preview

William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury Essay

Good Essays

Heart's Darling: Faulkner and Womanhood

In William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, Caddy Compson is the anchor character because Faulkner himself is so obsessed with her that he is unable bring her down off a platform enough to write words for her. Instead, he plays out his obsession by using her brothers as different parts of himself through which to play out his fantasies and interact with her. Faulkner writes himself into the novel by creating male characters all based on aspects of his own personality. In Freud's personality theory the human personality is composed of three parts; the id, the ego and the superego. (Freud 17) By writing about Caddy from her three brothers' perspectives, Faulkner is …show more content…

Through Quentin, Faulkner is able to express his own incestuous feelings toward her by playing out this fantasy as her brother. Quentin represents the ego in Freud's personality theory. The ego has access to consciousness and reality but doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. He has such strong feelings for Caddy that he tells his father that he has committed incest with her. This is where Faulkner falls prey to his own virgin/whore complex. Quentin's character wants to have sex with his sister so that they will be banished from society and be forced to run away together. Faulkner wants to have sex with Caddy so that no one else will be able to. This illustrates how men want women to be virginal, but also want to be the ones to take their virginity. Since Quentin failed to be the one to take her virginity, he tries to fight the man who succeeded in the conquest. (Faulkner 160) He equates sex to death, first wanting to destroy the man who took her virginity, then wanting to "kill" Caddy herself.

caddy do you love him now
I don't know
outside the grey light the shadows of things like dead
things in stagnant water
I wish you were dead
do you you coming in now
are you thinking about him now
I

Get Access