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
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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
Loyalty should be considered a quality that is supposed to keep family ties together and use the shield of bravery to protect it. It is proven that devotion in families of today, are lost and bravery shows no character in a person. It is a personality that each individual has in them only to be used in the most courteous way and should not be used selfishly. Loyalty cannot be purchased and must be earned. If it used in the wrong way, it can climax to a disaster.
To add even more problems, Faulkner had more than extramarital affair. One of the affairs was with his own stepdaughter. Gwendolyn Chabrier states that, 'Faulkner's generally disharmonious family life surfaces in while families populating his work. Their relationships are generally destructive and bear correspondence to the author's own personal and family life where there was lack of personal comprehension one for the other between spouses'; (30). In his work, he wrote about subjects that were extremely controversial not only for his time, but even for today. Leslie A. Fiedler admits, 'His concern with sex at it's most lurid, his monotonously nymphomaniac women, his lovers of beast, his rapists and dreamers of incest, put off the ordinary reader, who tends to prefer his pornography pure'; (387). Faulkner's controversial writing and personal life make his writing very interesting for people to read. Faulkner did not always follow the rules for his life or characteristics, but in general he wrote about family and the traditions of the South.
Madness and desperation can motivate some of the most extreme actions of individuals. For instance, when faced with a loneliness she was forced into by her overprotective father, Miss Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily” struggles to cope with a changing environment after his death. Her mental deterioration even culminates into the murder of her significant other Homer Barron to keep him from leaving her as well. In his story, William Faulkner foreshadows Miss Emily’s mental instability from the very beginning with specific hints. Some of those tactics are portrayed in the description of Miss Emily’s family history, the words and actions of the community, and her inability to distinguish between the past and the present.
This quote not only demonstrates Quentin's concern for his dear sister Caddy, but traditional Southern values. First of all, it is evident that Quentin, much like Benji, cares deeply for Caddy. In contrast, however, Quentin's reaction to Caddy's loss of innocence isn't just sadness like Benji, but rather depression accompanied by rage. Throughout this chapter, memories of Caddy are strategically interjected. This particular quote, reflecting his fixation on Caddy's loss of virginity. He compares Caddy to an African American women, who at the time were viewed unfavorably
Faulkner grew up in Mississippi in the beginning of the twentieth century ('William Faulkner'; 699). He was the son to Murray C. and Maud Butler Faulkner (Hoffman 13). Growing up in the South in the early 1900's meant being exposed to harsh racism. He watched the blacks endure unbelievable amounts of cruelty and was amazed at how the blacks conducted themselves with such dignity. He witnessed, first hand, what discrimination is and could not comprehend why this goes on. In many of Faulkner's works I found that he portrayed blacks as quite,easy-going, well-tempered people. He attempted to show them as heroes. It is my belief that Faulkner writes about the south because that is the subject that has affected his life most.
If we compare William Faulkner's two short stories, 'A Rose for Emily' and 'Barn Burning', he structures the plots of these two stories differently. However, both of the stories note the effect of a father¡¦s teaching, and in both the protagonists Miss Emily and Sarty make their own decisions about their lives. The stories present major idea through symbolism that includes strong metaphorical meaning. Both stories affect my thinking of life.
actions to show that no one will own or control him. He has no regard
The birth of the modernist movement in American literature was the result of the post-World War I social breakdown. Writers adopted a disjointed fragmented style of writing that rebelled against traditional literature. One such writer is William Faulkner, whose individual style is characterized by his use of “stream of consciousness” and writing from multiple points of view.
Faulkner’s works consisted of many dark touchy topics such as war, racism, mental illness and suicide in all of books, short stories, William Faulkner wrote about almost every part of life, from something that could be absurd at his time, to something real like racism in the American South. Throughout his life, Faulkner was kind of a rebel, notorious for his confidence, drinking, and he would often make up stories about himself. Faulkner wrote from experience and as a person who lived in the south during times of racism, he wrote about a lot of things in the south. To be exact his specific genre or style in which he wrote in is what some call “southern gothic”. Southern gothic is a unique style of writing and only expressed by very few authors. These stories usually take place only in the south and have darkness to them. His stories would use irony to examine the values of the American south. Instead of solely trying to add suspense with the style it is also used to explore social issues and cultural character of the south. Which leads me to one of Faulkner’s first important novels “Sartoris”. In Sartoris Faulkner focuses on a family during the world war era in the south. In the book the Sartoris family is one of the more important families in Yoknapatawpha County where the book is set. The Old Colonel, John Sartoris, represents an old and dying out order dating back to the mid 1900’s. His world revolves around his plantation home, his slaves and his
In William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the image of honeysuckle is used repeatedly to reflect Quentin’s preoccupation with Caddy’s sexuality. Throughout the Quentin section of Faulkner’s work, the image of honeysuckle arises in conjunction with the loss of Caddy’s virginity and Quentin’s anxiety over this loss. The particular construction of this image is unique and important to the work in that Quentin himself understands that the honeysuckle is a symbol for Caddy’s sexuality. The stream of consciousness technique, with its attempt at rendering the complex flow of human consciousness, is used by Faulkner to realistically show how symbols are imposed upon the mind when experiences
William Faulkner, the eldest son to parents Murry and Maud Butler Falkner, was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897. Although Faulkner was not a keen student in high school, which eventually lead to his dropping out before graduation, he was very enthusiastic about undirected learning. After years of studying independently, Faulkner allowed a friend of his family, Phil Stone, to assist him with his academic vocation. This relationship inspired Faulkner and after a short period spent with the Royal Air Force in 1918 he decided to go to university where he began writing and publishing poetry. In 1924 Stone’s financial assistance helped Faulkner publish a
One of the main realities of human existence is the constant, unceasing passage of time. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner explores this reality of time in many new and unexpected ways as he tells the tragic tail of the Compson family. The Compsons are an old Southern aristocratic family to whom time has not been kind. Years of degeneration mainly stemming from slavery have brought them to the brink of destruction. Most of the story focuses on the Compson children who are undergoing the worst of the social and moral decay. Each of the four children perceives time in a much different way but by far the strangest and most bizarre attitude toward time that is given in the text is held by
The story of "Barn Burning" was "first published in the June of 1939 in the Harper's Magazine and later awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award for the best short story of the year." The author, William Faulkner, "was one of America's most innovative novelists". The way he describes the smells, sites and sounds of the rural late 1800's make you feel as if you are there with the characters in this story. Through the use of symbolism, Faulkner tells the story about a relationship of a father and son. Fire was the most vital symbol used and describes the way, Abner, the main character in the story faces all of his challenges. He lived his life like a flaming inferno destroying
William Faulkner’s unconventional writing style is widely renowned for his disregard of literary rules and his keen ability to peer into the psychological depths of his characters. His novel As I Lay Dying is no exception to his signature style. This book sets forth the death of Addie Bundren, her family’s journey through Yoknapatawpha County to bury her with her relatives in Jefferson, Mississippi, and examines each character in depth from a variety of perspectives. While this journey wreaks havoc among members of the family, As I Lay Dying serves as a dark reminder that life is to be lived and that happiness is within reach.
By focusing on the figure of Caddy, Bleikasten’s essay works to understand the ambiguous nature of modern literature, Faulkner’s personal interest in Caddy, and the role she plays as a fictional character in relation to both her fictional brothers and her actual readers. To Bleikasten, Caddy seems to function on multiple levels: as a desired creation; as a fulfillment of what was lacking in Faulkner’s life; and/or as a thematic, dichotomous absence/presence.