Modern: William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury

• 3 first person central narrators
• Benjy
• Quentin
• Jason
• (followed by Dilsey)
• Each telling story of their relationship with their sister and by extension the remainder of the family and each other
• Quentin - oldest child/son
• ashamed of his father's disregard for traditional Southern values of honor & virtue when it comes to Caddy's pregnancy
• Mr. Compson disregards Quentin's thoughts which leads to his initial depression and finally his ultimate demise. 
• Feels the burden to live up to the families honor & name
• paralyzed by his obsession with Caddy and Southern code of conduct and morality
• Caddy (Candace) - Second oldest/only daughter
• Perhaps the most important character as all 3 boys have an "obsession" with her
• As a young child steps in as a motherly figure for Quentin & Benjy
• Caddy's muddying of her underwear foreshadows her later promiscuity and the shadow her promiscuity leaves on the family name.
• Jason - third born/son/assumes responsibilities after Father dies of Alcoholism and Quentin commits suicide
• Steers clear of the other children
• Infatuation with Caddy but to get her in trouble.
• Only child to receive Mrs. Compson's affection
• No capacity to accept, enjoy, or reciprocate her love and eventually manipulates it to steal money from Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter) behind Mrs. Compson's back.
• Not only rejects familial love but also romantic love
• Only romantic love is found in a prostitute from Memphis
• Thinks only about the present and immediate future.
• Extremely motivated but without ambition
• Can't move on past Caddy's losing his job at the bank, but becomes head of the household after Mr. Compson dies which further shows the low the once prominent family has come to.
• Benjy - Youngest son/child/Mentally ill.
• Totally dependent on Caddy and her affection (the only affection he receives)
• because of his illness doesn't perceive time, cause and effect, or right and wrong.
• He can sense anything that is bad, wrong, or out of place.
• Senses Quentin's suicide thousands of miles away
• Senses Caddy's promiscuity
• Takes notice of the families falling, but unable to do anything other than moan and cry about it
• Looking at the same reality and getting radically different tales = multiple people's perspective
• Quintin's problem is that he wants to commit suicide and masquerades as a sane person. He goes progressively insane. We're seeing the end stage of his insanity.
• Jason is the most in touch with reality of any of the three brothers, but he's a psychopath
• In terms of first person narration, this is as close as you can come to reliable stories with regards to what it was like to grow up in this family
• A sense of the shrinking significance of the individual
• Benjy=ultimate powerless individual, even 12 year old can torment him, looks in fire door in kitchen and flames soothe him (Lester can shut door and tease him)
• Quentin=no value. Ultimately judges that he is of no value to himself and his family, so ends his life
• Quentin's world is shattered as well, but in his case it's that shattering that causes him the greatest pain. Can't agree with his father, has mother that doesn't love him, has sister who is unchaste (doesn't go with his moral code), so has world that is so shattered (fragmentation) that he feels he can't put it back together and ends his life
• Inadequacy of Language = Benjy. Someone who not only is uneducated but has no voice at all. Gives Benjy language so we have insight into his inner life. Can't speak other than wails.
• Quentin - language is disintegrating. As you go along you lose capital letters/punctuations. Faulkner indicating that shattering of Quentin's world is going along as time is
• Quentin's memory is complicated because it is largly intertwined with his fantasies.
• sometimes it is difficult to tell which of his memories are based on events that accually occured and which are based on fantasy or wishful thinking.

• Watches and time play a significant roll in the telling of Quentin's story.
• So ultimate absolute is lost. If there is no God or truth, then left with human perceptions
• ends with church service. Three 3rd person POV's and then 3rd person omniscient. No mistake that spends a good deal of time at church service in which black preacher preaches first part of the sermon like white man and then voice changes into sort of musical chant "recollection in the blood of the lamb" <-- illogical, but gives Dilsey some sense of peace.
• Aspects of Modernism
• Fragmentation (partial knowledge, inadequacy of language (Benjy's section))
• Benjy's section is major stream of consciousness
• It jumps around as memories come to Benjy.
• this fact makes it difficult to follow sometimes
• Easiest way to tell present from past is if you feel the presence of Luster.
• Luster is a key element to the present
• Benjy's voice offers narrator of the tragic events and circumstances without commentary
• his narrative gradually gives us the knowledge of the relationship that governs the family
• Benjy shows the differing personalities of the Compson siblings.
• Isolation
• Alienation
• Focus on self (intense subjectivity, self-absorption)
• Disillusionment & sense of pointlessness, nothingness
• Moral relativism and paralysis
• Loss of faith in old systems of order and authority
• The parallel lines between Caddy and her daughter Miss Quentin show that the downfall of the family does not stop with Caddy's generation.
• Because Caddy set the scene doing the promiscuous things, Miss Quentin doesn't feel bad for her actions.
• Dilsey shows considerable strength
• Deceptiveness of appearances (Irony, complexity, skepticism, unreliability of perception)
• Preoccupation with trivial, the shallow
• Search for stimulation
• Dilsey
• The family's nurse maid
• The only sense of the stability the children receive
• only detached character to experience the downfall from start to finish
• lives her life on the same fundamental values that the family was once built on...
• family, faith, personal honor, and so on
• Raises the Compson children as well as her own children and grandchildren at the same time
• Dilsey narrates the last section through the voice of Faulkner himself.
• It is written in a third-person perspective
• This viewpoint takes the reader a step back from the inner world and gives a panoramic view of the tragedy that has unfolded
• Her voice is an objective one
• similar to Benjy in its ability to view the Compson world without resentment
• Unlike Benjy, Dilsey relies on a mere traditional mode of storytelling
• Themes
• Corruption Southern Aristocratic Values
• Traditional Values 
• Gentlemen: displaying courage, moral strength, perseverance, and chivalry in defense of the honor of their family
• Women: feminine grace, purity, and virginity until it came time to provide children to receive the family inheritance
• Resurrection and Renewal
• The novel takes place on or around Easter
• Dilsey represents strength and hope
• Failure of Language and Narrative
• While there are 4 different perspectives, 3 in 1st person, Even the last of the voices in 3rd person doesn't tie up all lose ends of the novel
• Faulkner had difficulty in writing through the different perspectives because while there were some that answered questions, other questions arrived
• Time
• Benjy cannot distinguish time
• Quentin is trapped in time
• Jason can only see time as personal gain
• Dilsey is the only character at peace with time
• Order and Chaos
• Shadows
• serve as a subtle reminder of the passage of time
• Water
• Cleansing and purity
• Quentin's Watch