The Sound and the Fury

1
The Sound and the Fury

• Fourth Chapter
• Dilseys Chapter

2
Point of View

• 3rd Person Omniscient
• Displaced perspective of Dilsey
• Most present-time
• Less fragmented
• Unbiased

3
Dilsey

• Physical Frame
• Wasting away
• Paradox
• Although she is wasting away, she is the one
  responsible for keeping the Compson family alive

4
Dilsey

• Resilient
• Used up
• Iagocashiered
• Simplicity
• Old Testament
• Loyalty and power of the servant

5
Dilsey

• Skeleton Imagery
• Multiple meanings
• Wasting away
• Support
• Dilsey functions as the support for not only her
  family but the Compsons as well

6
Dilsey

• Resurrection
• Dilsey is presented as a symbol of resurrection
• The resurrection of whom?

7
Dilsey

• Resurrection
• The Compsons?
• It might have been the dry pulse of the decaying
  house itself (285)

8
Dilsey

• Resurrection
• Her family?
• Resurrection of African-Americans in this
  country?
• Death of the old south?
• Conception of new south?

9
Dilsey

• Good Deeds
• Goodness stems from deeds
• Unlike Quentin and Jason
• Blood

10
Dilsey and Good Deeds

• Benjy and church
• not concerned about appearances
• History of responsibility
• Dilsey has raised all of them
• supporting family
• Defender of Miss Quentin, Mrs. Compson and Benjy
• Truth Teller
• I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin.
  (297)
• The Alpha and the Omega

11
Miss Quentin

• Caddy and the tree
• Earlier, Caddy is going up the tree to see into
  the house.
• Miss Quentin goes down the tree to run away from
  the house.
• Similarity?
• On the floor lay a soiled undergarment of cheap
  silk a little too pink (282)

12
Miss Quentin

• Flight
• Suicide?
• Mrs. Compson believes so.
• The Power of Names

13
Miss Quentin

• Find the note, she said. Quentin left a note
  when he did it. I knew the minute they named
  her Quentin this would happen, Mrs Compson said.
  She went to the bureau and began to turn over the
  scattered objects therescent bottles, a box of
  powder, a chewed pencil, a pair of scissors with
  one broken blade lying upon a darned scarf dusted
  with powder and stained with rouge. Find the
  note, she said. (283)

14
Miss Quentin

• Hopelessness
• Off the Compson LandBad Things
• Death of Quentin
• Castration of Benjy
• On the Compson LandBad Things
• Death of Mr. Compson
• Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc.,
  Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc.,

15
Miss Quentin

• Anti-Identity
• Otherwise defined by Jason
• You made me
• Lost

16
Jasons Quest

• Loss of control
• Pseudo-tragic
• Revels in impotence and failure
• He repeated his story, harshly recapitulant,
  seeming to get an actual pleasure out of his
  outrage and impotence. (303)
• Confirmation
• Fatalistic
• Belief that all events are predetermined and
  therefore inevitable
• Blood
• Submissive acceptance

17
Jasons Quest

• Destiny versus Will
• Almost like a anti-quest
• Connection with Mr. Compson

18
Benjys Closing Scene

• Sound and Fury
• it is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound
  and fury,/ Signifying nothing.
• Suddenly he wept, a slow bellowing sound,
  meaningless and sustained. (285)

19
Benjys Closing Scene

• Caddy!
• Luster screams her name to punish Benjy

20
Benjys Closing Scene

• voiceless misery
• Why does Faulkner assign this to Benjy?
• John 11 14
• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God And the Word
  became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His
  glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
  Father, full of grace and truth.

21
Benjys Closing Scene

• Word, Flesh, Deed
• Benjy cant speak
• Word
• Benjy is castrated
• Lacking flesh
• Benjy cant act
• Deed

22
Benjys Closing Scene

• Christ Figure
• Emblem of suffering with resurrection
• Benjy is a 33 year old man on Easter Sunday
• Benjy is the emblem of suffering without
  resurrection
• Therefore, there is no hope for the Compson
  family
• There is no hope for the old south.

23
Benjys Closing Scene

• Carriage Ride
• Repeat of ride to the cemetery in Benjys chapter
• Why does Benjy get so upset and cry?
• They go the wrong way around the statue
• Not the normal way he is accustomed to.

24
Benjys Closing Scene

• Jason corrects Lusters mistake
• If you ever cross that gate with him again, Ill
  kill you! (320)
• Consequences of taking Benjy off of the land

25
Benjys Closing Scene

• Bens voice roared and roared. Queenie moved
  again, her feet began to clop-clop steadily
  again, and at once Ben hushed. Luster looked
  quickly back over his shoulder, then he drove on.
  The broken flower drooped over Bens fist and his
  eyes were empty and blue and serene again as
  cornice and façade flowed smoothly once more from
  left to right, post and tree, window and doorway
  and signboard each in its ordered place.
  (320-321)

26
Benjys Closing Scene

• Once the carriage is put on its correct path,
  order is restored. Things go back to the way
  Benjy is used to.
• Flower is still broken.
• Benjys eyes are still empty.

27
Benjys Closing Scene

• Things return to what the imagery of the text
  suggests is decay.
• Hopeless
• Destruction of the Compson family
• Destruction of the old south