The Sound and the Fury Notes

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THE SOUND AND THE FURY Notes including Life and Background of the Author Introduction to the Novel List of Characters Critical Commentaries Character Analyses Critical Essays Essay Topics and Review Questions Selected Bibliography

by James L. Roberts, Ph.D. Department of English University of Nebraska

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 68501

1-800-228-4078 www.CLIFFS.com ISBN 0-8220-7195-9 © Copyright 1992 by Cliffs Notes, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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LIFE AND BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, but his family soon moved to Oxford, Mississippi. Almost all of his novels take place in and around Oxford, which he renames Jefferson, Mississippi. Even though Faulkner is a contemporary American author, he is already considered to be one of the world's greatest novelists. In 1949, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the highest prize that can be awarded to a writer. Faulkner came from a rather distinguished Mississippi family. His great-grandfather, Colonel William Cuthbert Falkner (the "u" was added to Faulkner's name by mistake when his first novel was published and Faulkner retained this spelling), came to Mississippi from South Carolina during the first part of the nineteenth century. The Colonel appears in many of Faulkner's novels under the name of Colonel John Sartoris. Colonel William Falkner had a fairly notable career as a soldier both in the Mexican War and in the American Civil War. During the Civil War, Falkner's hot temper was responsible for his demotion from full colonel to lieutenant colonel. After the Civil War, Colonel Falkner was deeply involved in the problems of the reconstruction period. He killed several men during this time and became a rather notorious figure. He also built a railroad and ran for public office. During all of these fascinating activities, he took out time to write one of the nation's bestsellers, The White Rose of Memphis, which appeared in 1880. He also wrote two other books, but only his first was an outstanding success. He was finally killed by one of his rivals. The later members of the Falkner family were not quite so distinguished as was the great-grandfather. With the publication of his third novel, Sartoris, William Faulkner placed his novels in a mythological county that he called Yoknapatawpha County. Most of the rest of his novels and short stories are set in this county. The Compsons, who are the central characters in this novel, also appear in later works. One of Faulkner's great achievements is the creation of this imaginary county. He worked out his plan so carefully that many characters who are minor characters in one novel become central characters in a later work. He also drew a map of this county to show where certain events take place; it appears at the end of a later novel, Absalom, Absalom! In all of his work, Faulkner has used new techniques to express his views of man's position in the modern world. In his earlier works, Faulkner viewed man's position in the universe with despair. He saw man as a weak creature incapable of rising above his selfish needs. Later, Faulkner's view changed. In his more recent works, he sees man as potentially great, or, in Faulkner's own words, "Man will not merely endure: he will prevail." In almost all of his novels, Faulkner penetrates deeply into the psychological motivations for man's actions and investigates man's dilemma in the modern world. Of all his achievements, The Sound and the Fury is considered to be one of his greatest novels.

INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL IMAGE AND ORDER IN THE BENJY SECTION Since the Benjy section is so difficult, and since it presents problems that the reader has never before encountered in any other novel (that is, no amount of prior reading really prepares readers for what they are about to experience in this particular novel), it might be useful to number and date each scene, using the following outline. Faulkner himself realized how confusing this section would be and hoped to have it printed in various colored inks--color coded, as it were. His publisher refused the request.

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www.cliffs.com THE BENJY SECTION The following page references are to the Vintage International paperback edition of The Sound and the Fury, the corrected text, published by Random House. Dating of various scenes may sometimes differ from the dating found in other publications. •

P.3, Scene 1 (1928) Through the fence . . .

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P.4, Scene 2 (about 1902) Caddy uncaught me . . .

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P.5, Scene 3 (about 1902, earlier) "It's too cold out there."

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P.6, Scene 4 (1928) What are you moaning about . . .

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P.7, Scene 5 (about 1902) "What is it."

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P.9, Scene 6 (1928) Cant you shut up . . .

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P.9, Scene 7 (April 1913) "Git in, now, and set still . . ."

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P.12, Scene 8 (1928) Cry baby, Luster said.

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P.12, Scene 9 (1902) "Keep your hands in your pockets."

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P.13, Scene 10 (sometime after the above scene) Mr Patterson was chopping . . .

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P.14, Scene 11 (1928) "They aint nothing . . ."

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P.17, Scene 12 (1898) . . . and Roskus came . . .

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P.17, Scene 13 (1898, earlier in the same day) She was wet.

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P.19, Scene 14 (1928) What is the matter . . .

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P.19, Scene 15 (1898, same as Scene 12) Roskus came and said . . .

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P.20, Scene 16 (1928) See you all . . .

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P.20, Scene 17 (1898) "If we go slow . . ."

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P.20, Scene 18 (April 1910) The cows came jumping . . .

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P.22, Scene 19 (1898) At the top of the hill . . .

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P.28, Scene 20 (1912) There was a fire in it . . .

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P.28, Scene 21 (1910) Dilsey was singing in the kitchen . . .

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P.29, Scene 22 (1910) Taint no luck . . .

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•

P.30, Scene 23 (1912) Take him and Quentin . . .

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P.30, Scene 24 (1912) Dilsey was singing.

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P.31, Scene 25 (1912) "That's three, thank the Lawd."

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P.32, Scene 26 (1912) You cant go yet . . .

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P.32, Scene 27 (1928) Come on, Luster said . . .

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P.32, Scene 28 (1898) Frony and T. P. were playing . . .

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P.33, Scene 29 (Roskus' death--1913 or 1914) They moaned at Dilsey's house.

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P.33, Scene 30 (1898) "Oh." Caddy said . . .

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P.33, Scene 31 (Roskus' death--1913 or 1914) Dilsey moaned . . .

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P.33, Scene 32 (1898) "I like to know . . ."

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P.33, Scene 33 (1912) The bones rounded out of the ditch . . .

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P.34, Scene 34 (1912) Then they all stopped and it was dark . . .

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P.35, Scene 35 (1928) I had it when . . .

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P.35, Scene 36 (1898) "Do you think the buzzards . . ."

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P.37, Scene 37 (1910) When we looked around . . .

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P.37, Scene 38 (1898) A snake crawled out . . .

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P.37, Scene 39 (1910) You aint got to start . . .

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P.38, Scene 40 (1898) We stopped under the tree . . .

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P.38, Scene 41 (1910) They getting ready to start . . .

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P.38, Scene 42 (1898) "They haven't started because the band . . ."

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P.39, Scene 43 (1910) I saw them.

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P.40, Scene 44 (1905--around Christmas) Benjy, Caddy said, Benjy.

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P.43, Scene 45 (1908) "Come on, now."

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P.43, Scene 46 (Spring 1903) Uncle Maury was sick.

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P.44, Scene 47 (1908) "You a big boy."

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P.45, Scene 48 (1898) We looked up into the tree . . .

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P.46, Scene 49 (1928) Where you want to go now, . . .

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P.46, Scene 50 (about 1908-09) The kitchen was dark.

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P.46, Scene 51 (1928) Luster came back.

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P.46, Scene 52 (about 1908-09) It was dark under the trees.

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P.46, Scene 53 (1928) Come away from there . . .

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P 47, Scene 54 (about 1908-09) It was two now, . . .

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P.48, Scene 55 (1928) I kept a telling you . . .

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P.51, Scene 56 (May 1910) You cant do no good . . .

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P.51, Scene 57 (another time in May 1910) I could hear them . . .

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P.52, Scene 58 (May 1910: nighttime) How did he get out, . . .

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P.52, Scene 59 (May 1910: continuance of Scene 57) It was open when I . . .

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P.53, Scene 60 (1928) Here, loony, Luster said.

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P.56, Scene 61 (1900) What you want to get her . . .

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P.56, Scene 62 (1928) "Aint you shamed . . ."

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P.57, Scene 63 (1900) I could hear the clock, . . .

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P.57, Scene 64 (1928) I ate some cake.

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P.58, Scene 65 (1900) That's right, Dilsey said.

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P.58, Scene 66 (1928) The long wire came . . .

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P.61, Scene 67 (1900) Your name is Benjy, . . .

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P.61, Scene 68 (1898) . . . Caddy said. "Let me . . ."

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P.61, Scene 69 (1900) Versh set me down . . .

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P.62, Scene 70 (1898) Mother's sick, Father said.

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P.62, Scene 71 (1900) We could hear the roof.

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P.64, Scene 72 (1900) Father took me up.

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P.65, Scene 73 (1928) Jason came in.

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P.66, Scene 74 (1900) You can look at the fire . . .

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P.66, Scene 75 (1928) Dilsey said, "You come, Jason."

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P.66, Scene 76 (1900) We could hear the roof.

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P.66, Scene 77 (1928) Quentin said, "Didn't Dilsey say supper . . ."

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P.67, Scene 78 (1900) I could hear the roof.

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P.68, Scene 79 (1928) Dilsey said, All right.

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P.68, Scene 80 (1900) Versh smelled like rain.

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P.68, Scene 81 (about 1909) We could hear Caddy . . .

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P.69, Scene 82 (1900) Versh said, Your name Benjamin . . .

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P.69, Scene 83 (about 1909) We were in the hall.

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P.69, Scene 84 (1928) What are you doing to him, . . .

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P.70, Scene 85 (1900) Versh said, "You move back . . ."

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Scenes 86 through 99 alternate between the years 1928 (Scene 86) and 1900 (Scene 99) in a continuous pattern on pages 70 and 71.

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P.72, Scene 100 (1928) She smelled like trees.

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P.73, Scene 101 (1898) We didn't go to our room.

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P.73, Scene 102 (1928) Quentin, Mother said in the hall.

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P.73, Scene 103 (1898) Quentin and Versh came in.

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P.73, Scene 104 (1928) I got undressed . . .

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P.74, Scene 105 (1898) There were two beds.

The main thing to keep in mind while reading this section is the images that recur constantly. Most of these images will have greater meaning later on in the novel. The individual scenes should, therefore, be held in one's mind until they are encountered again later on in the novel, when the full import of each separate image becomes clear.

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www.cliffs.com The following breakdown shows the major scenes that affect Benjy even though some of them, such as Benjy's castration, have only half a page or so devoted to them. I.

1898: The Branch Scene and Damuddy's Death

These scenes are easiest to identify since they are all distinguished by the children being very young and also by the frequent discussion of the death of Damuddy, the children's grandmother. The black attendants during these scenes are Versh and Roskus. Confusion occurs because Benjy is referred to as Maury since his name will not be changed until 1900. Except for the first scene, the entire section is told in chronological order and can be isolated to read as follows: Scenes 13, 12, 15, 17, 19, 28, 30, 32, 36, 38, 40, 42, 48, 68, 70, 101, 103, 105. II.

1900: The Changing of Benjy's Name

These scenes present some confusion since they offer little in the way of chronological order. Thus, the recurring images are essential in identifying some of the scenes. The principal images and references are those of Benjy looking into the fire, watching the fire sparkle in a mirror, and hearing the rain. All of these scenes occur during the last part of the section because they are not evoked in Benjy's mind until he is brought into the house during the later part of the day. These scenes in their chronological order are: Scenes 67, 71, 61, 63, 65, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 69, 99. III.

1902: The Patterson Episode

These scenes are characterized by the bitter cold and by Benjy's being told to keep his hands in his pockets, but mainly by the reference to the names of Mr. or Mrs. Patterson. The scenes again do not appear in any chronological order, and readers might better understand Faulkner's technique if they will observe that the last line of Scene 2 is almost identical to the first line of Scene 9. The chronological order of this episode is as follows: Scenes 3, 5, 2, 9, 10, 46. IV.

1905-10: Caddy's Period of Sexuality

The four years involved in this section include Benjy's first discovery of Caddy's using perfume to the final discovery four years later of Caddy's loss of virginity. The four principal scenes in this period of sexuality are connected by Benjy's sensory impression that either Caddy smelled like trees or, due to some promiscuous act, that Caddy did not smell like trees. Also running through each scene is the image of Benjy trying to force Caddy into the bathroom, where Caddy can wash away her sins. The four scenes are subdivided as follows: Caddy and the perfume (1905): Scene 44; Benjy and Caddy at bedtime (1908): Scenes 45 and 47; Benjy, Caddy, and Charlie in the swing (1908-09): Scenes 50, 52, 54; and Caddy's loss of her virginity (about 1909): Scenes 81 and 83. V.

1910 (April): Caddy's Wedding

The principal images are those of the "sassprilluh" (champagne) drinking, causing distorted and confusing images of Caddy in her white veil, and of Caddy's failure to smell like trees. The scenes in chronological order are as follows: Scenes 37, 39, 41, 43, 18. VI.

1910 (May): Benjy's Castration

The principal image is that of Benjy standing at the iron gate waiting for Caddy. In chronological order, the scenes are 56, 57, 59, 58.

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VII.

1910 (and later): Scenes Connected with Death

The principal images are those of dogs howling, of Benjy's being awakened and of his moaning, and of various bad luck signs about the Compson environs. These scenes may be further subdivided: Quentin's suicide (1910): Scenes 22 and 21; Mr. Compson's death (1912): Scenes 34, 33, 23, 25, 24, 20, 26; first anniversary of Mr. Compson's death (1913): Scene 7; and Roskus' death (sometime later): Scenes 29 and 31. VIII.

1928: The Present

The presence of Luster identifies all these scenes, and they progress in chronological order. They are: Scenes 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 27, 35, 49, 51, 53, 55, 60, 62, 64, 66, 73, 75, 77, 79, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104.

LIST OF CHARACTERS Jason Compson III The cynical and detached father.

Caroline Compson The whining, selfish, neurotic mother.

Quentin Compson The oldest son who is overly sensitive of his sister's sin; he commits suicide by drowning on June 2, 1910.

Candace (Caddy) Compson The only Compson daughter; her promiscuity is one of the central narrative concerns of the novel.

Jason Compson IV The last male Compson since he will probably never marry.

Benjy (Benjamin--previously Maury) The youngest of the Compson children, whose name is changed when it is discovered that he is severely retarded.

Miss Quentin Caddy's daughter, who was born too soon after her mother's wedding and who is reared by the Compsons.

Uncle Maury Bascomb Mrs. Compson's worthless brother, who sponges off her.

Damuddy The children's (maternal?) grandmother, who dies in 1898.

Dilsey Gibson The black cook whose task it is to bring order out of the sound and fury created by the Compsons.

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Roskus Dilsey's husband, who also works for the Compsons.

Versh and T. P. Dilsey's sons, who are Benjy's keepers during the earlier parts of Benjy's life.

Frony Dilsey's daughter, who helps out in the kitchen.

Luster Frony's son (probably), who is Benjy's attendant in the present action.

Dalton Ames He is one of Caddy's lovers and is probably the father of Caddy's child.

Gerald Bland A fellow student at Harvard who reminds Quentin of Dalton Ames.

Mrs. Bland Gerald's mother, who brags about her son's conquests with women.

Charlie Caddy's earliest boyfriend; Benjy discovers him in the swing with Caddy.

Deacon An old black character at Harvard whom Quentin entrusts with his suicide letters.

Earl Owner of the hardware store where Jason Compson IV works.

(Sydney) Herbert Head The man whom Caddy marries when she discovers that she is pregnant and has to marry someone.

Uncle Job An old black man who also works for Earl, Jason's employer.

Julio The brother of the little Italian girl who attaches herself to Quentin.

Lorraine The mistress Jason keeps in Memphis.

Shreve MacKenzie Quentin Compson's Canadian roommate at Harvard. (Shreve MacKenzie becomes Shreve McCannon in Absalom, Absalom!)

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Mrs. Patterson The woman with whom Uncle Maury is having an affair.

Mr. Patterson Her husband, who discovers the affair and assaults Uncle Maury.

Reverend Shegog A wise black preacher who delivers an effective sermon on Easter Sunday.

CRITICAL COMMENTARIES Page numbers refer to the Vintage International "corrected text" paperback edition of The Sound and the Fury, published by Random House. Scene numbers are supplied for convenient cross-referencing.

THE BENJY SECTION P. 3, Scene 1 (1928) Through the fence . . . As indicated by the heading, this section is set in the present time, April 7, 1928, which is the Saturday before Easter Sunday. (Faulkner was very careful to make the date coincide with the actual date of Easter in that particular year.) Throughout this section, the dating is easy since each scene is identified by the presence of Luster as Benjy's attendant and by Luster's searching for a lost quarter as they wander about the Compson premises. In the appendix to Malcolm Cowley's The Portable Faulkner and also in the Norton critical edition of the novel, Faulkner wrote that Luster was fourteen years old and that Luster was capable of handling an idiot who was twice his age. Since Benjy is thirty-three on this day, Luster would have had to be sixteen or seventeen. Furthermore, internal evidence in the section indicates that Luster would have to be more than fourteen because in another scene (Scene 7), which occurs in April 1913, Luster is already born and is playing with baby Quentin, Caddy's daughter. We must therefore assume that Faulkner was in error in assigning Luster's age as fourteen. After all, he wrote the appendix approximately sixteen years later without rereading the novel (see Malcolm Cowley, The Faulkner-Cowley File), and the appendix should be viewed, at least partly, as a separate artistic creation because there are several other troublesome inconsistencies between it and the text. As noted above, the date, April 7, 1928, is also Benjy's thirty-third birthday. All of these facts have a certain symbolic importance. April, as a month, is symbolic of growth and also decay, of life and also death. It is the month in which Christ was crucified, and the Saturday between the Friday of Crucifixion and the Sunday of Resurrection is, by tradition, one of the figuratively darkest days in the history of Christianity. April is also the month when all things begin growing again--the beginning of the cycle of life. Thus, Benjy is placed in the midst of greenness and fertility of April, and his moaning becomes the hopelessness of all the voiceless misery represented by the death of Christ. The flowers that Benjy loves are a contrast to the ugliness of his own appearance. In this month of rebirth, however, Benjy is conscious only of death--many of the things he remembers are associated with funerals and with deaths. Critics have often characterized Benjy as a Christ figure because he is thirty-three years old, the age of Christ when He was crucified. Benjy has been castrated, which implies that the modern Christ is impotent against all the evil present in the modern world. Benjy also suffers as Christ did, but Benjy's suffering is to no avail. He cannot intervene, as did Christ, because he is, Faulkner says, an idiot. The implication through all these Christ images is that the Christ figure in the modern world is reduced to an impotent,

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www.cliffs.com moaning, mindless being who cares only for his own personal comforts. This section is narrated as though we were seeing all the events through the eyes of a thirty-three-year-old boy-man. Since Benjy is incapable of logical thinking, we have a section that seems terribly confused and illogical. Most of the section simply records sensory impressions that he remembers. When he sees one thing, such as a fence, he is immediately reminded of another episode in which the same object was involved. There is often a jump back in time without any warning to the reader. In one paragraph Benjy might be remembering something that happened only a few years ago, and then suddenly he recalls a similar event that happened some fifteen, twenty, or thirty years ago, and, once in the past, he might either come forward or go further backward in time. Often, but not always, the time change will be indicated by the use of italics. Since the section is being narrated by a mentally slow man who cannot comment on actions, we must note carefully the images that affect him. For example, when he hears the golfers call for their caddie, the word reminds him of his sister, Caddy, whom Benjy loves more than any other person. The mention of her name causes him to start moaning. Likewise, the golf course at one time belonged to the Compsons. It was generally referred to as "Benjy's pasture." In 1909, Mr. Compson sold this pasture in order to send Quentin to Harvard and to buy more liquor for himself. Thus, in one sense, Benjy misses both his sister, Caddy, and his pasture. Furthermore, in 1910, Benjy was castrated after people thought he was trying to attack some young girls. Consequently, when Benjy sees the golf balls, he is perhaps reminded of his castration. P. 4, Scene 2 (two days before Christmas, about 1902) Caddy uncaught me . . . In this paragraph, we shift abruptly into the past, into what we call "the Patterson episode." It is virtually impossible to date this episode with absolute accuracy since there is no definite indication of its chronology. However, from suggestive evidence, we must assume that both Caddy and Benjy are still rather young. It is therefore safest to assume that this passage--and the entire Patterson episode--occurs in December (two days before Christmas) in 1902, or 1903, or 1904. The earlier date is more likely since Caddy would be only eleven years old and would still have her innocence, as suggested by Benjy's reaction to her. The later date (1904) would place her in early puberty and would probably cause a different reaction in Benjy's mind. A close examination of the shift in time will familiarize the reader with the basic technique, or rationale, by which Faulkner shifts time. When Luster helps Benjy through the fence in 1928, Benjy's mind automatically returns to an earlier scene in which he was involved in the same type of activity. Getting snagged on a nail while he is with Luster reminds him of a time twenty-six years earlier when he was snagged on a nail when he was with Caddy. Time, of course, has no meaning for Benjy, and the past and the present blend into one response for him. Many of the scenes in the past that Benjy remembers are connected with his sister, Caddy, in one way or another. Note also that when there is a sudden shift in time, as in this passage, Faulkner will often (but again, not always) give the reader a hint of a time change by putting part or all of the scene in italics; or if one scene in the past is in italics, he will often shift to roman type for the next scene in the present. P. 5, Scene 3 (about 1902) "It's too cold out there." The mention of the cold weather just before Christmas carries Benjy's memory back to an earlier scene the same day. Faulkner's technique often shifts the time sequence back and forth without regard for chronological order. To read the passage in chronological order, one would read this section first. These passages are characterized by Benjy's reaction to sensual impressions, such as the coldness of the iron gate or the rattling of the leaves. His world is based upon things that he can immediately sense or that

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www.cliffs.com give him pleasure. The entire Patterson episode (Scenes 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, and 46) has the least thematic importance in the novel. It functions mainly to contribute to the complete picture of the Compson world. For example, note how Uncle Maury ingratiates himself with his sister (Mrs. Compson); note also that every one of his actions has some type of selfish motivation--either he drinks Mr. Compson's liquor or borrows money from Mrs. Compson, or he uses the Compson children as his go-betweens or as his pimps. This act alone indicates the total lack of any moral values on the part of the Bascomb family. Note also that Mrs. Compson is more concerned about Benjy's being a judgment on her than she is about Benjy's welfare. P. 6, Scene 4 (1928) What are you moaning about . . . At the end of the above passage, circa 1902, Benjy's memories of his sister, Caddy, cause him to start moaning in the present (1928), and Luster, his attendant, cannot understand this sudden moaning because naturally he cannot know what is transpiring in Benjy's mind. Consistently, Benjy's moaning is the result of his remembering Caddy. In this short passage, Faulkner introduces the idea of pacifying Benjy with a flower (or weed), a contrasting image to his sterility. P. 7, Scene 5 (about 1902) "What is it." This section is an obvious continuation of Scene 3, interrupted only by Luster's complaining about Benjy's moaning. With this scene, it now becomes clear why Benjy was moaning in the earlier section. He instinctively knew that it was about time for Caddy to come home from school, and he wanted to be at the gate when she came. Actually, we should see this scene as representative of the many times when Benjy went to the gate to meet Caddy, an action that carries significant import later, when Benjy remembers going to the gate to meet Caddy and being accused of attacking some young girls. This scene also gives us additional insight into Mrs. Compson's character. Her whining is always a result of some minor event that she thinks happened simply to upset her. Mrs. Compson's selfishness is seen in her concern that Benjy might get sick when she is going to have a house full of company. Her concern is not so much with Benjy's possible sickness as it is with the thought that it would inconvenience her. P. 9, Scene 6 (1928) Cant you shut up . . . Again, Benjy's memory of Caddy causes him to start moaning, and the moaning annoys Luster. We should be aware that the two, Luster and Benjy, are moving about the environs of the Compson estate and certain objects evoke early memories for Benjy. P. 9, Scene 7 (April 1913) "Git in, now, and set still . . ." The exact time of this section is difficult to determine. Most critics assign it to sometime (a week or so) after the death of Mr. Compson. (For example, see Stuart and Backus, "Each in its Ordered Place," American Literature 1958, pp. 453-54.) Evidence drawn from other parts of the novel indicates that the scene must take place at least a year after Mr. Compson's death, probably on the first anniversary of his death. We know that Mr. Compson died less than two years after his son Quentin committed suicide in 1910, making Mr. Compson's death occur in the spring of 1912. We also know that Jason did not start to work in the hardware store until after his father's death and after Mrs. Compson used a thousand dollars of her inheritance to invest in Jason's job. Since this scene presents Jason as already working at the hardware store, it is unlikely that the scene occurs only a week or so after the funeral. And since Mrs. Compson is

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www.cliffs.com carrying fresh flowers, we may assume that the scene is in the springtime. Furthermore, Miss Quentin, as a young girl, is down at Dilsey's house playing with baby Luster, who was born about 1912 and would have to be about a year old, again suggesting that the scene should be set in 1913. It is difficult to assign it a later date (such as Spring 1914) because Roskus is still alive and it is suggested that he did not live long after the death of Mr. Compson. The reader should now become aware of a developing pattern. The things that Benjy remembers are correlated with the day's activities in 1928. These scenes in the earlier part of the section are evoked as a result of Luster's taking Benjy to the same place where an earlier event was initiated. For example, in the preceding scene in 1928, Luster carries Benjy by the carriage house, and Benjy remembers another event that involved the carriage house--that is, the trip to the graveyard. Therefore, all the scenes in the first part of the section occur as a result of Benjy and Luster's actions outside the house, in 1928. In contrast, the scenes that Benjy remembers about his name being changed from Maury to Benjy occur in the last part of the section because Luster carries Benjy into the house, and events inside the house evoke these other memories. P. 12, Scene 8 (1928) Cry baby, Luster said. P. 12, Scene 9 (1902) "Keep your hands in your pockets." P. 13, Scene 10 (sometime later) Mr Patterson was chopping . . . The barn that Benjy sees in Scene 8 (1928) carries his memory back to a continuation of the earlier scene, when he and Caddy are delivering a letter to Mrs. Patterson. This event then causes Benjy to correlate that time with another time, when he tried to deliver a letter by himself. The time of this event has to be in the spring, some months later, because by now Mr. Patterson has intercepted a letter, and the affair must come to an end. Benjy's reactions here are also important. He was doing fine with his task until he looked at Mrs. Patterson's eyes and saw hostility and fear in them. Then he became frightened and could not move. Had Mrs. Patterson not been so hostile and frightened, Benjy would not have become so rigid and frightened. The results of this event will be narrated later on inside the house (Scene 46). P. 14, Scene 11 (1928) "They aint nothing . . ." As Luster leads Benjy down to the branch, or stream, Faulkner is preparing us for the most signicant jump back in time in the entire section, the one that occurs by the branch. This long section in the present time gives us the rationale for Luster and Benjy's journey. In the Jason section (Section III), we learn that Jason maliciously burned two tickets Friday night rather than give them to Luster, who is now searching for his lost quarter so that he can attend the minstrel show. The show itself becomes a dominant motif in the present since Miss Quentin will later become involved with some of the show people. Important also is the fact that Benjy's age is finally stated, and that the golfers calling for their caddie reminds him of his sister, Caddy. P. 17, Scene 12 (1898) . . . and Roskus came . . . P. 17, Scene 13 (1898) She was wet. In dating these two parts, we should again be aware of the time shift. Scene 12 consists of only two and one-half lines and occurs about an hour or so later than does Scene 13. The arrival at the branch then evokes scenes associated with this branch back in 1898, which are the easiest to date because the children talk about their ages. Also, throughout the Benjy section, this branch episode conforms most accurately to a chronological order. The scenes at the branch present symbolically most of the themes and ideas of the novel in miniature. These scenes show symbolically the fate and characteristics of the characters in later life. First, Caddy's

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www.cliffs.com actions here are extremely significant. That she falls down and gets her drawers muddy symbolically suggests her later sexual promiscuity. Her utter disregard for her own appearance and her willingness to remove her clothes in front of the blacks are correlated with her later acts that defy accepted social behavior. Second, Quentin is seen as the rather quiet and taciturn person who is more concerned with Caddy's actions than he is with his own. Even this early in life, he tries to prevent Caddy from soiling herself. When Quentin slaps her and she falls down again, we could suggest that, symbolically, Quentin is partially responsible for Caddy's sin. Aspects of Jason's character are suggested here also. He is seen playing by himself down the creek. His isolation foreshadows his later rejection of all the family ties and his total disregard for any family feelings. Finally, when Benjy sees that Caddy has a muddy behind, he begins to cry. Later in the novel when Caddy has actually been promiscuous, Benjy is able to sense her immorality and cries about it. Basically, then, the adult characteristics of all the Compson children are suggested here in miniature-Caddy's muddy behind, Quentin's intense concern over Caddy's behavior, Jason's rejection and disregard for the family, and Benjy's ability to intuitively sense deviations from the norm. P. 19, Scene 14 (1928) What is the matter . . . Often Benjy's thoughts of the past are only temporarily interrupted by Luster's comments in 1928. This scene is a good example, for Benjy is thinking about the branch scene and Caddy's comforting him when Luster interrupts to ask why he is moaning. As soon as Luster is quiet again, Benjy's thoughts return to the branch scene, set in 1898. Luster's remarks about Benjy's thinking the pasture is still his comes from the fact that once the pasture did belong to the Compsons, but Mr. Compson had to sell it to pay for Quentin's year at Harvard. This is our first knowledge of this fact, another one of the many facts that have to be held in abeyance until a later point in the novel when they will become clearer. P. 19, Scene 15 (1898, same as Scene 12) Roskus came and said . . . Note that the beginning words of this scene are almost identical to the entire Scene 12; it now fits into its proper chronological order. This scene further illustrates certain characteristics in miniature that will become dominant motifs later on. First, Caddy and Quentin are both concerned over whether Jason is going to tell on them. Apparently, Jason is different from the other children even at this early age, and he is not in their confidence. Quentin is more concerned over Jason's telling than is Caddy in spite of the fact that it is Caddy who is at fault. Again, this suggests Quentin's over-sensitive concern for Caddy's welfare. Quentin even goes so far as to try to bribe Jason not to tell. Caddy's later disregard for what her family thinks of her actions is foreshadowed here in her disgust at Jason and her pretended unconcern over whether or not he will tell. A further confusion is that Benjy is called "Maury," and during the first reading of the novel this creates a certain difficulty since we are not aware of his name change until later in the novel. P. 20, Scene 16 (1928) See you all . . . P. 20, Scene 17 (1898) "If we go slow . . ." Again, Benjy's thoughts, set in the past, are temporarily interrupted by Luster's comments; afterward, Benjy's thoughts immediately return to the earlier scene, a scene in which one small characteristic of Jason is shown--Jason is characterized as a boy who always walks with his hands in his pockets. Symbolically, this gesture suggests Jason's later mania for money, his various attempts to accumulate and hide sums of money, and his unnatural secretiveness.

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www.cliffs.com P. 20, Scene 18 (April 1910) The cows came jumping . . . T. P. and Benjy are drunk at Caddy's wedding, and T. P., who has never seen or tasted champagne, thinks that they are drinking "sassprilluh" (sarsaparilla). This, of course, is absurd because even though it is not spelled out, an aristocratic family such as the Compsons would never serve such a cheap beverage that has no alcoholic content. T. P. and Benjy are obviously drunk in scenes 18, 37, and 39, and since "sassprilluh" has the same color as champagne, the mistake is comic and fits in with the comic actions that Benjy describes. This scene obviously takes place at the end of Caddy's wedding, which we discover in Quentin's section to have occurred on April 25, 1910. Some critics do not like to assign the first line of this section, but the imagery of the section is that of distorted, bizarre images as seen through the drunken eyes of Benjy. Thus, since the cows are seen performing erratic actions, the first line of the section blends with the imagery of the entire section. Furthermore, the entire scene is evoked because in the preceding scene, Benjy observed Roskus milking and is reminded of another scene in the barn involving the cows. The manner in which Faulkner presents the images through the mind of a drunken Benjy is a masterful, impressionistic rendition. As an author, Faulkner never intrudes and tells us that Benjy is drunk--he allows the bizarre imagery to speak for itself. Note, too, that this is the first view of the wedding and includes an episode that takes place at the very end of the day. There will be several other scenes (four, to be exact) from the wedding day episode because it is the last time that Benjy will ever be near Caddy, except for one short, secret visit she made after the birth of her daughter. Quentin's violence in this scene should later remind the reader of his troubled sensitivity, his excessive concern over the fate of Caddy, and his opposition to the wedding. At present, however, there is no way for the reader, on first reading, to account for Quentin's violence. P. 22, Scene 19 (1898) At the top of the hill . . . Benjy's memory of being carried up the hill by Versh in Scene 18 reminds him of the time when Versh carried him up the hill after the children played in the branch. In this scene, note that Benjy is still being called Maury, which again would tend to confuse the reader on the first reading. Jason's persistent habit of keeping his hands in his pockets causes him to fall down. This characteristic, as noted in Scene 17, becomes more dominant as the novel progresses. Likewise, his telling on Caddy and Quentin suggests a certain offensive aspect of his nature. Benjy's ability to sense death is depicted; he instinctively knows that someone is going to die. At every death in the novel, Benjy has certain knowledge of it and moans. Dilsey's character is further developed in this section. She will ultimately emerge as the one, strong, admirable character in the novel. She is the only person in the Compson household who can accomplish things without creating more disorder than originally prevailed. Hers is a great faith and reliance upon the goodness of the "Lawd" and a quiet love and acceptance of all the Lord's creatures. Her love extends even to Benjy, as she is able to sense what is wrong with him and to minister to his needs without upsetting him. This ability is in direct contrast to Mrs. Compson, who causes Benjy to start moaning and bellowing every time she comes near him.

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www.cliffs.com P. 28, Scene 20 (1912) There was a fire in it . . . In dating this scene as occurring on the day that Mr. Compson died, in 1912 (Stuart and Backus date this scene as Quentin's death in 1910), we have the small clue that T. P. is squatting before the fire. In June (the month of Quentin's death), there would be no fire. However, in April in Mississippi (the month of Mr. Compson's death), there is often a cold spell and a fire is needed in the early morning. In fact, Faulkner has used this idea of Easter being cold in all four sections of the novel, giving us the key for dating this section. This scene and the next several scenes are the most complicated and confused in the entire section. They all deal with the subject of death evoked in Benjy's mind by the remembrance of Damuddy's death in 1898. Thus we have Quentin's, Mr. Compson's, and Roskus' deaths juxtaposed with one another, with little indication of which death is the subject of the scene. These scenes are also illustrations of instances when Faulkner did not use italics to indicate a change in the scene. His failure to do so implies something about the abstract nature of death in Benjy's mind. The concept of death involves comprehension of abstract principles, and Benjy is incapable of such reasoning. Therefore, Faulkner juxtaposes scenes of death one upon another without indicating which death is being remembered in order to replicate the impossibility of Benjy's distinguishing between one death and another. P. 28, Scene 21 (1910) Dilsey was singing in the kitchen . . . Some critics do not indicate this scene as a separate entity; however, a close examination of the text shows that in Scene 20 (above), Dilsey, T. P., and Benjy are in Dilsey's cabin, where Dilsey is singing; this scene, in turn, evokes Scene 21, in the Compson kitchen, where Dilsey is singing. Also, in Scene 20, T. P. and Benjy go to the branch; in Scene 21, they go down to the barn. In southern idiom, one goes down to the barn only from the big house. The scene must be set in 1910 because Roskus has rheumatism in only one hand. By 1912, he is incapacitated in both hands. Although there is no typographical indication of a change in time, we do have two different scenes juxtaposed. P. 29, Scene 22 (1910) Taint no luck . . . This scene is easy to date since Benjy's age is referred to as fifteen. Thus, chronologically, this scene occurs before Scene 21; that is, Scene 22 takes place the night of Quentin's death and Scene 21 occurs the following morning. Scene 22 is evoked by Benjy's remembering Roskus' complaint about no luck on the Compson place, an indication that the blacks believe the Compson family to be a doomed family. The two signs refer to the birth of a mentally incapacitated child and to Quentin's suicide. Throughout these scenes, we should be aware of how Benjy can sense death in the family even though, as in this case, Quentin's suicide occurred at Harvard. P. 30, Scene 23 (1912) Take him and Quentin . . . This scene is linked to the day of Mr. Compson's death because of the presence of Luster and little Miss Quentin; in addition, note that Roskus is now physically incapacitated. P. 30, Scene 24 (1912) Dilsey was singing. Again, there is no indication of a change in time, but this short scene begins in the Compson house and ends with T. P.'s taking Benjy to Dilsey's cabin to play with Quentin and Luster. It is related to Scenes 20 and 23 in chronological time and related to Scene 21 thematically by Dilsey's singing; it is related to all these scenes by the unifying subject of death.

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P. 31, Scene 25 (1912) "That's three, thank the Lawd." Again, without warning, Benjy's mind jumps to another scene: in Scene 24, Dilsey was in the big house; now, she is in her own house, undressing Benjy. The scene is set in 1912 since Roskus refers to Mr. Compson's death as fulfilling the prophecy he made two years ago. This scene is also the first time that we hear that Caddy's name is not to be spoken. It is later that we find out that Mrs. Compson has ordered that Caddy's name is never to be mentioned since Caddy has disgraced the family. Benjy's intuitive qualities are further emphasized as he apparently is able to intuit not only death, but also impending death. P. 32, Scene 26 (1912) You cant go yet . . . Because of the presence of little Miss Quentin, this scene occurs when Mr. Compson's body is being carried away in the hearse--either on the day of his death or a few days later, at the funeral. P. 32, Scene 27 (1928) Come on, Luster said . . . For the first time since Scene 16, Luster's comments interrupt Benjy's memories. During all the intervening scenes, Benjy has apparently been playing in the branch, or stream. P. 32, Scene 28 (1898) Frony and T. P. were playing . . . Wanting to play with the golf ball in 1928 reminds Benjy of the time in 1898 when he had some lightning bugs that belonged to T. P. Actually, however, the scene is connected thematically by the subject of death. The reference to moaning in this scene refers to an old black custom of gathering at the house of a dead person and ritualistically moaning over the body of the deceased. A funeral in a black community in Mississippi is treated as an important social event with friends and relatives coming from miles around and bringing all sorts of food. It is, in actuality, a traditional funeral wake with certain modifications. Frony thinks that the same custom will be practiced in the Compson household, and she wants to go watch the official moaning. P. 33, Scene 29 (Roskus' death) They moaned at Dilsey's house. P. 33, Scene 30 (1898) "Oh." Caddy said . . . P. 33, Scene 31 (Roskus' death) Dilsey moaned . . . Scenes 29 and 31 take place at the death of Roskus, Dilsey's husband; however, we are not able to date these scenes except to say that Roskus' death occurred sometime after Mr. Compson's death, in 1912. From the time of Quentin's death in 1910 to the death of Mr. Compson in 1912, we saw that Roskus' rheumatism became increasingly worse; therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that Roskus died shortly after Mr. Compson. However, this assumption causes a problem. In Scene 31, Luster is referred to as being old enough to look after "them," presumably Benjy and Quentin, which would make Roskus' death several years after that of Mr. Compson. The difference can be resolved only by suggesting that Faulkner erred in Scene 31 because all other indications suggest that Scene 29 and 31 are the same scene and are linked by Dilsey's moaning and the dog's howling. Scene 30 is a continuation of Scene 28, and all of them are connected to the idea of moaning at funerals.

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www.cliffs.com P. 33, Scene 32 (1898) "I like to know . . ." P. 33, Scene 33 (1912) The bones rounded out of the ditch . . . P. 34, Scene 34 (1912) Then they all stopped and it was dark . . . The memory of the buzzards in 1898 evokes in Benjy's mind a time (Scene 33) when he saw the bones of Nancy, a domestic animal, on the night of Mr. Compson's death. The scene must be Mr. Compson's death since T. P. forgot to get a coat for Benjy. Quentin's death in June would not have warranted such a statement about a coat. Chronologically, the single sentence of Scene 33 should be the last sentence of Scene 34. Examining this seemingly capricious reversal, we then see how precisely Faulkner orders his material since the mention of the buzzards leads to another scene involving buzzards and only then does Benjy's mind imagistically recreate the first part of the scene. Again, note that Faulkner does not use italics to warn us of a sudden shift in time. Instead, the memory of the bones of Nancy are blended into another memory of bones, which leads to a memory of moaning, an incident when Benjy was led out of the house and passed the bones in the ditch. This is also the last scene connected with Mr. Compson's death, and, ironically, it is the one that occurs first in time. The chronological order of the scenes connected with Mr. Compson's death should read as follows: Scenes 34, 33, 23, 25, 24, 20, and 26. P. 35, Scene 35(1928) I had it when . . . P. 35, Scene 36 (1898) "Do you think the buzzards . . ." From the scene of the buzzard in 1912, Benjy's mind returns to the mention of buzzards connected with a scene in 1898, with only a brief interruption (Scene 35) from Luster in 1928. This scene concludes the scenes connected with death; now, to understand Faulkner's technique, the reader should examine how skillfully Faulkner has interwoven the memory of buzzards and moaning and death occurring in numerous scenes; he has brought them and the time sequences into one general picture of death and destruction and decay--a picture that presents the horror of the decadent Compson household. Note also Versh's comment that Jason is going to be a rich man because he has his hands in his pockets all of the time. These little comments later enlarge into motifs that suggest the characteristics of Jason as an adult. P. 37, Scene 37 (1910) When we looked around . . . P. 37, Scene 38 (1898) A snake crawled out . . . P. 37, Scene 39 (1910) You aint got to start . . . P. 38, Scene 40 (1898) We stopped under the tree . . . Beginning with Scene 37, Benjy's mind will juxtapose the "sassprilluh" drinking on the night of Caddy's wedding in 1910 with another episode connected with Damuddy's death in 1898. The central connecting image is that of peeping through the window to see either the funeral or the wedding. This image causes Benjy to combine the two scenes in his memory. P. 38, Scene 41 (1910) They getting ready to start . . . P. 38, Scene 42 (1898) "They haven't started because the band . . ." Scene 41 begins in italics and refers to the "sassprilluh" drinking on the night of Caddy's wedding. Here in this scene, there is considerable indication that Faulkner or the printers made an error since one can contend that the entire scene should be completely in italics and return only to roman type with Scene 42. Note that there is absolutely no indication of the time change in the scene, and the reader must scrutinize closely in order to detect the time change. A clue lies in Benjy's remembering that they have not started the wedding and immediately his mind jumps back in time to when they had not started the funeral. Thus the short Scene 41 should probably be italicized and the time change to Scene 42 should be indicated by a

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www.cliffs.com return to ordinary print. P. 39, Scene 43 (1910) I saw them. P. 40, Scene 44 (1905--around Christmas) Benjy, Caddy said, Benjy. Scene 43 returns to images of the wedding and Benjy's loss of his sister, Caddy. Throughout the section, Benjy correlates Caddy with the smell of trees. Significally, when Caddy uses perfume or when she has been sexually promiscuous, Benjy senses these deviations and reacts to them through sense impressions by noting that she doesn't smell like trees. He can sense various deviations from the norm, but he can do nothing but howl or bellow about any situation. His howling here, in Scenes 43 and 44, is over the loss of Caddy and anticipates his howling when the ordered pattern is broken at the end of the novel. The memory of Caddy's wedding in Scene 43 carries Benjy's memory back in Scene 44 to the first time when he sensed that he was losing Caddy--to the first time when she did not smell like trees because she was using perfume. The scene would be around Christmas 1905 since Caddy is referred to as being fourteen, and she gives Benjy some tinsel stars to play with. At this age, Caddy is still a virgin. Faulkner has symbolically depicted this fact by Caddy's ability to go into the bathroom and wash away her deviation (that is, the odor of her perfume). In later scenes, particularly when Caddy loses her virginity, Benjy will sense the change and will try to force Caddy into the bathroom again to wash. Each of these washing scenes is connected to the branch scene in 1898, when Caddy gets her drawers muddy, and also to the scene in the Quentin section when Caddy goes to the branch and lies in the water up to her hips just after she has lost her virginity. P. 43, Scene 45 (1908) "Come on, now." P. 43, Scene 46 (Spring 1903) Uncle Maury was sick. P. 44, Scene 47 (1908) "You a big boy." Scene 45 (only one short paragraph) and Scene 46 give no indication that there is a shift in time. Scene 45 is dated as 1908 because Benjy's age is referred to. His memory of Uncle Maury causes him to remember an earlier episode concerning Uncle Maury. Scene 46 is the concluding scene to the Patterson episode (see Scenes 2, 3, 5, 9, and 10). Stuart and Backus date Scene 46 as 1908, but if Mr. Patterson discovered the letter from Uncle Maury in 1903 (see Scene 10), then the fight between Uncle Maury and Mr. Patterson would have been shortly afterwards. However, if Backus and Stuart's assumption is correct, then Scene 10 and Scene 46, both occurring in 1908, would indicate that Uncle Maury and Mrs. Patterson have been carrying on their affair for over five years, which is highly unlikely given the nature of such a small town as Jefferson. Therefore, it is best to assume that Scenes 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, and 46 make one unit and occur in 1902-03. The connecting link between Scenes 45, 46, and 47 is that of Benjy's being put to bed in Uncle Maury's room at various times and of Caddy smelling like trees. Notice also that Faulkner gives no indication of a time change between Scenes 46 and 47. P. 45, Scene 48 (1898) We looked up into the tree . . . P. 46, Scene 49 (1928) Where you want to go now, . . . Benjy's memory of Caddy smelling like trees in Scene 47 recalls an earlier scene--in 1898, when Caddy was up in a tree to see if the funeral had started.

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www.cliffs.com P. 46, Scene 50 (about 1908-09) The kitchen was dark. P. 46, Scene 51 (1928) Luster came back. P. 46, Scene 52 (about 1908-09) It was dark under the trees. P. 46, Scene 53 (1928) Come away from there . . . P. 47, Scene 54 (about 1908-09) It was two now, . . . Some critics place the scene between Caddy and Charlie as early as 1906; however, clues in the Quentin section suggest that Caddy's first encounter with Charlie occurred when Quentin was a senior in high school, making the year about 1908 or 1909. These scenes also show Faulkner's technique of allowing memories of the past to affect present actions. As Benjy remembers the event (in the past) with Caddy at the swing, he is (in the present) heading toward the swing. In the past, he saw Caddy kissing Charlie at the swing and began to bellow. As she did in the perfume episode, Caddy makes everything all right by washing away her "sin." By this act, we are to assume that she is still a virgin because as soon as she finishes washing, she again smells like trees. P. 48, Scene 55 (1928) I kept a telling you . . . While remembering the episode of Caddy and Charlie at the swing, Benjy has been walking toward the swing, where Miss Quentin and her boyfriend are repeating the same actions as those of Caddy and Charlie. The two scenes here offer themselves for comparison. In both scenes, Benjy finds a couple who are kissing. Caddy's Charlie was openly hostile to Benjy, but Miss Quentin's friend is quietly vicious. And whereas Benjy was upset to find Caddy kissing a man, he apparently doesn't care what Miss Quentin does. In the scene with Caddy, he follows her to the kitchen, where she washes her mouth. In contrast, Miss Quentin goes to the kitchen by herself to complain about Benjy. This scene also foreshadows future events about which we now know nothing. We meet the man with the red tie whom Jason saw and followed the preceding day (in the Jason section) and whom Miss Quentin runs off with. We also learn that Miss Quentin climbs out the window every night to meet various men. One of her men left his box of prophylactics there and Luster gives it to Benjy to play with. P. 51, Scene 56 (May 1910) You can't do no good . . . P. 51, Scene 57 (another time in May 1910) I could hear them . . . P. 52, Scene 58 (May 1910: nighttime) How did he get out, . . . P. 52, Scene 59 (May 1910: continuance of Scene 57) It was open when I . . . Some critics combine Scenes 56 and 57 into one scene, but a close reading suggests that they are separate scenes since it is raining in Scene 56 and apparently it is not raining in Scene 57. These four scenes are connected with the gate and certain events concerning the gate. Benjy's desire to go to the gate is prompted by the fact that he always stood there and waited for Caddy to come home from school (see Scenes 3 and 5). Despite the fact that Caddy no longer lives at home, Benjy keeps going to the gate hoping that she will come back to him. When several little girls pass by, Benjy is further reminded of Caddy and tries to say something to the girls. Since he can't talk, his attempts only frighten the girls. Consequently, on one occasion, he finds that the gate is open and he chases the girls, trying to tell them how much he misses Caddy. He thinks that he is falling down the hill, but actually the father of one of the girls is close by and hits Benjy over the head with a huge stick. The ultimate result of Jason and Mr. Compson's talk in Scene 58, which occurs chronologically sometime after Scene 59, is the decision to have Benjy castrated. They apparently thought that Benjy might have had some sexual urges that caused him to chase the little girls. In actuality, however, Benjy was only wanting to tell them how much he misses his sister, Caddy.

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P. 53, Scene 60 (1928) Here, loony, Luster said. Benjy's memories of Caddy and the possible memory of his castration cause him to start moaning. Faulkner's sense of bawdy humor is apparent in this scene as he has Benjy remembering his castration, Luster trying to sell the golf ball, and the golfer sadistically taking the ball from Luster by force--just as Benjy's testicles were taken from him without sufficient motivation. Then, when the golfer calls for his "caddie," Benjy's sense of frustration mounts until his bellowing finally exasperates Luster. P. 56, Scene 61(1900) What you want to get her . . . At the end of Scene 60, Luster and Benjy are in the kitchen, where the open fire reminds Benjy of another episode connected with fire in 1900. Whereas the earlier scenes in the Benjy section have almost all taken place outside the house, the scenes from now to the end of this section will occur mostly inside the house. In other words, during the first part of the section, Benjy and Luster wander around the grounds and pass such things as the gate, the branch, the barn, and Dilsey's house. All these places trigger memories of earlier scenes connected with these places; now, however, Benjy is inside the house and the events that he will remember are sparked by such things in the house as the burning fire in the kitchen stove or the mirror in the library. P. 56, Scene 62 (1928) "Aint you shamed . . ." P. 57, Scene 63 (1900) I could hear the clock, . . . We can only assume that Scene 63 is set in 1900 because it presents the same imagery of rain and fire as do the other scenes of this particular time. All these scenes of 1900 are connected in one way or another with the changing of Benjy's name from Maury to Benjamin. P. 57, Scene 64 (1928) I ate some cake. P. 58, Scene 65 (1900) That's right, Dilsey said. After a brief scene in the kitchen focusing on Benjy's 1928 birthday cake, his mind returns to the kitchen scene in 1900, when his name had just been changed. In this scene, we see that one of Dilsey's major characteristics is her simple but strong faith in the rightness of things. Her complete assurance that her own name is written in the Book attests to her strong faith. Even though she can't read, she believes that when her name is read, all she has to do is say "Ise here." P. 58, Scene 66 (1928) The long wire came . . . This scene aptly illustrates the selfish, whining neuroticism of Mrs. Compson. She is concerned only about her own comfort and thinks that everything is deliberately done to upset her. Even though she complains about the cake that Dilsey brings for Benjy's birthday, she will not lift a hand to do anything for Benjy under any circumstances. Whenever she tries to correct Benjy, she only makes him cry more. She has absolutely no understanding of his needs and would not take the trouble to soothe and comfort him--even if she knew how. P. 61, Scene 67 (1900) Your name is Benjy, . . . P. 61, Scene 68 (1898) . . . Caddy said. "Let me . . ." P. 61, Scene 69 (1900) Versh set me down . . . In Scene 66, Luster took Benjy out of the kitchen and into the library, where Benjy now remembers earlier scenes that took place in the library. In Scene 67 (1900), Benjy is being told about his name

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www.cliffs.com change; chronologically, then, this is one of the earliest of this set of scenes. Notice how Caddy's wanting to carry Benjy (in 1900) immediately evokes a scene two years earlier when Caddy also carried him. Scene 69 can be dated only by images; that is, the images of fire, the mirror, and the sickness are all connected with 1900, and, therefore, we assume this scene occurs in 1900. But more important, the scene further illustrates Mrs. Compson's self-centered concern for herself, thus filling out the picture of her as a selfish and neurotic woman. P. 62, Scene 70 (1898) Mother's sick, father said. P. 62, Scene 71 (1900) We could hear the roof. P. 64, Scene 72 (1900) Father took me up. Mrs. Compson's sickness in Scene 69 carries Benjy's mind back to 1898 (Scene 70), when Damuddy died and all the children were told not to disturb Mrs. Compson. Then in Scene 71, Benjy returns to the scene he was just remembering, when Caddy carried him to Mrs. Compson for an explanation of his new name. Between Scenes 71 and 72, there are no italics or any other graphic indications denoting a scene change, but the scene obviously changes. Both of these scenes concern the same subject at the same time, but Scene 72 obviously takes place later in the evening, after Mr. Compson is at home. These two scenes again reveal Mrs. Compson's total inability to deal with Benjy. She has no understanding of her own child's needs. Instead, it is Caddy who must look after him. In other words, Caddy functions in Mrs. Compson's place as a mother for Benjy. It is also interesting to note that Mrs. Compson's mother spoiled Jason, whom Mrs. Compson says is the only one of her children who takes after the Bascombs rather than the Compsons. That the Bascombs prefer Jason, the most detestable of the children, illustrates their lack of understanding of the basic qualities of each child. We also realize here that Mrs. Compson is probably right--they prefer Jason because he is most like them. The sadistic pleasure that Jason gets from maliciously destroying Benjy's paper dolls is later reflected in Jason's insistence that Benjy be castrated. Clearly, Caddy's desire to protect Benjy and Jason's attempts to destroy him are characteristics that remain with each character as they grow older. P. 65, Scene 73 (1928) Jason came in. P. 66, Scene 74 (1900) You can look at the fire . . . P. 66, Scene 75 (1928) Dilsey said, "You come, Jason." P. 66, Scene 76 (1900) We could hear the roof. P. 66, Scene 77 (1928) Quentin said, "Didn't Dilsey say supper . . ." P. 67, Scene 78 (1900) I could hear the roof. These scenes do not represent Benjy's fragmented mind so much as they show how his mind functions in the past, in spite of several interruptions in the present time. The same scene in 1900 keeps recurring in his mind, and, if they were isolated, these scenes would be in chronological order even though there is a time lapse between some of them. For example, when Dilsey calls Miss Quentin (Benjy's niece) to supper in Scene 75, Benjy's mind immediately recalls an episode (Scene 76) connected with his brother Quentin. That is, the name itself sparks the memory of his brother Quentin. In Scene 77, when Luster asks for a quarter to go to the show, we must remember that in the chronology of the entire novel, Jason--on the previous night (Friday night)--burned two free passes because Luster didn't have a nickel to pay for them. Thus, Luster's request for a quarter, in the light of the actions in Jason's section, is pathetic. In Scene 78, Quentin's fight is left essentially unexplained. He was presumably trying to protect someone, again emphasizing one of his basic characteristics--that is, a concern for the welfare of others even though

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www.cliffs.com others don't need it. This same quality is seen in his relationship with Caddy and with the little Italian girl whom he meets in the bakery in the next section. P. 68, Scene 79 (1928) Dilsey said, all right. P. 68, Scene 80 (1900) Versh smelled like rain. Dating these two fragments requires close attention to the text. In Scene 77 (1928), we know that dinner is almost ready. In Scene 79, Dilsey announces dinner. Then, after these two lines, Benjy's mind shifts back to 1900 and to the images of the fire and the roof. Also, there is no indication that Versh is present in 1928; therefore, Scene 80 must be dated as 1900, especially since the same image of Versh coming in out of the rain is picked up again in Scene 85, below. P. 68, Scene 81 (about 1909) We could hear Caddy . . . P. 69, Scene 82 (1900) Versh said, Your name Benjamin . . . P. 69, Scene 83 (about 1909) We were in the hall. Some of the preceding scenes, those that take place in the library, recall to Benjy's mind another scene in the library--a scene when Caddy came in from a date with someone. Scenes 81 and 83 can be dated in 1909 by using the implication that Caddy is just beginning to experiment with sex and Benjy senses a difference in her. In Scene 81, Caddy avoids Benjy's gaze because she realizes that he instinctively knows that she is no longer a virgin. Previously, when Benjy sensed some deviation, Caddy went to the bathroom and washed off the perfume or went to the kitchen and washed off the kisses with kitchen soap; now she knows that she cannot wash away her sin and tries to avoid Benjy. Benjy, however, senses her sin and begins to cry because of the sin and because the sin separates Caddy from him. P. 69, Scene 84 (1928) What are you doing to him, . . . P. 70, Scene 85 (1900) Versh said, "You move back . . ." In Scene 84, Miss Quentin threatens to leave, which is exactly what she does later that same night, taking several thousand dollars from Jason's room. These events will not become clear until the fourth section of the novel. In Scene 85, we now begin to realize that even the servants are cognizant of Mrs. Compson's ineptitude and selfishness. P. 70, Scene 86 (1928) Has he got to keep . . . P. 70, Scene 87 (1900) Steam came off of Roskus. P. 70, Scene 88 (1928) Now, now, Dilsey said. P. 70, Scene 89 (1900) It got down below the mark. P. 71, Scene 90 (1928) Yes he will, . . . P. 71, Scene 91 (1900) Roskus said, "It going to rain . . ." P. 71, Scene 92 (1928) You've been running . . . P. 71, Scene 93 (1900) "Then I dont know what . . ." P. 71, Scene 94 (1928) Oh I wouldn't be surprised, . . . P. 71, Scene 95 (1900) "She sulling again, . . ." P. 71, Scene 96 (1928) Quentin pushed Dilsey away. P. 71, Scene 97 (1900) "Mother's sick again." P. 71, Scene 98 (1928) Goddamn you, Quentin said. P. 71, Scene 99 (1900) Caddy gave me the cushion, . . . The above scenes shift in time after only a sentence or two, and each change is indicated by either italics

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www.cliffs.com or a return to roman print. Actually, Benjy's mind is anchored back in 1900, and the comments of 1928 are simply intrusions on his memories. All of the scenes are connected by the consumption of a meal. In 1900, Benjy is eating in the kitchen with Caddy feeding him, and in 1928, he is in the dining room and Caddy's daughter (Miss Quentin) is complaining about his eating habits. In the scenes set in 1900, Benjy is radiantly happy because he is eating and he has Caddy with him. These are two things that Benjy likes. P. 72, Scene 100 (1928) She smelled like trees. P. 73, Scene 101 (1898) We didn't go to our room. P. 73, Scene 102 (1928) Quentin, Mother said in the hall. P. 73, Scene 103 (1898) Quentin and Versh came in. P. 73, Scene 104 (1928) I got undressed . . . The power of these final scenes can easily be overlooked as we tend to rush through them. These scenes-the present (1928) and the earliest (1898) in Benjy's memory--are connected by Benjy's being fed. In the scenes of 1928, Benjy's predicament is reflected in his actions as he observes himself naked before the mirror: he is reminded of his castration and begins to cry. Luster's view of Miss Quentin in Scene 104 is also our last view of her. P. 74, Scene 105 (1898) There were two beds. Benjy's section ends with the earliest memory, that of the scene in 1898, when he was only three years old. He feels happy because, for him, everything is in its ordered place. The section also ends with Caddy's drawers and behind still muddy, because Dilsey does not have time to bathe her. Therefore, Caddy's future actions of losing her virginity (symbolized by the muddy drawers) is foreshadowed here. We should also note here in the final scene that Caddy seems to be the only child who is concerned about the welfare of Mrs. Compson. Ironically, later, of all the Compsons, it is Mrs. Compson who turns the most vindictively against Caddy.

THE QUENTIN SECTION June 2, 1910 This entire section is told from within Quentin's mind on the day that he commits suicide. Like Benjy, Quentin constantly returns to memories of scenes from the past. Quentin is at Harvard, but his mind, like Benjy's, roams in memory around the Compson place. But Quentin's mind is more intricate than Benjy's. Whereas Benjy's section only recorded sense impressions that had symbolic significance, Quentin's section plunges into the depths of motivation and into the causes and effects of certain actions. Throughout the section, Quentin's chief concern is with Caddy's sins and her loss of virginity. The section opens with Quentin's concern over time and his remembrance of his father's comment about time. Interestingly, the entire section is interspersed with various comments that Mr. Compson makes about many aspects of life. Mr. Compson's philosophy is couched in terms of cynicism and determinism. He believes, for example, that there are no significant values in life and that time cures all things. This is the philosophy that Quentin strives to deny but is unable to do so. Quentin's concern with time and with his father's cynical view of life will become clearer as the section progresses. Though Mr. Compson is not particularly upset when he discovers Caddy's pregnancy, Quentin is horrified. He cannot understand Compson's pragmatic view that virginity is an "invention" of men and of very little concern to women. Quentin, still a virgin himself, is hurt by his father's attitude.

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www.cliffs.com Quentin cannot accept what he feels is Caddy's dreadful sin, and neither can he accept his father's indifference to it. His father believes that all human experience is absurd and therefore Caddy's sin and Quentin's grief are both absurd. If this is so, then all of Quentin's values are meaningless, and Quentin cannot live without a system of values. In truth, Quentin wants to remember his horror; he is afraid he will forget--his father has said so. If Quentin can forget, then his horror has no meaning, and the passage of time will wipe it out. He feels that he must stop time. To do this, Quentin is constantly trying to escape from time, as represented by his act of tearing off the hands of his watch. Symbolically, this will stop time before it (time) allows him to forget his bereavement. Ironically, however, even though Quentin is trying to escape from time, he constantly inquires about the correct time and is pleased to see that the watches in the window lie about the correct time (p. 85). Ultimately, suicide becomes his only means of stopping time and escaping from the absurdities of life. Suicide, in his father's view, will be the final absurdity. While he is riding on the streetcar (pp. 86-112), Quentin's memories of his family cause him to begin to evaluate the various relationships between members of the family. For example, he cries out in distress because he could never say "Mother, Mother." He knows now that his mother had a false pride that never allowed her to fulfill her function as a mother. Quentin later thinks that if Caddy could have said Mother, could have had a true mother to whom she could turn, Caddy would not have committed the sin that disturbs him so much. Remembrances of the family relationships, then, strongly contribute to Quentin's desire for suicide. Mrs. Compson's selfishness and her ignorance of the feelings of her children are proof that she is a rather horrible person. These memories convince Quentin that his values have little chance in the nihilistic worlds of his parents. In remembering his talk with Herbert Head (pp. 107-11), Quentin's strong sense of honor and his high integrity do not apply only to Caddy and her sins. Quentin is cursed with high principles, and his dilemma is that the world he lives in is too corrupt for any code of principles. Constantly, Quentin's thoughts are interrupted by remembrances of Mr. Compson's statements. He can find no answer for some of his father's negative comments about life. Mr. Compson's view that virginity and purity are negative states and therefore contrary to nature causes Quentin to experience a dark sense of tragedy. However, his father's view won't even allow Quentin to feel tragedy since Mr. Compson believes that man can experience tragedy only through someone else. All of these cynical remarks that Mr. Compson makes are in support of Caddy's sins, but Quentin still objects. His dilemma is that while rejecting his father's point of view, he cannot argue effectively against his father's views. Quentin knows that his father is partly correct since he himself feels someone else's sin (or tragedy) more than he feels his own plight. The meeting with the little Italian girl (pp. 125-33) evokes many more memories of Quentin's relationships with Caddy. All through these scenes, the little girl remains perfectly quiet and accepts Quentin's gifts. The pathetic condition of the little girl also makes Quentin recall many of his father's disparaging remarks about women. Furthermore, the presence of the "little dirty girl" recalls to Quentin his first innocent encounter with a girl. Caddy called her a "dirty girl." The implication here is that even though Caddy is promiscuous, she is also jealous of any girl who is attracted to Quentin in the same way that Quentin is jealous of the men who are attracted to Caddy. Thus, there are implications in the actions of both Caddy and Quentin that each wants the other to feel a sexual jealousy over their individual escapades. The mud that Quentin smears all over Caddy suggests, as it did in the branch episode, that Quentin is partly responsible for Caddy's sexual promiscuity. For most of the day while Quentin is with the little Italian girl, he thinks about Dalton Ames, who has no sister, and Gerald Bland, who has no sister. Then, suddenly, Quentin is exceptionally kind to a little girl,

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www.cliffs.com and he is accused by her brother of molesting or kidnapping her. The irony of it makes Quentin laugh. Here, among poverty and ignorance, he finds the loyalty and love for a sister that he has always felt. But among his own class and relations, Quentin's feelings are ridiculed. While riding through the country (pp. 146-168), Quentin's thoughts continually return to Caddy's sins. His thoughts and remembrances give us clues to the motivations behind Caddy's promiscuity and reveal Quentin's desperate love for his sister. Caddy feels the need to reject all that the Compsons stand for, especially the world of Mrs. Compson and Jason IV. Even though she loves her father, his cynicism and nihilism are destructive to any type of significant relationship. Therefore, in order to reject everything connected with the false Compson world, Caddy commits acts of sexual promiscuity. She is searching for ways of rejecting and escaping from this awful world. Her method is to enter into sexual relationships with various men; to her, her sins are only more forms of disorder. In contrast, Quentin's driving impulse is to bring order into the world and into his life. Later in this section, we discover that he thinks that if he can convince his father that he, Quentin, committed incest with Caddy, the disorder of Caddy's sin will fade away. Ultimately, however, he realizes that incest would only contribute to the disorder rather than solve it. Quentin's memory of the other branch scene (pp. 155-96) connects his section with that of Benjy's. Again, Caddy's lying in the branch, letting the water run over her, is her symbol of purification. Since her sexual indulgences are all forms of rejection, she feels the need for cleansing or purifying herself after each encounter. Then each new encounter is a new rejection. The latter part of the scene is significant since Quentin is offering Caddy a double suicide pact. Caddy is quite willing because suicide would be a complete rejection of her parents, but finally it is Quentin who cannot bring himself to complete the pact. The knife is also a Freudian phallic symbol. Consequently, on a symbolic level, we may say that Quentin is suggesting incest and that Caddy is again quite willing, but it is Quentin who is unable to carry through the plan. Caddy, who believes that there is a curse on the entire Compson family, is quite willing to commit either suicide or incest since both acts would be violent rejections of the Compson world. But for Quentin, who searches for a meaning in life through an ordered existence, both acts would only lead to further disorder by being violations of accepted behavior. While Quentin is riding with the Blands, he remembers all the episodes involving Caddy and Dalton Ames. In Quentin's futile encounters with Dalton Ames in the past and with Gerald Bland in the present (pp. 158-68), we see that everything Quentin attempts to do results in failure. Quentin is disturbed by the response of both men when he asks whether either of them has a sister, but he is too weak to handle Dalton Ames and is soundly beaten by Gerald. Gerald's beating is the final indignity of the day. Now Quentin is ready for his final act of suicide. As Quentin prepares for his suicide (pp. 169-79), the memories become more devastating and horrible. The neurotic mother, the bellowing brother, the fatalistic father, and the sinful sister all combine with Quentin's futile and ineffective attempts to restore order to make him realize that suicide is the only way in which he can escape from himself. Faulkner ends the Quentin section on an ironic note. The fact that Quentin is so terribly concerned about the order of things in life is the main cause of his present dilemma. His attempts to put life in order have failed. As he goes to his suicide, he makes sure that all the little, insignificant aspects of his life are in order. Mr. Compson said earlier that man is incapable of tragedy. By the same token, man is also incapable of putting his whole life in order. Therefore, all that man can do before he commits suicide is to see that his hat and teeth are brushed.

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JASON'S SECTION Friday, April 6, 1928 Jason's section takes place on Good Friday, the day Christ was crucified. The tempo of this section seems exceptionally rapid after the slow pondering of the Quentin section. In terms of chronological time, this section would precede Benjy's section, which takes place on Saturday. Jason is approximately thirty-five years old, and Miss Quentin is almost eighteen. In the earlier glimpses we had of Jason, we saw that even as a child, Jason was not trusted by his brothers and Caddy. He was always alone, and he delighted in doing wicked things. In his own narration, we see an almost satanic force at work. He delights in tormenting other people. Whether it is his mother, Caddy, Luster, Dilsey, Quentin, or Earl's black assistant, Jason takes a perverse delight in annoying other people. He functions as a person who thinks he is always right. Jason justifies his actions toward Caddy, by saying that she cheated him out of the bank position that Herbert Head promised him. He fails to realize that it was only because of Caddy that he was even promised the position in the first place. Jason's success in life derives from his refusal to acknowledge any allegiance to any person. If Benjy can be viewed as a Christ figure, then Jason would definitely be a Satan figure. And as such, it is quite appropriate that Jason is the person most responsible for Benjy's castration and, finally, the one responsible for sending Benjy to the insane asylum. Ironically, Jason and Benjy possess one quality in common: they both evaluate any action only as it affects them personally. Neither has any concern for the feelings of others. Jason never shows any concern over the fact that Caddy committed an immoral act or that she has suffered for her actions; instead, he is bitter: by committing this act, she destroyed his chances of getting a position at a bank. Personally we feel that if Jason had worked in a bank, he would have been a shrewd man to deal with and might have found some way to profit for himself on the side. His perversity is as strong as his self-esteem. In one of his scenes with Luster, he burns some tickets--tickets that were given to him so they wouldn't go to waste. Jason clearly reveals his love for perversity here. His dealings with other people show the utter contempt he has for all humanity. He never speaks or utters a kind word throughout his entire section. He treats his employer and his mother with the same contempt that he treats the black servants and his customers. Significantly, Jason is the only child who gains the love of his mother. This is a commentary on both Mrs. Compson and Jason. Jason is the only one of her children who doesn't need her love, who does not want it and does not return it. He uses his mother in order to gain her power of attorney, and then he proceeds to cheat her out of large sums of money. In addition, during the past seventeen years, Caddy has sent him almost forty thousand dollars, money meant for Miss Quentin's expenses, but money that Jason has kept for himself. Sadly, Mrs. Compson's love is rewarded by being cheated out of her money and ultimately being called "an old fool" by Jason. Jason lives completely in the present. He never gives the past a thought and feels no allegiance to his illustrious forebears, as does Quentin. He feels, perversely, that if there had been any people of great worth in his past, he and the whole present Compson clan would be down at Jackson chasing butterflies with the rest of the insane people in the state asylum. Jason completely denies the past; he functions only in the present.

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The reader should note how swiftly the Jason section moves. Whereas Quentin's mind was complicated and terribly involved in the intricacies of life, the Jason section is relatively easy to understand. The only intricacies in which Jason is involved are those of cheating. And whereas Quentin's section moved slowly and deliberately, Jason's section is filled with fast-moving actions--the swift carriage, the chase, the rushing home with the false check. Perhaps a note of clarification is needed about Jason's methods of cheating. Immediately after Mr. Compson's death, Jason came to his mother and told her that he would like to deposit his monthly wages in her name, but to do so he would need her power of attorney--that is, the power to sign her name to any legal document. Mrs. Compson, in her simplicity, thought that Jason was being very noble in giving her his check every month. As soon as he got the power of attorney, however, he talked his mother into burning "Caddy's checks." Little did she know that Jason would substitute a forged, or false, check in place of the one that Caddy sent and watch his mother burn it. He then deposited Caddy's check and let his mother think that it was his wages. He kept his wages and used them to keep his mistress in Memphis and to play the market. If he had not obtained his mother's power of attorney, he could never have used Caddy's money. Furthermore, Mrs. Compson gave Jason a thousand dollars to buy a part share in Earl's hardware store, but Jason drew that money out without his mother's knowledge. Therefore, when Caddy's check is late getting to Jason, he has to tell his mother that his salary or share at the store has been held up because of some financial affair involving the store. His duplicity is complicated but easy to accomplish because Mrs. Compson's eyesight is bad and she never examines the checks closely; also, Jason always stands by her until she burns them. This is why Jason always tells Caddy to send any extra money that she wants Miss Quentin to have to her mother (because then Jason can cash the checks). But when a money order arrives one day, made out to Quentin, Jason has to get Quentin's signature on it before he can use it. Thus, in one sense, the money that Quentin steals from Jason's room rightfully belongs to her.

EASTER SUNDAY April 8, 1928 The final section, the shortest of the four, is narrated by Faulkner himself. The principal figure in this section is Dilsey, the black cook. Amid all the sound and fury of the Compsons, Dilsey is able to bring peace and order. But Faulkner does not confine himself to her. Instead, he steps back from the closeness of the earlier sections and presents a somewhat panoramic view of the entire Compson world and of Dilsey's world. This section takes place on Easter Sunday. When Dilsey arrives at work on Sunday morning, she immediately begins to set the house in order. She notices the clock, which strikes five times, and she knows that it's eight o'clock. Dilsey will ultimately emerge as a person who can bring order out of the chaos created by the Compsons. When Jason discovers the theft of the money, he almost loses control of himself. It is not so much that he has lost the money--which is indeed very important to him--but rather that he has been made a fool of by Miss Quentin. He feels that this is another trick played on him, similar to the trick Caddy played on him by being pregnant when she married, or the trick that his brother Quentin played on him when Quentin committed suicide. Also, the theft is significant because Caddy will no longer be sending any more checks, and Jason will have to confess to his mother--or else actually put his own check into her bank account. The theft is a kind of poetic justice because the money was actually sent by Caddy for Miss Quentin, and Jason stole it from her. However, it wasn't three thousand dollars, as Jason reported to the

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www.cliffs.com sheriff; it was more like seven or eight thousand dollars. Further poetic justice prevails when Jason, who has always bullied every person he met, tries to bully the little man with the traveling show, and the man takes a hatchet to Jason. When Dilsey takes Benjy to church, we see her faith in God and in the rightness of things. She firmly believes that the good Lord doesn't care whether Benjy is intelligent or not. She is proud to take him to her church with her because white folks, even his own family, are so ashamed of him. In contrast, whereas Mrs. Compson feels that Benjy is a "judgment on her," Dilsey simply offers Benjy her love and devotion. The sermon that Dilsey hears moves her deeply. It is a sermon about the great equalizing force of death and about the beginning and ending of things. Dilsey feels that she is now seeing the ending of the Compson family. She has been with them so long that she also feels that she was there toward the beginning. Dilsey's greatness lies in the fact that she does not condemn people for their past actions. The fact that Caddy became pregnant is unfortunate, but this fact alone is not cause enough to cast her out of the house and never let her see her own child. She cannot understand bringing up a child and never allowing the mother's name to be spoken in the house. Dilsey cannot condemn one for a past action because the present is more important and the future is the determining factor in her life. That is, Caddy committed an improper act, but now Miss Quentin is here and the important thing is devotion to Miss Quentin. Dilsey possesses all those qualities that are absent from the Compsons. She is the only one left who can understand Benjy's needs. When she sends Luster out with Benjy in the surrey, she wants Luster to go the exact same way that T. P. always went. Luster cannot understand Benjy's needs, but Dilsey knows that Benjy's mind is simple and needs things in their ordered place. Therefore, when Luster turns the wrong way at the square, Benjy senses that things are not in their ordered place and begins to howl. As soon as the horse is turned around, however, everything becomes ordered for Benjy and he becomes quiet. The novel ends with Benjy commenting on the lack of order in the world. The only thing he can do is to howl when that order is violated. By the end of this section, we have seen a depiction of the modern world as a place where the old values of the past are meaningless and the values of the present are destructive. In presenting the degeneration and collapse of a once-noble family, Faulkner has penetrated deeply into the psychological and moral deviations that have contributed to its decay. In summary, Faulkner sees this once-noble family as now consisting of a whining, neurotic mother; a drunken, cynical father; a son who commits suicide; a daughter who commits adultery; a son who becomes an amoral materialist; and finally, a son who is a bellowing, thirty-three-year-old castrated boy-man. Furthermore, no member of the family is able to establish a meaningful relationship. The closest tie is that formed by Benjy and his sister, but Benjy is incapable of understanding the relationship except as it gives him pleasure.

CHARACTER ANALYSES MR. JASON COMPSON III Mr. Compson appears in only a few scenes, but his presence is felt by most of the characters. Quentin is affected most by his father. Mr. Compson maintains that life is essentially useless and that there are no values in life outside those of personal pleasure and acting the role of a gentleman. Almost all his comments are filled with cynicism, determinism, and fatalism. He finds humanity to be no more than a

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www.cliffs.com scarecrow stuffed with sawdust. He looks upon women as essentially inferior and naturally evil. Therefore, Caddy's promiscuity is only a bit of natural, human folly. He is not really concerned with her honor; instead, he sees virginity and purity as negative states, contrary to nature and therefore needing to be violated. Mr. Compson has detached himself from his children and plays the role of the perfect gentleman who "never disappoints a lady." Since Mr. Compson has no value except that of being a gentleman, he tears down any assumed value that Quentin tries to develop. Mr. Compson maintains that man is the "sum of his misfortunes" and that no act that man can perform has any meaning. Therefore, when Quentin comes to his father to tell him that he and Caddy committed incest, Mr. Compson merely laughs. The final picture we have of Mr. Compson is that of a man sitting on his porch, drinking whiskey and writing satirical epigrams in Latin about his fellow townsmen.

MRS. CAROLINE COMPSON In Quentin's section, Quentin cries out in a moment of depression and agony: "If I could say Mother, Mother"; later, he cries, "If I'd just had a mother so I could say Mother Mother." These cries make us realize that Mrs. Compson has contributed strongly to the Compson doom and destruction. The children need a mother's love; instead, they have only a complaining and whining neurotic with an egocentric concern for herself. The critic Cleanth Brooks has called Mrs. Compson a weak, cold person filled with a sense of insecurity. Her self-absorption, her hypochondria, and her petulant whining leave no room for the love that the children need. Quentin realizes too late that Mrs. Compson is probably chiefly responsible for Caddy's becoming an adulteress. Whenever Mrs. Compson tries to help with Benjy, she only causes him to bellow louder. She is incapable of understanding his needs, and she refuses to offer him any love or devotion. It is not surprising that Benjy turns to Caddy for the love that his mother denies him. It is as though Benjy instinctively knows that Mrs. Compson has rejected him. In addition, her selfishness is evident in the scenes that show her making Benjy suffer so that she will not be disturbed. Her love for her brother simply because he is a true Bascomb again emphasizes her inability to judge or evaluate the intrinsic merit of a person. Probably the most horrifying comment that can be made about Mrs. Compson is that she prefers Jason to her other children, and Jason is the most perverse of them all.

QUENTIN COMPSON Quentin, the oldest of the Compson children, is like Shakespeare's Hamlet. He gets bogged down in the act of contemplation; he thinks too long upon a subject and cannot bring any of his acts to completion. He ends his life by drowning himself in the river. The question is, what caused him to commit suicide? Quentin is the only character in the novel who is concerned with honor, with justice, and with love; he is the only one who searches into the intricacies of life and attempts to find some ordered meaning from life. He is the only Compson who feels pride in the family's once-noble past and the only one who feels the need to discover some reason for the family's present downfall. In his monologue, Quentin tries to overcome the destructive, nihilistic philosophy advocated by his father and to discover some meaningful values in life by which he can live and affirm rather than negate the existence of humanity. But every time he tries to do something positive, he is reminded of some negative statement made by his father. Quentin wishes to reject his father's philosophy, but the world he lives in seems constantly to affirm Mr. Compson's view of the world. Dalton Ames said that all women are bitches; Mr. Compson said the same thing in different words. Gerald Bland treats all women as bitches,

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www.cliffs.com and Mr. Compson says that all women expect to be mistrusted. Quentin looks at life, and everything he sees seems to reaffirm Mr. Compson's cynical view of life. He can find no ethical system of values that will compensate for his father's negative view of the world. All the acts that he observes in the modern world seem to affirm his father's views. Finally, when Quentin feels that life is useless, he resolves to commit suicide. Note, however, that Quentin does love his sister, Caddy. When he can find no love from his mother, and his father rejects all things in life, Quentin turns to Caddy for love and understanding. His obsession with Caddy's virginity is symbolic of his desire to find something pure and unspoiled to believe in, and when Caddy fails Quentin, he again wonders if his father might be right. Quentin's dilemma, therefore, is not just with Caddy's honor, but with the causes that led her to violate her chastity. If he can find out what led Caddy to her promiscuity, then he can bring all events of the past into proper focus and evolve a workable set of values. To do this, however, Caddy's dishonor must be taken into consideration. Mr. Compson says that time heals all wounds and makes a person forget all grief. Quentin does not want to forget because if he does forget, then the whole experience becomes meaningless. Therefore, he must kill himself so that he won't have an opportunity to forget the horror and grief that he now feels over Caddy's dishonor. If grief can be forgotten, then the world is meaningless, nothing is worth living for, and suicide is the only act left for man.

CADDY One approach to The Sound and the Fury is by evaluating each brother's relationship to Caddy. We have no direct view of her--only the reports of Benjy, Quentin, and Jason. From these reports, we have to judge what type of person she actually was. In our earliest view of Caddy, we see her at the branch as a rather daring young girl. She is not concerned with appearance; instead, she searches for the truth and reality of any situation. It is Caddy who climbs the tree to see exactly what is happening at her grandmother's funeral. Caddy must also function as a type of mother. Even in the early scenes, Mr. Compson asks Caddy to look after Benjy because Mrs. Compson is sick. As a consequence, Benjy develops a strong love and need for Caddy. She replaces the love that is denied him by his own mother. Whenever Mrs. Compson tries to correct Benjy, it is only Caddy who can quiet Benjy. She even sends her mother upstairs "so you can be sick." Caddy, at a very early age, has to perform the functions of a mother. As Caddy grows older, she sees through the neurotic whining of mother and the weakness and cynicism of her father. She feels the need to reject this artificial world and look for some way to reject everything concerned with the Compson world. She later admits that she does not love the men with whom she has sex, and she also says that she made them have sex with her. Why? Caddy's actions are deliberate forms of rejection. She has seen through the false concept of honor and the superficiality of the entire so-called aristocratic world. She becomes the complete realist, someone who simply cannot tolerate the hypocrisy and artificiality and false pride of the Compsons; therefore, she turns to unorthodox behavior in an attempt to assert her own independence and individuality. Caddy does not enjoy her relationships with men and tells Quentin that "when they touched me, I died." Her relationships are deliberate forms of rejection of the Compson world. When Quentin offers suicide or incest to her, Caddy is willing to do either of these because either act would be a strong act of rejection. She believes that there is a curse on the entire Compson family, and, therefore, she is willing to attempt any violation of order (even incest or suicide) in order to escape from the horror of the Compson world. Her acts are performed in an attempt to assert her own individuality against a mother and father who have

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JASON COMPSON Faulkner tells us that Jason is the last of the Compsons because he is a bachelor who will never marry. Jason is the type of person who exists solely for himself and believes that the entire world should exist along the lines that he thinks are right. He denies any allegiance to, or love for, anyone except himself. Jason delights in acts of perversity. He enjoys burning two free passes to a show simply to torment a fourteen-year-old black boy. He also spends time thinking of perverse ways to torment Miss Quentin, his niece, and Dilsey, his mother's cook. He comes in late for work, hoping that Earl, his employer, will complain so that he can then say something nasty. Jason's success in life is due to the fact that he feels no love for anyone. Whereas other people would be proud of their ancestry, Jason completely rejects all blood kin or all connections with everything in the past. He has a monomania that allows him to hate his sister, Caddy, with as much viciousness in 1928 as he did in 1910. He can carry a grudge and hatred longer than most people can remember. During his entire section, he never speaks a kind or decent word to anyone. To him, his duplicity and hypocritical actions are merely simple forms of behavior that are necessary for survival. Jason has worked out a complicated scheme whereby he cheats his mother out of a large sum of money and makes her think that he is a self-sacrificing, hard-working, honest man. He respects his cheap whore that he keeps in Memphis, but he delights in beating his niece for going out with men. He beats Miss Quentin not because he feels that what she does is immoral, but because he feels that what she does will make a fool of him. Furthermore, if he ever loses control of her, the monthly check that he steals from Caddy will be lost to him. Jason is likewise the only one whom Mrs. Compson loves. Knowing her character as we do, this is probably one of Jason's worst attributes; that is, he can evoke the love of only a sick, neurotic woman. The other children need and want Mrs. Compson's love, but Jason neither wants it nor returns it. He does, however, use it in order to gain the power of attorney from her and thereby cheat her out of large sums of money. Jason is the most amoral, materialistic, and mean person in the novel, a man who delights in perverseness for its own sake.

BENJY Benjy is the youngest child of the Compsons and was originally named Maury, after Mrs. Compson's brother. When it was apparent that he was mentally slow, Mrs. Compson renamed him Benjamin so that the Bascomb name would not be disgraced. Benjy's primary attribute is that he can "sense things." He knows when Caddy has been promiscuous, he knows when Quentin committed suicide, and he knows when his order, or pattern of existence, is violated. But, like the prophets of old, Benjy is unable to communicate his knowledge to others. He can only feel the deviations; he can do nothing about them. But, nevertheless, Benjy is still the moral reflector of the novel. Some critics see Benjy as a Christ figure; as such, Benjy functions not only as one who senses the evil of the world but also as one who represents Christ's failure to save the modern world. Faulkner

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www.cliffs.com pessimistically presents his view of what has happened to Christ in the modern world. He has become castrated, moaning and bellowing about the condition of this world as it affects his personal comfort and pleasure and incapable of performing any constructive act, uttering a word of criticism, or offering hope for the future. As Benjy reacts favorably to Dilsey, Caddy, and, to a lesser degree, his brother Quentin, we are able to suggest that these three people have some love or concern for others outside of themselves. Benjy therefore also serves as a character who helps the reader evaluate other characters.

DILSEY Dilsey is the strongest character in the novel in view of morality and simple humanity. She is filled with a love for all of God's creatures and makes little distinction between the needs of Benjy and the needs of the other members of the family. Unlike Jason, she does not condemn people for their past actions; instead, she looks to see how she can help people now, in the present. At the same time, however, her allegiance to the Compson family is derived from the fact that she has been with them so long. She is the one character who brings the past and the present into a proper balance. Dilsey embraces such qualities as love, duty, sacrifice, honor, and faith--qualities that Faulkner views as essential for the salvation of the human race. She also has a strong sense of belonging and a firm faith in the ultimate aims and purposes of the universe. On Easter Sunday, amid the complaining and whining of Mrs. Compson, the cursing and threatenings of Jason, the bellowing and howling of Benjy, and the ineptness of Luster, Dilsey brings order and peace to the household; to the reader, she brings some hope of salvation and redemption.

CRITICAL ESSAYS THE TITLE Out, Out, brief candle! Life's 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. Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5 When Macbeth learns of his wife's death, he cries out the above lines, which can be used as a clue to the meaning of the novel or to the structure of the novel. Certainly Faulkner plays with the idea that life is nothing but a shadow. The word shadow appears continually throughout Quentin's section, and it also occurs frequently throughout the rest of the novel. The implication that life is a shadow is used also by Faulkner to suggest that the actions performed by modern man are only shadows when compared with the greater actions performed by men of the past-that modern man is only a shadow of a being, imperfectly formed and inadequate to cope with the problems of modern life. Man is forced to commit suicide, as Quentin does, and while performing this destructive act, he sees his shadow rising up from the water beneath him. If man does not take his own life, then he is either a materialist like Jason, who values nothing except money, or else he is an "idiot" like Benjy, who can see only shadows of life. Cliffs Notes on The Sound and the Fury © 1992

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If life "is [only] a tale! Told by an idiot," we then have our justification for having the first part of the story told through the mind of thirty-three-year-old Benjy, for the story that Faulkner tells is indeed full of all types of sound and fury.

STRUCTURE When The Sound and the Fury first appeared, the most frequent criticism was that the four sections were arbitrarily and capriciously distorted. A number of critics and readers were confused by Faulkner's decision to begin the novel with the Benjy section. Many critics felt that this section of the novel, narrated through the mind of a thirty-three-year-old boy-man, presented an insurmountable obstacle to the reader. Some critics thought that the novel should begin with the final section; others suggested that Jason's section should come first. Some of these objections are still offered. It is indeed a difficult task to get through the Benjy section without throwing up one's hands in despair. The opening section of this novel is so different from anything else that has been written that readers can hardly be prepared for the difficulty facing them. And perhaps some other order would have been more effective on the first reading. But a novel can never be judged by a first reading. It is on subsequent readings of this novel that we realize Faulkner presented the story in its most effective order. Faulkner once said (see Faulkner in the University, p. 1) that the novel "began with the picture of the little girl's muddy drawers, climbing that tree to look in the parlor window with her brothers that didn't have the courage to climb the tree waiting to see what she saw. And I tried first to tell it with one brother, and that wasn't enough. That was Section One. I tried with another brother, and that wasn't enough. That was Section Two. I tried with the third brother, because Caddy was still to me too beautiful and too moving to reduce her to telling what was going on, that it would be more passionate to see her through somebody's else's eyes, I thought. And that failed, and I tried myself--the fourth section--to tell what happened, and I still failed." By failure, Faulkner means that he tried to achieve something much greater--that he aimed higher than he could achieve. But the significant thing is that Faulkner did achieve, or create, one of the world's greatest novels. But why must the Benjy section come first? First, all of the themes and ideas of the novel are presented in miniature in this section. If some other section came first, these ideas would lose their power. In addition, this section presents the earliest scenes, chronologically, of the novel. Benjy can record for us scenes occurring in 1898 with the vividness and freshness of their having just occurred. In the scenes at the branch (or stream), we see the muddy drawers, we see Quentin's attempt to protect Caddy, we see Benjy's ability to sense deviations, and we see Jason's isolation and dastardliness. These are characteristics that become the prominent traits in the characters as they grow up. Were this section to appear later in the novel, such scenes would lose their effectiveness. Benjy's section presents the idea of the whole novel in miniature and also gives us a glimpse of the character traits of each of his brothers and sisters. If we had one of the other sections first, then it would be an afterthought to return to Benjy's section and hear about Mrs. Compson's whining neuroticism. Furthermore, Faulkner achieves a more powerful emotional impact by presenting Benjy's section first. For example, readers are aware of certain things through these scenes, but they don't fully understand them as they go through the section. Later, in one of the other sections, there is a sudden and overwhelming realization of what was actually happening in the Benjy section. This impact would lose its intensity if Benjy's section were not presented first.

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www.cliffs.com There have also been some unusual justifications for the appearance of the Benjy section first. Among these is Carvel Collins' interpretation that Benjy represents the Freudian id of the family, and since the id is the most fundamental aspect of one's personality, it must come first. But what about Quentin's section as the second one? Since Benjy's section is first, it follows that we must see the results of the ideas presented in Benjy's section. The character who is most directly affected by the actions of the novel is Quentin. Therefore, his section must logically come second. Note also that it is set in 1910; therefore, chronologically, it follows in the correct time sequence since the third and fourth sections are essentially concerned with events of 1928. Quentin's section focuses on the idea that modern people cannot exist long enough to see the end of the tragedy. For example, in classical tragedy, the hero (or protagonist) is killed in the final scene of the tragedy and has suffered for his mistakes. In contrast, in the modern world, humanity is not capable of existing throughout the entire tragedy. Therefore, even though Quentin might be considered the central character, his life must end halfway through the work. As a consequence, the question arises as to why the novel should continue if the main character is dead at the halfway mark. The answer lies in the fact that the remaining sections illustrate, support, and justify Quentin's decision to commit suicide. If he had lived, we see in the last two sections the unbearable world that he would have had to face. Essential to Faulkner's structure is the fact that Quentin represents the modern person who cannot cope with the problems that have to be faced in the course of a tragedy; he must end his life by merging with his shadow in the water beneath him. Jason's section, the third section, is told in the simplest prose of the novel. Whereas Benjy's section presented the confusion of time and Quentin's presented the intricacies of the mind, Jason's section races along as it records the simple thoughts of a mean, nasty, amoral man--a man who makes no attempt to disguise his ulterior motives. Thus it is in Jason's section that some of the hints and suggestions about Faulkner's themes and motifs begin to be clarified for the reader. Structually, it is ironic that the meanest character in the novel is the one who offers us the clearest and most vivid account of the Compson family that we have yet seen. And, as a lesser point, if Jason's section had been presented before the other two, our view of Caddy would be distorted. Since Jason sees Caddy as evil and since Mrs. Compson won't allow Caddy's name to be spoken (see Jason's section), the reader might possibly get the wrong view of Caddy. But after seeing Jason's personality as presented by both Benjy and Quentin, we are not deceived by his presentation of Caddy. The final section is narrated by the author, but the central figure is Dilsey. Structurally, the key question here is why Faulkner leaves the mind of his individual characters and changes to the omniscient author. The first three sections were presented from within the mind of one of the Compson children. There is still a fourth Compson child--Caddy--so why not let her tell the final section? Faulkner's own justification is that Caddy's story gains in beauty by seeing it through the eyes of the other characters. Of equal importance, however, is the fact that since we have been so intimately inside the minds of Caddy's three siblings, we can now step back from the immediacy of the situation and view it on a grand and tragic scale. Furthermore, by telling the last section himself, Faulkner can present the interrelationships between the characters more objectively. It is here in the final section that Dilsey emerges as the strong character who is able to bring order out of the disorder created by the Compsons. Here we see the entire novel in its largest view, the Compsons playing their roles without the benefit of having their actions interpreted by some other member of the family; that is, the final scene is so objective that we see the family as though they were actors on a stage rather than seeing them through the mind of another character. The first section (Benjy) gives us the themes in miniature, the second section (Quentin) shows us the end result of the Compsons' acts, the third (Jason) presents to us the horror of living in the present Compson world dominated by Jason, and the fourth (Dilsey) gives us a large, objective, and panoramic view of this

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www.cliffs.com world that previously had been presented so intimately through the minds of three very different individuals.

MEANING THROUGH MOTIF The term "motif" refers to recurring ideas or thoughts that act as a unifying idea, and it sometimes develops as a commentary on characterization or on the central ideas in the work. Sometimes motifs recur so frequently that they enhance the meaning of the novel and often rise to symbolic importance. The recurrence of a motif also acts as a unifying idea in the work. Each reading of the novel should suggest additional motifs for the experienced reader, but the purpose here is to suggest only a few of the most dominant motifs. TIME MOTIF One of Faulkner's chief concerns in all his works is that of time and timelessness. Often this concern is connected with his view of how often and how much of the past intrudes upon the present. Faulkner's use of time in this novel is startling, new, and highly effective. Essentially, time concepts are used differently in every section. In Benjy's narration, clock time is almost totally disregarded. Benjy is completely oblivious of time. Events of the past are constantly juxtaposed with various events in the present or some other time in the past. For Benjy, all time blends into one sensuous experience. He makes no distinction between an event that happened only hours ago and one that occurred years ago. The memory of the episode at the branch (1898) is as recent and as vivid as an episode in 1914 or the morning of April 7, 1928. For Benjy, there is no distinction between the past and the present and there is no such thing as future time. If he stands at the gate waiting for Caddy in 1928, it is because he has performed the same act since 1902. He is as anxious for Caddy to return in 1928 as he was years earlier. The many years that he has waited in vain are nonexistant to him because he remembers basically only those events that gave him pleasure. Faulkner violates traditional time narrative in order to emphasize Benjy's rejection of the distinction between various times and, more important, to show how actions of the past are important to Benjy because they gave him pleasure. The involved use of time is highly stimulating when we realize that Faulkner is writing about Benjy in 1928, and the event that Benjy remembers in 1898 foreshadows events that occur in 1906-10. That is, in the present time, Benjy remembers a past event (Caddy's getting her drawers muddy) that foreshadows a future event (Caddy's promiscuity in 1906-10). Whereas Benjy is completely oblivious of time, Quentin expends all his energy trying to understand time. As the section opens, he is remembering his father's comments about the futility of trying to keep up with time. One of his first acts is that of tearing off the hands of his watch. By this act, Quentin hopes to escape into a timeless world. But he cannot remove himself from time. At the jeweler's, he sees a whole window full of watches. He constantly hears his own watch ticking even though it has no hands. He asks the boys at the river if they know where a clock is. And in the midst of all these connections with time, Quentin is constantly remembering various cynical comments that his father made about time. The time motif carries significant implications about Quentin's character. Whereas Benjy made no distinction between time past and time present, Quentin is more concerned with trying to understand how time in the past can influence time in the future. His major problem is that his father has told him that time will make a person forget all sorrow and remorse. But Quentin's problem is that he does not want to forget. He must remember his present feelings of bereavement because if he forgets them, the feelings will have no meaning and, as a consequence, Quentin's life will have no meaning. Thus, Quentin tries to stop time from passing, and the only way he can do this is by committing suicide, which he does at the

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www.cliffs.com end of his section. For Jason, time plays such an important role that every second counts. In his section, we have Caddy returning for a five-second glimpse of her child, we see Jason watching the clock and timing his every act, and we have undelivered telegrams, wild chases, and various assignations. Unlike Quentin, Jason sees no importance to the past--except that certain events occurred that deprived him of a position in Herbert Head's bank. Jason's world is in the immediate present. He has rejected all ties and allegiances to the past; he exists only for his own selfish aims in the present moment. The final section uses time by emphasizing the clock that Dilsey keeps on the kitchen wall. When the clock strikes five times, Dilsey knows that it is eight o'clock. She is able to bring order out of the confusion and chaos of the Compson world. When she takes Benjy to the church, she hears a sermon about the beginning and the end. She returns home, feeling that she has been with the Compsons since the beginning and now she has seen evidence that the end is coming very soon. Dilsey, therefore, is the only character who functions within the continuum of time. Her present care of, and loyalty to, the Compsons is a result of her past association with them. Faulkner's use of time as a motif is probably one of his main concerns in the novel. Much of the meaning of the novel evolves through an understanding of each character's reaction to time. WATER MOTIF Faulkner once said that all he wanted to do in The Sound and the Fury was to tell the story of a little girl who fell down and got her drawers muddy. The use of water in one way or another plays an important role throughout the novel. In chronological time, the earliest event in the novel involves the Compson children playing in the branch. Both Benjy and Quentin return to this scene several times. It is here that Caddy fell down and got her drawers muddy. This act symbolizes her later promiscuity and sexual acts-that is, Faulkner is correlating her muddy drawers of one age with the sexual act of a later age. The water here is an ironic reversal of the traditional use of water as a symbolic baptism, as a cleansing and purifying agent. Here, water offers a baptism that foreshadows a life of sin. Later, when Caddy is fourteen to sixteen years old, Benjy follows Caddy up the stairs and tries to force her or push her into the bathroom in order to wash away her perfume, or sin. Here, water, functions as the traditional cleansing or purifying agent. Later, when Caddy has lost her virginity, Benjy tries to push her into the bathroom because he senses that something is wrong. Caddy cringes because she knows that no amount of washing can purify her. We find out later, however, in Quentin's section, that Caddy goes down to the branch and lies in the water, letting it run over her hips. This act symbolizes her desire to be pure again. But water is also a "return-to-the-womb" symbol, as well as a death symbol; Quentin's suicide by drowning symbolizes both. This particular death also fits Quentin's personality. He is only a shadow of a true character, and as he leaps into the water, his own shadow from below rises up to meet him. Thus, suicide by water cleanses Quentin of all responsibility of having to live with the knowledge of Caddy's sin; it is also a type of return to the womb since Quentin has never been able to establish a meaningful relationship with his mother. And, furthermore, it was on a bridge overlooking the branch that Quentin had his disastrous talk with Dalton Ames. Clearly, water, as a motif, is important to all the Compson children--except Jason. But remember that Jason does not feel or sense sin or shame or the need to be purified.

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www.cliffs.com SHADOW MOTIF The shadow motif refers chiefly to Quentin and, to a lesser degree, to Benjy. It refers to the events of the past that are only vaguely understood. As a person, Quentin is obsessed with both the past and the significance that the past has for him. But these actions of the past appear to him only in shadowy form. Thus we return to a Shakespearean line that occurs in the passage in which the title was taken: "Life's but a walking shadow." One critic of Faulkner's writings has pointed out that the word "shadow" appears at least forty-five times in Quentin's monologue (See Carvel Collins, "The Interior Monologues," English Institute Essays, 1952, pp. 29-56). Quentin senses all through this section that he is only a shadow of his ancestors. There are no more generals and governors left among his family. Furthermore, when Quentin tries to accomplish something, the act always seems ridiculous. For example, he tries to make Caddy commit a double suicide, but it is Quentin who fails to bring the act to completion; he tries to make Dalton Ames leave town but, instead, he faints; he tries to convince his father that he committed incest with Caddy, but his father merely laughs at him. All of Quentin's actions are only shadows of real actions, and unlike a tragic protagonist who loses his life at the end of the drama, Quentin takes his life at the midpoint in the novel. The implication is that modern man cannot bring himself to cope with the problems of the final act of the drama and destroys himself in the middle of the drama. Quentin's final act is that of jumping into the river, where his shadow rises from the water below to meet him.

FAULKNER'S STYLE AND STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS The term "stream-of-consciousness" refers to a technique of narration. Prior to the twentieth century, an author would simply tell the reader what one of the characters was thinking. Stream-of-consciousness is a technique whereby the author writes as though inside the minds of the characters. Since the ordinary person's mind jumps from one event to another, stream-of-consciousness tries to capture this phenomenon. Thus, in the Benjy section, everything is presented through the apparently unorganized succession of images, and, in the Quentin section, everything is presented through random ideas connected by association. We have writing that jumps from one thought to another without any indication of a change. This technique is radically different from the older form of presenting the narrative through logical sequence and argument. This technique reflects the twentieth-century development, research, and interest in the psychology of "free association." As a technique, stream-of-consciousness was first used in English by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. But Faulkner's use of this technique in The Sound and the Fury is probably the most successful and outstanding use that we have yet had. Even while using this technique, Faulkner varies it with each section. For example, in the Benjy section, Faulkner's style is basically simple, which does not mean that the section is simple, but that each individual sentence is a rather simple and uncomplicated one. There are no difficult words because the vocabulary of Benjy would naturally be simple. Since his mind does not function logically, Faulkner records the thinking in terms of basic images. Thus, when Benjy sees the gate or the barn, he remembers another event that happened at the gate or the barn. Likewise, his thought can be interrupted halfway through a thought; sometimes he can return to it and sometimes the thought is lost forever. Stylistically, Faulkner has created a powerful tour de force by suggesting the functioning of Benjy's mind, but he has still brought enough order to that mind so that the reader can follow his thoughts. Whereas Faulkner's style is relatively noncomplex in presenting the simple mind of Benjy, when he turns to the complex and intricate mind of Quentin, his style changes drastically. In Quentin's section, we find long, complex, and difficult ideas. Quentin is trying to solve complicated moral issues; therefore, his section is more complicated. Likewise, Quentin's mind is a more advanced mind and his thoughts jump

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www.cliffs.com from one idea to another very quickly. The technique that Faulkner uses to give order to Quentin's section is that of presenting this section on the day when Quentin is about to commit suicide. Therefore, Quentin's mind is concerned only with one or two ideas--the dishonor of his sister Caddy and the nihilistic philosophy of his father. Whenever Quentin's mind jumps back to some thought of the past, it is to these two subjects. If Quentin had been concerned with other things, his section would be far more complicated. And as we reread the section, we realize that every scene returns to these events. For example, Quentin is riding with Gerald when he remembers his embarrassing talk with Dalton Ames on the bridge, and suddenly he asks if Gerald has a sister. The fight that occurs is a result of Quentin relating his past question and the consequent fight with Dalton to the present situation involving Gerald. The style changes drastically again with Jason's section. Jason's mind is involved, but it is the mind of a monomaniac. He is concerned only with getting money and punishing others. Thus, his section flows along at a rapid pace because he is not troubled with the intricacies of life, and he is not concerned with images or impressions. The order and simplicity of his section is a result of his single-minded viciousness. The final section offers us the first straightforward narrative. Here Faulkner adjusts his style to fit the character of Dilsey. We have a quiet, dignified style; the reader is presented the events of the fourth section without any comment or without any complicated sentence structure. And in the light of the other three sections narrated by a Compson, this final section has a strong sense of control and order. Faulkner's virtuosity, therefore, is seen in the way he adjusts his style to fit the mind of each individual narrator. From Benjy's impressions and images to Quentin's obsessed concern with a single idea to Jason's monomania, Faulkner's style shifts in order to lend additional support to his subject matter.

ESSAY TOPICS AND REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Discuss Quentin as a defeated idealist. 2. Discuss Benjy as a Christ figure and Jason as a satanic figure. 3. Discuss the interrelationships of the various members of the Compson family. 4. How is Dilsey portrayed as the strongest figure to emerge from the novel? 5. Discuss Faulkner's use of "free association" in the Benjy section. 6. Justify the omission of Caddy as a narrator. 7. What are the contributing factors to Quentin's suicide? 8. How does each character's reaction to the past and the present affect his characterization? 9. Discuss each brother's opinion of Caddy. 10. Write an essay explaining how the breakup of this southern family might apply to any family in the United States.

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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY BACKMAN, MELVIN. Faulkner: The Major Years, A Critical Study. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966. The chief value of this study is that it includes many of the prominent critical theories about the major novels. BROOKS, CLEANTH. William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country. Yale, 1963. One of the outstanding studies on Faulkner, it has a section at the back filled with many individual insights into individual problems. CAMPBELL, HARRY M., and RUEL E. FOSTER. William Faulkner. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951. One of the earlier studies, useful as a basic guide from which other critics evolved their theories. CULLEN, JOHN B., and FLOYD C. WATKINS. Old Times in the Faulkner Country. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1961. DAVIS, THADIOUS M. Faulkner's "Negro": Art and the Southern Content. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983. FAULKNER, WILLIAM. Faulkner in the University. Eds. Frederick L. Gwynn and Joseph L. Blotner. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1959. A series of questions put to Faulkner by students, along with Faulkner's answers. Originally taped at the University of Virginia. HOFFMAN, FREDERICK. William Faulkner. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1961. A basic introduction to Faulkner as a writer. HOFFMAN, FREDERICK, and OLGA VICKERY, eds. William Faulkner: Three Decades of Criticism. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1960. A collection of some of the best essays written on Faulkner. A very valuable reference book. HOWE, IRVING. William Faulkner: A Critical Study. New York: Random House, 1952. A general interpretation that gives a broad view of Faulkner even though there is a deficiency of "in depth" criticism. HUNT, JOHN W. William Faulkner: Art in Theological Tension. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1965. LONGLEY, JOHN LEWIS, JR. The Tragic Mask: A Study of Faulkner's Heroes. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963. MALIN, IRVING. William Faulkner: An Interpretation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957.

MILLGATE, MICHAEL. William Faulkner. New York: Grove Press, 1961. A useful introduction, particularly for the beginning student of Faulkner. MINER, WARD L. The World of William Faulkner. New York: Grove Press, 1952. A brief account of Faulkner's family and the Mississippi environment. O'CONNOR, WILLIAM VAN. The Tangled Fire of William Faulkner. Minneapolis: University of

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www.cliffs.com Minnesota Press, 1954. Contains many excellent chapters even though some chapters on some novels deal with a rather specific aspect of the ndvel. PILKINGTON, JOHN. The Heart of Yoknapatawpha. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press, 1982. RUNYAN, HARRY A. A Faulkner Glossary. New York: Citadel Press, 1964. SLATOFF, WALTER J. Quest for Failure: A Study of William Faulkner. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1960. SWIGGART, PETER. The Art of Faulkner's Novels. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962. One of the best studies of Faulkner's major novels. TAYLOR, WALTER. Faulkner's Search for a South. Urbana: University of Illinois. 1983. THOMPSON, LAWRENCE. William Faulkner: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1963. Perhaps the best short study yet to appear on Faulkner, it brings together many of the obvious critical views about Faulkner. VICKERY, OLGA W. The Novels of William Faulkner: A Critical Interpretation. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Press, 1959. Perhaps the finest book yet to appear on Faulkner. Vickery handles most of Faulkner's fiction in depth. WAGGONER, HYATT H. William Faulkner: From Jefferson to the World. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959. WARREN, ROBERT PENN, ed. Faulkner: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliff, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1966.

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