin in order to receive the inheritance. Unfortunately for him he received the same fate as his greedy and treacherous relative the Colonel. His reward for pursuing the Pyncheon version of domestic ideology resulted in his dying as suddenly and!.
mysteriously as his revered ancestor. .
The actions of Jaffrey are closely linked to those of his ancestor. He took the same steps needed to obtain what he desired. He, like his ancestor didn't care who he stepped on in order to accomplish his goals. He set his sights on what he wanted and made sure he got it. He followed the Pyncheon rules of domestic ideology to a "T". .
He, like his ancestor learned that the price to pay to be a Pyncheon, in the Colonel's sense was death. As with life and death and light and dark, there is an opposite to each. In this novels case the opposite is the female Pyncheon Hebzibah and the youthful Ophelia.
All of the characters in the novel are heroes of domestic ideology in one-way or another. Yet we find the true heroine of the novel in Hepzibah, the old maid whose only joy in life is her feeble-minded brother. Hepzibah is defined as a heroine of this ideology because of her love for Clifford.