Comparison Of Faulkner's Views In The Sound And The Fury

In his novel, The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner employs the views of the three Compson sons: Benjy, Quentin, and Jason, as well as a third party view that centralizes around the family’s maid, Dilsey, in order to depict the slow and drawn out deterioration of their once dignified, well-respected family. Faulkner appears to have a specific perception of his characters and their relationships that he would like his readers to develop in reading the novel, specifically about Caddy as a central cause of the Compson family’s undoing. These intentions are apparent through the consecutive order he has placed each of the characters’ chapters in.
Faulkner’s deliberate placement of his chapters in this novel is to allow his readers to understand each character and each character relationship in a way that is key in developing main idea of the entire novel. The first chapter is from the perspective of the Compson’s severely retarded son, Benjy. As a result of Benjy’s mental condition, he is incapable of forming clear opinions or emotions in regards to his family members or the events taking place around him. Benjy’s detached view point allows readers to get to know the characters based solely
on their interactions with each other and with Benjy. There’s a lack of personal feeling attached to many of the characters and events of Benjy’s chapter that predisposes readers to certain opinions when these events are presented in the perspectives of other characters later on. For example, Benjy’s chapter allows readers to see the kind and selfless side of Caddy before she is illustrated as promiscuous and disgraceful in part by Quentin and largely by Jason. Caddy’s adoration and concern for Benjy is evident all throughout the first chapter. Caddy attempts to comfort Benjy during his outbursts, “’Why Benjy. What is it.’ she said. She looked at me and I went and she put her arms around me. ‘You musn’t cry. Caddy’s not going away. See here.’ she said. She took up the bottle and took the stopper out and held it to my nose. ‘Sweet. Smell. Good.’” (Faulkner 42) Caddy’s sensitivity and kindness toward Benjy makes her a symbol of comfort for him. He often expresses this through his dominating sense of smell, repeatedly claiming that she “smells like trees”, which seems to calm him. Benjy’s perspective of Caddy is intended to be remembered when Quentin and Jason express the strong and considerably more negative impact that their sister has had on them.
While Benjy’s obsession with his sister is centralized around her beauty and kindness, Quentin and Jason are taunted by her promiscuity and indecency. Their lives and their thoughts are consumed by this aspect of their sister. Quentin is all consumed by his goal of living up to his family’s name and tortured by the fact that Caddy does not share the same ideal. Nor does she wish to be enlightened by it. The constant and confusing stream of consciousness that is Quentin’s chapter only makes clear that he is experiencing a loss of order and control, which eventually leads to his suicide. As for Jason, he copes with feelings toward Caddy through rage. His chapter opens with, “Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.” (Faulkner 180) Right away he it is evident that Jason has become overcome with bitterness as a result of having to take over the family affairs and raising Caddy’s rebellious teenage daughter, Miss Quentin. His inconspicuous hatefulness from his childhood has developed into something much more powerful. He seems obsessed with disciplining Miss Quentin, which is likely his way of getting revenge on Caddy for her unacceptable indecency.
Quentin’s chapter was placed strategically in front of Jason’s. Quentin does appear to go mad due to his obsession with Caddy, however he does not turn to spitefulness in the way that Jason does. Quentin develops an overwhelming need to protect all young women, because he could not protect his own sister. Jason on the other hand almost completely rejects women and it doesn’t appear that he wishes to give or accept love of any kind. Getting Quentin’s perspective first highlights Jason’s bitterness so that readers can understand it on a deeper level.
Benjy, Quentin, and Jason are all driven entirely by their obsession with their sister’s actions.
They have each allowed her to unintentionally shape their lives and determine their fate. Benjy is preoccupied with trying to be near Caddy at all times, Quentin obsesses over her behaving a certain way and can no longer cope when she chooses not to act in the way he would like, Jason insists on keeping all of Caddy’s money for himself and disciplining her child as if it were Caddy herself. Faulkner’s placement of the Compson brothers’ chapters is what helps readers to fully understand each character and their relationships with each other. Placing these chapters in different orders may have been effective in other ways, it would not have allowed the story to be understood for what it
is.