"Potter- is also another meaning for God or Christ in numerous Biblical references, for example Isaiah 64:8, "We are the clay, thou art the Potter- (Bassan 14). "Another meaning of his name, Jack Potter is a Jackpot-er' - the jackpot' being the bride -(Petry 46). These various interpretations of Jack Potter's name add both depth and significance to this character's development in the story. .
Potter's "recent marriage is significant, not just, as the story suggests, because he is a prominent person in the town, but because it makes him as much of an anomaly in a Western story as he is on the Pullman-(Collins 142). "Potter is no longer the conventional Western hero, the man alone, but a family man, a man with ties and attachments, a part of the community- (Collins 142). Potter's marriage weighs "upon him like a leaden slab- (Crane 189). Jack Potter is no longer simply the man alone, the marshal of Yellow Sky. "He has, by his marriage, become a complex human being, a husband as well as a marshal and thus he embodies, as the conventional Western hero never does, the complexities and ironies of life in the real world- (Collins 144). In addition, Potter is the only one who can keep Scratchy Wilson in line. "He's out to shoot, and he's out for trouble . But what do you do in a case like this? What do you do? Jack Potter goes out and fights Scratchy when he gets on one of these tears- (Crane 198-199). .
A second primary character in the story, who is also very symbolic, is the bride. "The bride was not pretty, nor was she very young. She wore a dress of blue cashmere, with small reservations of velvet here and there, and with steel buttons abounding. She continually twisted her head to regard her puff sleeves, very stiff, straight, and high . It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected to cook, dutifully- (Crane 184). The bride is not very bright, nor even of her husband's modest social background; both are ill at ease in the middle of their fancy surroundings in the parlor car and in the dining car.
