6. Faulker Modernism

8/10/2019 6. Faulker Modernism

1/12

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner

Context

William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in September 1897; he died inMississippi in 1962. Faulkner achieved a reputation as one of the greatest American novelists of

the 20th century largely based on his series of novels about a fictional region of Mississippi

called Yoknapatawpha County, centered on the fictional town of Jefferson. The greatest of thesenovelsamong them The Sound and the Fury,Light in August,andAbsalom, Absalom!rank

among the finest novels of world literature.

Faulkner was especially interested in moral themes relating to the ruins of the Deep South in the

post-Civil War era. His prose stylewhich combines long, uninterrupted sentences with long

strings of adjectives, frequent changes in narration, many recursive asides, and a frequent

reliance on a sort of objective stream-of- consciousness technique, whereby the inner experienceof a character in a scene is contrasted with the scene's outward appearanceranks among his

greatest achievements. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

Absalom, Absalom!is perhaps Faulkner's most focused attempt to expose the moral crises which

led to the destruction of the South. The story of a man hell-bent on establishing a dynasty and a

story of love and hatred between races and families, it is also an exploration of how people relateto the past. Faulker tells a single story from a number of perspectives, capturing the conflict,

racism, violence, and sacrifice in each character's life, and also demonstrating how the human

mind reconstructs the past in the present imagination.

Summary

Istorisit de cinci ori,ntre 1835 i 1910 (n momentele de rgaz, cnd Sutpen se odihnete ntre

cursele de hituire, mpreun cu un grup de sclavi, a arhitectului francez fugit), aceasta este

povestea evoluiei de la ran la fermier a lui Thomas Sutpen, a plantaiei sale (Suta) i a lui

Bon, prezumtivul su fiu i al unei negrese a crui recunoatere ar nsemna prbuirea lui Sutpen.

Spaiile albe i contradiciile naraiunii multiple ridic ntrebri epistemologice despre cumajungem s tim ceea ce tim n chestiuni de istorie. Dar, cum nAbsalom,Absalom!, ntrebrile

se nasc n contextul unei probleme cu specific regional - cea a negrilor neacceptai de albi, ras

care prin munc silnic d substan feei, pielii, sexului i pmntului clasei albe proprietare -,
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/characters.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/characters.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/characters.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/


2/12

acestea sunt reformulate. Cine ce tie i cum de tie? devine Cum de, tiind c faa, pielea,

sexul i pmntul lor sunt fcute prin munca afro-american (bunul din bunurile lor), pot s nege

ceea ce tiu?

Rspunsul lui Faulknerpare s fie c a recunoate ceea ce tiu (a-l recunoate pe Bon drept fiu,

n cazul lui Sutpen) ar nsemna s nceteze s fie ceea ce sunt. Mreia acestui roman, una dintre

cele mai importante opere moderniste, const n faptul c Faulkner i pune asemenea ntrebride neimaginat despre strmoii si, ntr-o epoc n care regiunea sa natal nc depindea de truda

negrilor, legai de moii nu prin sclavie, ci prin traiul de muncitori zilieri.

In 1833, a wild, imposing man named Thomas Sutpen comes to Jefferson, Mississippi, with agroup of slaves and a French architect in tow. He buys a hundred square miles of land from an

Indian tribe, raises a manor house, plants cotton, and marries the daughter of a local merchant,and within a few years is entrenched among the local aristocracy. Sutpen has a son and adaughter, Henry and Judith, who grow up in a life of uncultivated ease in the northern

Mississippi countryside. Henry goes to college at the University of Mississippi in 1859, and

meets a sophisticated fellow student named Charles Bon, whom he befriends and brings homefor Christmas. Charles meets Judith, and over time, an engagement between them is assumed.But Sutpen realizes that Bon is actually his own sonHenry and Judith's half-brotherfrom a

previous marriage which he abandoned when he discovered that his wife had negro blood. He

tells Henry that the engagement cannot be, and that Bon is Henry's own brother; Henry reactswith outrage, refusing to believe that Bon knew all along and willingly became engaged to his

own sister. Henry repudiates his birthright, and he and Bon flee to New Orleans. When war

breaks out, they enlist, and spend four hard years fighting for the Confederacy as the Southcrumbles around them. At the end of the war, Sutpen (a colonel) finds his son and reveals to himthat not only is Bon his and Judith's half-brother, he is also, in part, a black man.

That knowledge makes Henry revolt against Bon in a way that even the idea of incest did not,and on the day Bon arrives to marry Judith, Henry murders him in front of the gates of the

Sutpen plantation. Sutpen returns to a broken house, and becomes a brokenthough still

forcefulman; he slides slowly into alcoholism, begins an affair with a fifteen-year-old white

girl named Milly, and continues in that vein until, following the birth of his and Milly's daughter,he is murdered by Milly's grandfather Wash Jones in 1869.

Decades later, in 1909, Quentin Compson is a twenty-year-old man, the grandson of Sutpen'sfirst friend in the country (General Compson), who is preparing to leave Jefferson to attend

Harvard. He is summoned by Miss Rosa Coldfield, the sister of Sutpen's wife Ellen (and briefly

Sutpen's fiancee herself), to hear the story of how Sutpen destroyed her family and his own. Overthe following weeks and months, Quentin is drawn deeper and deeper into the Sutpen story,

discussing it with his father, thinking about it, and later telling it in detail to his Harvard


3/12

roommate Shreve. The story is burned into his brain the night he goes with Miss Rosa to the

Sutpen plantation, where they find Henry Sutpennow an old manwaiting to die. Months

later, Rosa attempts to return for Henry with an ambulance, but Clytie, Thomas Sutpen'sdaughter with a slave woman and now a withered old woman herself, sets fire to the manor

house, killing herself and Henry, and bringing the Sutpen dynasty to a fiery end.

Characters

Thomas Sutpen - Owner and founder of the plantation Sutpen's Hundred, in YoknapatawphaCounty, near Jefferson, Mississippi. Married to Ellen Coldfield; father of Henry, Judith, and

Clytemnestra Sutpen, also of Charles Bon. An indomitable, willful, powerful man, who achieves

his ends through shrewdness and daring, but who lacks compassion. Murdered by Wash Jones in

1869.

Charles Bon - Son of Thomas Sutpen and Eulalia Bon, the part- black daughter of the owner of

the Haitian plantation on which the young Thomas Sutpen was overseer. After Sutpen renounced

his wife and son upon learning of Eulalia's negro blood, Bon and his mother moved to NewOrleans, where Bon lived until deciding to attend the University of Mississippi in 1859. A

laconic, sophisticated, and ironical young man.Ellen Coldfield Sutpen - Thomas Sutpen's second wife, mother of Henry and Judith Sutpen. Aflighty and excitable woman.

Rosa Coldfield - Ellen Coldfields much-younger sister, younger aunt of Henry and Judith

Sutpen. Briefly engaged to Thomas Sutpen following Ellen's death, but left him after he insultedher. Spent the rest of her life as a bitter spinster, obsessed with her anger and hatred of Thomas

Sutpen.

Mr. Coldfield- A middle-class Methodist merchant and father of Ellen and Rosa.

Henry Sutpen - Thomas Sutpen's son with Ellen. Grew up on Sutpen's Hundred, then attendedthe University of Mississippi beginning in 1859. There he befriended Charles Bon, whom he

later murdered. A well- meaning and romantic young man, with his father's strength of purpose

but lacking his father's shrewdness.

Judith Sutpen - Thomas Sutpen's daughter with Ellen. Grew up on Sutpen's Hundred, whereshe was engaged to Charles Bon in 1860. Strong, indomitable, and, like her father, swift to

action.

Clytemnestra Sutpen ("Clytie") - Daughter of Thomas Sutpen and a slave woman. Grew upon Sutpen's Hundred as subservient to Judith and Henry; remained at the plantation until burning

the manor house down in 1910, an event which caused her death.

Wash Jones - A low-class squatter living in the abandoned fishing camp at Sutpen's Hundred.

Performed odd jobs for and drinks whiskey with Thomas Sutpen. Milly's grandfather; murderedSutpen with a rusted scythe in 1869.

Milly Jones- Wash Jones' young granddaughter, who at fifteen gave birth to Thomas Sutpen's

child. Murdered, along with Sutpen and the baby, by her grandfather shortly after the birth.

Charles Etienne de St. Valery Bon- Son of Charles Bon and his octoroon mistress- wife.

Taken by Clytie to Sutpen's Hundred in 1871. Married a negro woman in 1879. A tormented,

violent man.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/section1.rhtmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/section1.rhtmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/absalom/section1.rhtml


4/12

Jim Bond- Son of Charles Etienne de St. Valery Bon and his negro wife. Raised by Clytie on

Sutpen's Hundred, from which he disappears following the fire in 1910. A slack-jawed, oafish

man.

Quentin Compson - A young man from Jefferson, Mississippi, who is preparing to attend (and

later does attend) Harvard in the first part of the 20th century.

General Compson - Quentin's grandfather and Thomas Sutpen's first friend in YoknapatawphaCounty. A Brigadier General for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and a distinguishedcitizen of Jefferson, Mississippi.

Mr. Compson - Quentin's father and General Compson's son, a man who believes in the power

of fate to destroy human lives. Relays to Quentin many of the stories he heard from his fatherabout Thomas Sutpen.

Shreve- Quentin's roommate at Harvard, a young man from Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner

Context

William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, to a prominent Southern family.A number of his ancestors were involved in the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the

Reconstruction, and were part of the local railroad industry and political scene. Faulkner showed

signs of artistic talent from a young age, but became bored with his classes and never finishedhigh school.

Faulkner grew up in the town of Oxford, Mississippi, and eventually returned there in his lateryears and purchased his famous estate, Rowan Oak. Oxford and the surrounding area wereFaulkners inspiration for the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, and its town of

Jefferson. These locales became the setting for a number of his works. Faulkners

Yoknapatawpha novels include The Sound and the Fury(1929),As I Lay Dying(1930),Lightin August(1932),Absalom, Absalom!(1936), The Hamlet(1940), and Go Down, Moses(1942),

and they feature some of the same characters and locations.

Faulkner was particularly interested in the decline of the Deep South after the Civil War. Manyof his novels explore the deterioration of the Southern aristocracy after the destruction of its

wealth and way of life during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Faulkner populates

Yoknapatawpha County with the skeletons of old mansions and the ghosts of great men,patriarchs and generals from the past whose aristocratic families fail to live up to their historical

greatness. Beneath the shadow of past grandeur, these families attempt to cling to old Southern

values, codes, and myths that are corrupted and out of place in the reality of the modern world.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/


5/12

The families in Faulkners novels are rife with failed sons, disgraced daughters, and smoldering

resentments between whites and blacks in the aftermath of African-American slavery.

Faulkners reputation as one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century is largely due to his

highly experimental style. Faulkner was a pioneer in literary modernism, dramatically diverging

from the forms and structures traditionally used in novels before his time. Faulkner oftenemploys stream of consciousness narrative, discards any notion of chronological order, uses

multiple narrators, shifts between the present and past tense, and tends toward impossibly long

and complex sentences. Not surprisingly, these stylistic innovations make some of Faulknersnovels incredibly challenging to the reader. However, these bold innovations paved the way for

countless future writers to continue to experiment with the possibilities of the English language.

For his efforts, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. He died in

Mississippi in 1962.

First published in 1929, The Sound and the Furyis recognized as one of the most successfully

innovative and experimental American novels of its time, not to mention one of the most

challenging to interpret. The novel concerns the downfall of the Compsons, who have been aprominent family in Jefferson, Mississippi, since before the Civil War. Faulkner represents the

human experience by portraying events and images subjectively, through several differentcharacters respective memories of childhood. The novels stream of consciousness style is

frequently very opaque, as events are often deliberately obscured and narrated out of order.

Despite its formidable complexity, The Sound and the Furyis an overpowering and deeply

moving novel. It is generally regarded as Faulkners most important and remarkable literarywork.

Plot Overview

Attempting to apply traditional plot summary to The Sound and the Furyis difficult. At a basiclevel, the novel is about the three Compson brothers obsessions with the their sister Caddy, but

this brief synopsis represents merely the surface of what the novel contains. A story told in four

chapters, by four different voices, and out of chronological order, The Sound and the Furyrequires intense concentration and patience to interpret and understand.

The first three chapters of the novel consist of the convoluted thoughts, voices, and memories of

the three Compson brothers, captured on three different days. The brothers are Benjy, a severelyretarded thirty-three-year-old man, speaking in April, 1928; Quentin, a young Harvard student,

speaking in June, 1910; and Jason, a bitter farm-supply store worker, speaking again in April,1928. Faulkner tells the fourth chapter in his own narrative voice, but focuses on Dilsey, the

Compson familys devoted Negro cook who has played a great part in raising the children.

Faulkner harnesses the brothers memories of their sister Caddy, using a single symbolic momentto forecast the decline of the once prominent Compson family and to examine the deterioration

of the Southern aristocratic class since the Civil War.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/characters.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/characters.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/characters.html


6/12

The Compsons are one of several prominent names in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. Their

ancestors helped settle the area and subsequently defended it during the Civil War. Since the

war, the Compsons have gradually seen their wealth, land, and status crumble away. Mr.Compson is an alcoholic. Mrs. Compson is a self-absorbed hypochondriac who depends almost

entirely upon Dilsey to raise her four children. Quentin, the oldest child, is a sensitive bundle of

neuroses. Caddy is stubborn, but loving and compassionate. Jason has been difficult and mean-spirited since birth and is largely spurned by the other children. Benjy is severely mentallydisabled, an idiot with no understanding of the concepts of time or morality. In the absence of

the self-absorbed Mrs. Compson, Caddy serves as a mother figure and symbol of affection for

Benjy and Quentin.

As the children grow older, however, Caddy begins to behave promiscuously, which torments

Quentin and sends Benjy into fits of moaning and crying. Quentin is preparing to go to Harvard,and Mr. Compson sells a large portion of the family land to provide funds for the tuition. Caddy

loses her virginity and becomes pregnant. She is unable or unwilling to name the father of the

child, though it is likely Dalton Ames, a boy from town.

Caddys pregnancy leaves Quentin emotionally shattered. He attempts to claim false

responsibility for the pregnancy, lying to his father that he and Caddy have committed incest.Mr. Compson is indifferent to Caddys promiscuity, dismissing Quentins story and telling his

son to leave early for the Northeast.

Attempting to cover up her indiscretions, Caddy quickly marries Herbert Head, a banker she met

in Indiana. Herbert promises Jason Compson a job in his bank. Herbert immediately divorces

Caddy and rescinds Jasons job offer when he realizes his wife is pregnant with another mans

child. Meanwhile, Quentin, still mired in despair over Caddys sin, commits suicide by drowninghimself in the Charles River just before the end of his first year at Harvard.

The Compsons disown Caddy from the family, but take in her newborn daughter, Miss Quentin.The task of raising Miss Quentin falls squarely on Dilseys shoulders. Mr. Compson dies of

alcoholism roughly a year after Quentins suicide. As the oldest surviving son, Jason becomes

the head of the Compson household. Bitterly employed at a menial job in the local farm-supplystore, Jason devises an ingenious scheme to steal the money Caddy sends to support Miss

Quentins upbringing.

Miss Quentin grows up to be an unhappy, rebellious, and promiscuous girl, constantly in conflict

with her overbearing and vicious uncle Jason. On Easter Sunday, 1928, Miss Quentin steals

several thousand dollars from Jason and runs away with a man from a traveling show. WhileJason chases after Miss Quentin to no avail, Dilsey takes Benjy and the rest of her family to

Easter services at the local church.

A Note on the Title

The title of The Sound and the Furyrefers to a line from William ShakespearesMacbeth.Macbeth, a Scottish general and nobleman, learns of his wifes suicide and feels that his life is


7/12

crumbling into chaos. In addition to Faulkners title, we can find several of the novels important

motifs in Macbeths short soliloquy in Act V, scene v:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.

Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

(V.v.1827)

The Sound and the Furyliterally begins as a tale / Told by an idiot, as the first chapter isnarrated by the mentally disabled Benjy. The novels central concerns include time, much like

Macbeths [t]omorrow, and tomorrow; death, recalling Macbeths dusty death; andnothingness and disintegration, a clear reference to Macbeths lament that life [s]ignif[ies]

nothing. Additionally, Quentin is haunted by the sense that the Compson family has

disintegrated to a mere shadow of its former greatness.

In his soliloquy, Macbeth implies that life is but a shadow of the past and that a modern man,

like himself, is inadequately equipped and unable to achieve anything near the greatness of the

past. Faulkner reinterprets this idea, implying that if man does not choose to take his own life, asQuentin does, the only alternatives are to become either a cynic and materialist like Jason, or an

idiot like Benjy, unable to see life as anything more than a meaningless series of images, sounds,and memories.

Character List

Jason Compson III - The head of the Compson household until his death from alcoholism in

1912. Mr. Compson is the father of Quentin, Caddy, Jason IV, and Benjy, and the husband of

Caroline.

Caroline Compson- The self-pitying and self-absorbed wife of Mr. Compson and mother of

the four Compson children. Carolines hypochondria preoccupies her and contributes to her

inability to care properly for her children.Quentin Compson- The oldest of the Compson children and the narrator of the novels second

chapter. A sensitive and intelligent boy, Quentin is preoccupied with his love for his sister Caddy

and his notion of the Compson familys honor. He commits suicide by drowning himselfjustbefore the end of his first year at Harvard.

Caddy Compson- The second oldest of the Compson children and the only daughter. Actually

named Candace, Caddy is very close to her brother Quentin. She becomes promiscuous, getspregnant out of wedlock, and eventually marries and divorces Herbert Head in 1910.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/canalysis.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/canalysis.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/canalysis.html


8/12


9/12

Reverend Shegog- The pastor who delivers a powerful sermon on Easter Sunday at the local

black church in Jefferson.Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

The Corruption of Southern Aristocratic Values

The first half of the nineteenth century saw the rise of a number of prominent Southern familiessuch as the Compsons. These aristocratic families espoused traditional Southern values. Menwere expected to act like gentlemen, displaying courage, moral strength, perseverance, and

chivalry in defense of the honor of their family name. Women were expected to be models of

feminine purity, grace, and virginity until it came time for them to provide children to inherit the

family legacy. Faith in God and profound concern for preserving the family reputation providedthe grounding for these beliefs.

The Civil War and Reconstruction devastated many of these once-great Southern familieseconomically, socially, and psychologically. Faulkner contends that in the process, the

Compsons, and other similar Southern families, lost touch with the reality of the world aroundthem and became lost in a haze of self-absorption. This self-absorption corrupted the core values

these families once held dear and left the newer generations completely unequipped to deal with

the realities of the modern world.

We see this corruption running rampant in the Compson family. Mr. Compson has a vague

notion of family honorsomething he passes on to Quentinbut is mired in his alcoholism andmaintains a fatalistic belief that he cannot control the events that befall his family. Mrs.

Compson is just as self-absorbed, wallowing in hypochondria and self-pity and remaining

emotionally distant from her children. Quentins obsession with old Southern morality rendershim paralyzed and unable to move past his familys sins. Caddy tramples on the Southern notion

of feminine purity and indulges in promiscuity, as does her daughter. Jason wastes his cleverness

on self-pity and greed, striving constantly for personal gain but with no higher aspirations. Benjy

commits no real sins, but the Compsons decline is physically manifested through his retardationand his inability to differentiate between morality and immorality.

The Compsons corruption of Southern values results in a household that is completely devoid of

love, the force that once held the family together. Both parents are distant and ineffective.Caddy, the only child who shows an ability to love, is eventually disowned. Though Quentin

loves Caddy, his love is neurotic, obsessive, and overprotective. None of the men experience any

true romantic love, and are thus unable to marry and carry on the family name.

At the conclusion of the novel, Dilsey is the only loving member of the household, the onlycharacter who maintains her values without the corrupting influence of self-absorption. She thus

comes to represent a hope for the renewal of traditional Southern values in an uncorrupted and
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/section1.rhtmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/section1.rhtmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/soundfury/section1.rhtml


10/12

positive form. The novel ends with Dilsey as the torchbearer for these values, and, as such, the

only hope for the preservation of the Compson legacy. Faulkner implies that the problem is not

necessarily the values of the old South, but the fact that these values were corrupted by familiessuch as the Compsons and must be recaptured for any Southern greatness to return.

Resurrection and Renewal

Three of the novels four sections take place on or around Easter, 1928. Faulkners placement of

the novels climax on this weekend is significant, as the weekend is associated with Christscrucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. A number of symbolic events in

the novel could be likened to the death of Christ: Quentins death, Mr. Compsons death,

Caddys loss of virginity, or the decline of the Compson family in general.

Some critics have characterized Benjy as a Christ figure, as Benjy was born on Holy Saturday

and is currently thirty-three, the same age as Christ at the crucifixion. Interpreting Benjy as a

Christ figure has a variety of possible implications. Benjy may represent the impotence of Christ

in the modern world and the need for a new Christ figure to emerge. Alternatively, Faulkner maybe implying that the modern world has failed to recognize Christ in its own midst.

Though the Easter weekend is associated with death, it also brings the hope of renewal and

resurrection. Though the Compson family has fallen, Dilsey represents a source of hope. Dilseyis herself somewhat of a Christ figure. A literal parallel to the suffering servant of the Bible,

Dilsey has endured Christlike hardship throughout her long life of service to the disintegrating

Compson family. She has constantly tolerated Mrs. Compsons self-pity, Jasons cruelty, and

Benjys frustrating incapacity. While the Compsons crumble around her, Dilsey emerges as theonly character who has successfully resurrected the values that the Compsons have long

abandonedhard work, endurance, love of family, and religious faith.

The Failure of Language and Narrative

Faulkner himself admitted that he could never satisfactorily convey the story of The Sound andthe Furythrough any single narrative voice. His decision to use four different narrators

highlights the subjectivity of each narrative and casts doubt on the ability of language to convey

truth or meaning absolutely.

Benjy, Quentin, and Jason have vastly different views on the Compson tragedy, but no singleperspective seems more valid than the others. As each new angle emerges, more details and

questions arise. Even the final section, with its omniscient third-person narrator, does not tie up

all of the novels loose ends. In interviews, Faulkner lamented the imperfection of the finalversion of the novel, which he termed his most splendid failure. Even with four narratorsproviding the depth of four different perspectives, Faulkner believed that his language and

narrative still fell short.


11/12

Motifs

Time

Faulkners treatment and representation of time in this novel was hailed as revolutionary.Faulkner suggests that time is not a constant or objectively understandable entity, and that

humans can interact with it in a variety of ways. Benjy has no concept of time and cannot

distinguish between past and present. His disability enables him to draw connections between thepast andpresent that others might not see, and it allows him to escape the other Compsons

obsessions with the past greatness of their name. Quentin, in contrast, is trapped by time, unable

and unwilling to move beyond his memories of the past. He attempts to escape times grasp by

breaking his watch, but its ticking continues to haunt him afterward, and he sees no solution butsuicide. Unlike his brother Quentin, Jason has no use for the past. He focuses completely on the

present and the immediate future. To Jason, time exists only for personal gain and cannot be

wasted. Dilsey is perhaps the only character at peace with time. Unlike the Compsons, who try to

escape time or manipulate it to their advantage, Dilsey understands that her life is a small sliverin the boundless range of time and history.

Order and Chaos

Each of the Compson brothers understands order and chaos in a different way. Benjy constructsorder around the pattern of familiar memories in his mind and becomes upset when he

experiences something that does not fit. Quentin relies on his idealized Southern code to provide

order. Jason orders everything in his world based on potential personal gain, attempting to twistall circumstances to his own advantage. All three of these systems fail as the Compson family

plunges into chaos. Only Dilsey has a strong sense of order. She maintains her values, endures

the Compsons tumultuous downfall, and is the only one left unbroken at the end.

Shadows

Seen primarily in Benjysand Quentins sections, shadows imply that the present state of the

Compson family is merely a shadow of its past greatness. Shadows serve as a subtle reminder of

the passage of time, as they slowly shift with the sun through the course of a day. Quentin isparticularly sensitive to shadows, a suggestion of his acute awareness that the Compson name is

merely a shadow of what it once was.

Symbols

Water

Water symbolizes cleansing and purity throughout the novel, especially in relation to Caddy.

Playing in the stream as a child, Caddy seems to epitomize purity and innocence. However, shemuddies her underclothes, which foreshadows Caddys later promiscuity. Benjy gets upset when

he first smells Caddy wearing perfume. Still a virgin at this point, Caddy washes the perfume off,

symbolically washing away her sin. Likewise, she washes her mouth out with soap after Benjy


12/12

catches her on the swing with Charlie. Once Caddy loses her virginity, she knows that no amount

of water or washing can cleanse her.

Quentins Watch

Quentins watch is a gift from his father, who hopes that it will alleviate Quentins feeling that hemust devote so much attention to watching time himself. Quentin is unable to escape his

preoccupation with time, with or without the watch. Because the watch once belonged to Mr.

Compson, it constantly reminds Quentin of the glorious heritage his family considers soimportant. The watchs incessant ticking symbolizes the constant inexorable passage of time.

Quentin futilely attempts to escape time by breaking the watch, but it continues to tick even

without its hands, haunting him even after he leaves the watch behind in his room.

Documents

6. Faulker Modernism