The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner

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William Faulkner 
(1897 – 1962) 

  • William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer and a Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi.
  •  He is primarily known for his novels, short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha Country based on Lafayetle Country Mississippi where he spent most of his life.
  • He got the Nobel Prize in literature in 1949.
  •  Two of his works A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
  • He wrote his first novel Soldier’s Pay and second Mosquitoes.
  •  Faulkner wrote his first novel set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha Country entitled Flags in the Dust drew heavily on the traditions and history of the south and finally published in 1928 as Sartois.
  •  In 1962, he died of a massive heart attack.
  • His most celebrated novels such as The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932) and Absalom! Absalom! (1936).
  • His first story collection These 13 (1931) includes many of his most acclaimed stories including A Rose for Emily, Red Leaves, The Evening Sun and Dry September, dedicated to his first daughter Alabama, and wife ‘Estelle’. 
  •  Three novels The Hamlet, The Town and The Mansion known collectively as Snopes Trilogy.
  •  ‘Requlem for a Nun’ is the only play by Faulkner.
  • Faulkner wrote two volumes of poetry which were published in small printings A Marble Faun (1924) and A Green Bough (1933) and a collection of crime short stories Knight’s Gambit (1949).
  • He wrote 19 novels, 125 short stories, 20 screenplays, 1 play and 6 collections of poetry.
Important Works of William Faulkner 
  1. Soldier’s Pay (1926)
  2. Mosquitoes (1927)
  3.  Sartoris (1929) or Flag in the Dust
  4. The Sound and the Fury (1929) 
  •  It is the autobiographical novel including the technique known as ‘Stream of Consciousness’ (in 4 parts).
  •  The title of the novel is taken from Macbeth’s famous Soliloquy of Act 5, Scene 5, of William Shakespeare’s – “It is a tale, told by an Idiot full of ‘Sound and Fury’.”
  • It contains a 30 page history of Compson family from 1699 to 1945.
  • The central characters – Mr. and Mrs. Compson, their four children Quentin, Candace, Benjamin and Jason. Benjamin is nicknamed ‘Benjy’ in the novel.
  • The novel is divided into 4 separate sections, 1st section is related to Benjamin Apr 7, 1928, (Easter Saturday), 2nd is related to Quentin dated 2 Jun 1910, 3rd is related to Jason dated Apr 6, 1928, (Good Friday), and fourth shows the authors point of view Apr 8, 1928 (Easter Sunday).
  •  The writer himself called the novel as the tragedy of ‘Two lost wombs of Caddy and Quentin, themother and the daughter.’
  •  Quentin who has committed suicide, Caddy became the Mistress of Nazi general (Herbert), Jasonturned to a cruel business man and Benjy was mad.
  •  The unfortunate daughter of Caddy whose also name was Quentin, after her dead uncle run awayfrom home with a Youngman.
Chief characters of the novel
  1. Jason Compson III – Father of the Compson family, a lawyer. He also narrates several chapters of Absalom! Absalom!
  2. Quentin Compson III – The oldest Compson child who commits suicide, also appears in Absalom! Absalom!
  3. Candace ‘Caddy’ Compson: The second Compson child, strong, wished yet caring.
  4. Jason Compson IV: The bitter resist, third child who is troubled by monetary debt and sexual frustration
  5. Benjamin (Nicknamed Benjy, born Mauri)- Compson: 4th child, whose mental disability is a constant source of shame and grief for his father.
  6. Miss Quentin Compson: Daughter of Caddy & Herbert.
Narrators of The Sound and the Fury
  •  The novel has got four different narrators – Benjy, Quentin, Jason and Faulkner himself.
  •  Benjy: The first chapter is narrated by Benjamin, Benjy Compson. The events took place on Apr7, 1928.
  •  Quentin: He is the narrator of the 2nd chapter. It records his thoughts and feelings and dates to theday he commits suicide.
  •  Jason: He narrates the third chapter dates to 08 Apr 1928.
  •  Faulkner: He narrates the last chapter of the novel.
 As I Lay Dying (1930)
  •  Faulkner described it as “Tour de Force”.
  • Title is derived from Book IX of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’
  •  It is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters.
  • Main character: – Anse Bundren
Sanctuary (1931)
  • It is about the rape and abduction of a well-bred Mississippi college girl Temple Drake during prohibition era.
  •  Faulkner later wrote Requiem for a Nun (1951) as a sequel to it, set in Yoknapatawpha country Mississippi and takes place in May/ June 1929.
  • Requiem for a Nun is the only play by him.
Light in August (1932)
  •  Belongs to the southern gothic modern literary genres.
  •  Consists of 3 major and largely separate story.
  •  Main character: – Gail Hightower, Lena Grave, Byron Bunch
 Absalom! Absalom! (1936)
  •  Taking place before, during and after the civil war, it is a story about three families of the American South with a focus on the life of Thomas Sutpen.
  •  This novel along with Sound and the Fury helped Faulkner to win Nobel Prize in Literature.
  •  The title refers to the Biblical Story of Absalom, a son of David who rebelled against his father (then king of Kingdom of Israel) and who was killed by David’s general Joab.
  •  The story of the novel is that of a mountain boy named Thomas Sutpen. He gave the name “the design” to his lifelong ambitions. Once being humiliated by Negro. Sutpen determined to build a big plantation with slave and have a son to inherit his wealth. His plantation was called ‘Sutpen’s Hundred’.
  •  Sutpen meets very sad end.
  • The Unvanquished (1938)
  •  The Wild Palm (1939)
  • The Snopes Trilogy
  •  The Hamlet (1940)
  •  The Town (1957)
  •  The Mansion (1959)
  • Go down Moses (1942)
  •  Intruder in the Dust (1948)
  •  Requiem for a Nun (1951) only play
  •  A Fable (1954)
  •  The Reivers (1962)
  •  Flags in the Dust
Poems
1. Vision in Spring (1921)
2. The Marble Faun (1924)
3. The Green Bought (1933)
4. The Earth: A Poem (1932)
5. Mississippi Poems (1979)
6. ‘Helen’: a courtship and Mississippi Poems (1981)
Short Story
  • A Rose for Emily (1930)
Play
  • Requiem For a Nun (only play)
It is sequel to the novel ‘Sanctuary’

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