Summary Conclusion Questions Bibliography
Quentin and Caddy
Quentin and Caddy represent the extreme contrast that was present
in the post-war South. Quentin is a believer in the old ways of the
south. He feels that it is his duty as a man in the Compson family
to protect the image of the family name, and the women of the family.
This strong sense of tradition causes Quentin to be involved in multiple
duels defending Caddy’s honor. The dueling mentality succeeds only
in further tarnishing of the family name. The first of the fights
is with Dalton Ames, the man who got Caddy pregnant. This duel is
seen only in a flashback that Quentin is experiencing. The fight
takes place on a bridge over a small creek. The duel ends when Quentin
faints while trying to hit Dalton (page 162). This event devastates
Quentin’s pride. Losing the duel served to diminish the honor of
the Compson name even more, at least in his eyes. In a later fight
with Gerald Bland, Quentin is also defeated (page 164). This fight
happens while Quentin is lost in the memory of the fight with Dalton Ames.
This obsession with dueling and the need to defend the honor of the family
are remnants of the past.
Quentin’s pre-war personality is one that is common in the years
following the Civil War. He was born in the reconstruction of the
South. The South was in the process of rebuilding both its cities
and culture. This post-war personality is called the Lost Cause (Dobbs,
page 366). This term is used to describe individuals, usually males,
trying to cope with the changes that happened as a result of the Civil
war. To cause further confusion for Quentin, Jason Senior lives by
a twisted code of conduct in which nothing matters. The fatherly
advice he gives serves only to confuse Quentin even more than the changing
world. Quentin’s presence in the story represents the struggle between
the views of the past and the future.
If Quentin represents the views of the past, then Caddy is symbolic
of the changes that are taking place in the South. Caddy’s progressive
personality is the result of the post-war South. Her promiscuous
lifestyle fuels Quentin’s Lost Cause urges. Women in the South are
gaining more freedom than they previously had. Caddy has grown up
with this attitude and does not have the sense of shame that was present
in the pre-war South. This lack of shame is displayed when the kids
are playing in the branch. Caddy has gotten her dress wet and is
going to take in off. Quentin is quick to stop her, saying, "I bet
you better not." (Faulkner, 18). This scene shows the contrast between
Quentin and Caddy and the old and new South. Caddy is holding on
to the new values while Quentin is living by the traditional code of conduct
in the South.
Quentin is obsessed with the passage of time and his inability
to control it. He is haunted by events in his past, particularly
those concerning Caddy. Quentin speaks of the connection between
time and his past mistakes when he says, "Holding all I used to be sorry
about like the new moon holding water…"(page 85). The line refers
to the watch that Quentin’s father gave to him. The watch serves as a reminder
of the past and the death of time. Quentin remembers what his father
said: "…time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels;
only when the clock stops does time come to life"(page 85). It is
this advice from his father that causes Quentin to break the watch and
remove its hands, in an attempt to kill time. His life is consumed
by his past and his attempts to move beyond it until he commits suicide
on June 2, 1910.
Jason Compson
The organization of Jason’s section is based upon his two primary obsessions:
his quest for financial profit, and his hatred of both Caddy and her daughter
Quentin. Jason appears in the first two sections only as a spoiled
crybaby and a tattletale, with a succession for petty she-keeping and secret
maneuvering. His fate, like that of his brothers is linked to Caddy’s
downfall. Jason is outraged by Caddy’s actions, but his hatred comes
from the empty promise of a job at a bank that was offered to him by Herbert
Head, Caddy’s fiancée: "You already cost me one job, do you want
me to lose this one too?" (Faulkner, p. 206).
This sense loss is Jason’s justification for stealing the money, which
Caddy sends home to Jefferson to help support her daughter. He does
not feel that a young girl should have such a substantial sum of money
in her possession. Much of his narration is devoted to business affairs,
in particular his exploitation of the two women and his futile efforts
to make money by investing in the stock market. Disastrous efforts
to catch his niece with her carnival lover, the man in the red tie.
Jason tries to exploit Caddy by accepting and cashing her checks in his
mother’s name. Mrs. Compson thinks that the checks she is burning
are charity from Caddy and that the money paid into her account comes from
Jason’s salary. However, Jason has run out of checks to prepare for
his mother’s ritual destruction and must search frantically for checks
that will do.
Time though for Jason is the equivalent of money. His obsession
with the passage of time is a virtual parody of Question’s more philosophical
concern. He is always going from place to place, always trying to
get somewhere and always being late. His cotton speculations are
case and point. The market is so unpredictable that Jason has to
keep on the alert for any sudden rise or fall. Another point where
time gets the best of Jason is when an important message comes through
to his work while he is out spying on his niece. He also arrives
at the telegraph office an hour after the cotton market has closed.
The "present" world of April 6, 1928 comes more clearly into
dramatic focus: Quentin and his gather are dead; Caddy is exiled from the
family, and only Jason, his mother, and Benjy are left of the original
family. Jason’s mind is filled with moral cliches traceable to the
family tradition of public integrity and personal honor. Jason never
drinks alcohol in the novel. Which seems to be weird because even
Benjy gets drunk on saspirillah. "Hush up, Benjy. You want
them to hear you. Come on. Les drink some more saspirilluh."
(Faulkner, p. 39). Jason’s alcohol free lifestyle is a sign that
Jason is the purest of all people in his family. Jason has a concern
for personal appearance. Everyone around him knows his selfishness
and cruelty, yet her refers to his mother’s "good name" and the family’s
position in the community. Jason convinces himself that he is the
loyal guardian of Caddy’s daughter, Quentin: "Don’t you worry,’ I says
"I’ll take her to school and I’m going to see that she stays there.
I’ve started this thing, and I’m going through with it." (Faulkner, p.
186). His cruelty rests to a great extent upon self-deception and
is focused dramatically by his role as a genuine, though perverted, Compson.
Jason’s relationship with his niece is brutal and open. He expresses
his thoughts about her going to school and about being around men.
Quentin blames everything that she has done or what she is going to
do on Jason. Quentin feels trapped by the way Jason tries to look
after her. She is in a situation where she is not where she wants
to be and she tries to rebel against anybody that is in her way.
All Quentin wants to have from Jason is his trust and a little bit of freedom
to do and say what she wants.
Jason is the last of the Compson men, other than Benjy. He is
left with the responsibility of taking care of his mother and Caddy’s daughter
Quentin. While he complains about the responsibility, he needs the
pressure to keep moving. It gives him something to work for.
Jason becomes obsessed with the actions of everyone in the house.
His downfall comes from his inability to accept responsibility for his
actions though.
Dilsey
Dilsey’s character has been known as the moral center of The Sound
and The Fury. Dilsey play a primary role interacting with all of
the characters in every section. The reader can really see her complexities
in the last section. The section begins with Dilsey'’ preparation
of the Compton’s breakfast and ends with a trip to church. The narration
rarely leaves Dilsey throughout this section. Dilsey’s section gives
the reader clarity at the end of a very confusing book. Dilsey’s
existence is in reality and her presence is what grounds the entire Compson
family. Dilsey represents Faulkner’s last hope in humanity the rest
of the characters are not in reality. Dilsey’s strong sense of self
and integrity come from her faith. Her views on religion are very
different then the Compson family. Dilsey is a strong believer in
Christianity while Mrs. Compson believes herself to be the victim of God’s
power. Quentin and Jason are modern pessimists following the example
of their father. These opposing religious outlooks really represent
Dilsey’s endurance and give the reader an understanding of why she stays
with the Compsons.
Dilsey is the only character that we see paying active attention
to Benjy’s emotional needs after Caddy is gone. She provides Benjy
with a cake on his birthday, and near the end of the novel she directs
Luster to put a splint on the broken stem of Benjy’s narcissus, a flower
that had been damaged by Jason. This is one of the few times compassion
is displayed in the book.
Many of the character’s relationships to time are analyzed throughout
the novel. At breakfast time Dilsey announces "eight o’clock (290)"
automatically making the proper correction for the old kitchen clock. A
scene in Boston represents the difference between Quentin and Dilsey.
Quentin is fascinated by unwound clocks in a jewelers window, and is unwilling
to realize that clocks must be regulated and set before they can tell the
correct time. Dilsey is associated with a vision of timeless reality
that dominates service during the reverend’s sermon. On Sunday she
says to her daughter, "I’ve seed the first en de last (313)." During
the sermon the narration describes Dilsey crying, "in and out of the myriad
coruscation’s of immolation and abnegation and time (311)" Dilsey becomes
a symbol of time, her sunken cheeks representing human events and her sliding
teardrops the flow of time. Dilsey is the prophetic timekeeper of
the Compson family Even though her role is unrecognized by those that she
would like to save. In an early review Evelyn Scott a white critic
said, "Dilsey isn’t searching for a soul. She is a soul. Dilsey
is immune to history. Neither the past nor the future nor the present
is oppressive to her because they are all aspects of eternity, and her
ultimate commitment is to eternity. If Uncle Tom is Christ, Dilsey
is a Madonna; she suffers yet transcends to a mortal pain."
Critics disagree about why Dilsey doesn’t narrate her own section.
Some say that it’s racism while others argue that it assures absolute objectivity.
Many critics accused Faulkner of being racist. Some say that Dilsey
represents the stereotypical southern Mammy unable to see beyond her immediate
surrounding. An existence of housecleaning and cooking. Other
critiques say that Mammy is a new kind of Mammy. The careful physical
description her on page 60 definitely challenges the old Southern Mammy
images. She had been a big women once but now her skeleton rose, draped
loosely in unpadded skin that tightened again upon a paunch almost dropsical,
as though muscle and tissue had been courage or fortitude which the days
or the rears dad consumed until only the indomitable skeleton was left
rising like a ruin or a landmark above the somnolent and impervious guts
and above that the collapsed face that gave the impression of the bones
themselves being outside the flesh. This description undermines the
comic Mammy convention. Nobody would ever laugh at Dilsey the way
they would at the Mammy in Gone With The Wind. Dilsey’s character
is given so much dignity and complexity she could never fit the mold of
the southern mammy.
Dilsey’s main form of resistance to the Compson’s is through religion.
Imposing her own religious order on chaos by her attendance at the Reverend
Dhefof’s sermon. Even though only temporarily, she escapes the white
context that reduces her while pretending to elevate her. It offers
the readers a glimpse of Faulkner trying to understand black beyond the
"Negro." Faulkner speaking at the University of Virginia said, "she
held the family together for not the hope of reward, but just because is
was the decent and proper thing to do." Dilsey is part of the social
reality of 1928. Dilsey is an attempt to acknowledge the centrality
of the black mother without challenging the system that defines her.
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Questions and conclusions
What is the theme of the novel?
Three main ideas of the novel were time, southern life, and futility
of life. Of those our presentation group thought that time and southern
life were the most prominent themes of the novel. We focused on three
of the character relationship to time. Questions obsession, Dilsey’s
understanding, and Jason’s inability to move forward. All three characters
struggled to find their identity during the modernization of the south.
Why did the three boys narrate?
The narration represents those with a voice at the time in the
south. Although the females don’t have a voice their actions explain themselves.
The males all struggle to express themselves through their actions.
Dilsey’s consistency through all the different narrations shows her strength
as a character. Not allowing Caddy a voice forces the reader to piece together
thoughts and intentions as seen through the eyes of her family.
What is the significance of the order?
The Benjy chapter is an introduction to the complexity of all
the characters. The reader is immediately exposed to Faulkner’s writing
style. Benjy sets the tone and prepares the reader for chaos.
The rest of the novel is in chronological order ending with a powerful
omniscient narration.
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