The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner is a story recording the relationships (and disintegration of those relationships) of the Compson family. It is written in high modernism and relies on stream of consciousness as a narrative technique.
It is written in four sections the first three sections are each narrated by a different Compson child. The final section is presented in the third person. All four sections are told within the framework of one day. Each day is different but still connected to the central theme of emotional and relational decay.
Benjy’s Section
Benjy’s section takes place on April 7, 1928. The date is significant because it is Benjy’s birthday and the day before Easter. Benjy is celebrating his thirty-third birthday but it means little to him because he is severely retarded and cannot speak. Benjy’s entire narrative, which is Faulkner’s attempt to bring us into the mind of a retarded person, centers on his beloved sister Caddy.
It starts in the present where Benjy and his caretaker Luster are next to the golf course looking for a quarter that Luster has lost. The repetitive calls of the golfers for their caddy reminds Benjy of his sister Caddy, who has been kicked out of the family and is no longer present in his life. From there, Benjy’s memories move in quick succession of memories strung together based on sensations and the memories that they trigger.
This section of the book relays nearly all the important information in the story. However, the dates and events occur out of sequence and are all presented as the present since Benjy has no concept of time. Because Benjy has no sense of time, everything occurs now.
Quentin’s Section
Quentin’s section takes place on June 2, 1910. The date is significant as the day that Quentin commits suicide. Unlike the previous section the day takes place in as an orderly sequence of events. The movement of the day is often interrupted by Quentin’s memories but they not presented as the present as they were in Benjy’s section.
However, Quentin’s memories are very important because he lives more in the past than in the present. Quentin is a romantic and a traditionalist, holding onto the ideals honor, purity, virtue, and nobility. Quentin is appalled at the changes being made in his world and at the loss of traditional values. Caddy, his beloved sister represents this shift in values to Quentin. He is obsessed with the loss of her virginity and all that it represents.
Quentin’s love of the past, his inability to accept the present, and his unwillingness to enter the future causes him to obsess about time. In an attempt to take himself out of the progression of time, he breaks the glass of a pocket watch that his father gave him and pulls off the hands. The clock continues ticking. At the end of the day he takes himself out of the progression of time by strapping flat irons on his feet and drowning himself in the Charles river.
Jason’s Section
Jason’s section takes place on Friday, April 6, 1928. Jason is not disabled like Benjy and not mentally unbalanced and suicidal like Quentin. In theory, this makes the narrative of his section the most reliable. However, Jason is an angry, bitter man who views life and the people in it as being there for his pleasure. Since everyone disappoints him, his perspective is twisted, which creates a questionable account of actions and motives.
While his interpretation of events is clearly skewed, Jason’s timeline is the linear timeline that is familiar to everyone, which makes his section much easier to read than that of his two brothers.
Jason’s account revolves around his obsession with his niece Miss Quentin. He feels that Caddy cheated him out of a job when her marriage fell apart. Her husband had promised Jason a job but when Caddy’s pregnancy was discovered he left her and would not hire Jason. Caddy gave her child, Quentin, to her mother to raise. As a result, Miss Quentin serves as a daily reminder to Jason of what his life might have been.
As a result, he is cruel to Miss Quentin and attempts (but fails miserably) to control her. The events during the day he narrates are an absurd account of his spying on his niece and following her everywhere. When he is not actively harassing her, he often thinks about the events surrounding her and how they affect his life.
Dilsey’s Section
Dilsey’s section is takes place on Easter Sunday April 8, 1928. This section is a third person narrative unlike the first three sections which are first-person accounts. The action centers on two threads of activity. The first thread is Jason’s chase of Miss Quentin who has stolen his savings (including a large sum of money he stole from her) and ran away with a circus performer. The second thread is an account of Dilsey and her attendance of the Easter Sunday services at the local black church.
The account about Dilsey is the redemption of the novel. In it Dilsey is moved by a powerful Easter morning service and realizes that “I seed the beginnin, en now I sees de endin.” Many critics feel this references the Compson family. If so, Dilsey’s statement sets the seal on their life.
However, while the novel’s theme is summarized by Dilsey, the novel ends in the hands of Benjy who is frightened when Luster deliberately messes with his routine. Jason sets things right and the novel ends “The broken flower drooped over Ben’s fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway and signboard each in its ordered place.”
Conclusion
This summary doesn’t focus on events or a timeline. There are scholars who have created timelines to unravel the narrative threads of this story. However, Faulkner wove the story this way for a reason. It would seem that if he wanted us to focus on the timeline he would have made it clearer or provided a chart. Unraveling the timeline is useful for those studying technique in order to improve their own style. Unraveling the timeline does not significantly help the reader who wants to understand the meaning of the novel.
The novel, as told, focuses the reader on the emotions and interior landscapes of the characters. As a result, we should look to those aspects of the novel to understand its message.
More About William Faulkner's Masterpiece The Sound and the Fury.
- A review of the novel.
- Major characters in the novel.
- Minor characters in the novel.
- Different aspects of love as portrayed in the novel.
- Discussion questions regarding William Faulkner's style in the novel.
- Discussion questions regarding themes in the novel.
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