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The Sound and the Fury
The Ink of Melancholy: Faulkner’s Novels
from The Sound and the Fury to Light in August
By André Bleikasten
Indiana University Press
Hardcover
ISBN: 0253312000
Published 1990
William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury:
A Critical Casebook
By André Bleikasten (ed.)
Garland
ISBN: 0824092694
Published 1982
William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury:
Modern Critical Interpretations
By Harold Bloom (ed.)
Chelsea House
Hardcover
ISBN: 1555460429
Published 1988
Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound
and the Fury
By Stephen Hahn and Arthur F. Kinney (eds.)
Modern Language Association of America
Hardcover
ISBN: 0873527372
Paperback
ISBN: 0873527380
Published 1996
Critical Essays on William Faulkner: The Compson
Family
By Arthur F. Kinney (ed.)
G.K. Hall
Hardcover
ISBN: 081618464X
Published 1982
The Sound and the Fury: Faulkner and the Lost
Cause
By John T. Matthews
Twayne’s Masterwork Studies
Twayne Publishers
Hardcover
ISBN: 0805779655
Published 1991
New Essays on The Sound and the Fury
By Noel Polk (ed.)
American Novel series
Cambridge University Press
Paperback
ISBN: 0521457343
Hardcover
ISBN: 0521451140
Published 1993
The Sound and the Fury: A Concordance to the Novel
By Noel Polk
University Microfilms
Hardcover
ISBN: 0835705137
Published 1980
The Sound and the Fury: Manuscript
Garland
Hardcover
ISBN: 082406805X
Published 1987
The Sound and the Fury: Carbon Typescript and
Miscellaneous Typescript Pages
By Noel Polk (ed.)
Garland
Hardcover
ISBN: 0824068068
Published 1987
Reading Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury
By Stephen M. Ross and Noel Polk
Reading Faulkner series
University Press of Mississippi
Hardcover
ISBN: 0878059350
Paperback
ISBN: 0878059369
Published 1996
An Editorial Handbook for William Faulkner’s
The Sound and the Fury
By Noel Polk
Garland
Hardcover
ISBN: 0824088328
Published 1985
Barron’s Book Notes on William Faulkner’s
The Sound and the Fury
Barrons Educational Series
Paperback
ISBN: 0812035410
Published 1985
Cliffs Notes on Faulkner’s The Sound and
the Fury
Cliffs Notes
Paperback
ISBN: 0822012197
Published 1970
Maxnotes: The Sound and the Fury
Research & Education Association
Paperback
ISBN: 0878910476
Published 1996
William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury
and Other Works
Monarch Notes
Paperback
ISBN: 999160183X
Published 1973
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Contents
Benjys Section
Three black servants are Benjys
caretakers at different times: Versh
when Benjy is a small child, T.P.
when Benjy is about 15 years old, and Luster
when Benjy is 33 years old. Benjy relives approximately 15 events
from the past.
- Damuddys death (1898):
children at the branch; Caddy
in the tree; muddy drawers
- Name change (1900): key images include fire, mirror, rain, cushion,
library
- Uncle Maurys
love affair (?): Mr. Patterson;
Uncle Maurys black eye
- Caddy uses perfume
(1905): pushes Caddy
into bathroom
- Caddy in the swing (1906): Charlie;
Caddy washes her mouth
- Benjy must sleep alone (1908): “You too big to sleep with
folks”
- Caddy loses virginity (1909): Caddy walking fast; Benjy howling
- Caddy’s wedding (1910): T.P.’s “whooey” sasprilluh
- Benjy at the gate (1910): “Caddy gone and left you”
- Quentin’s suicide
(1910): Roskus talking
about bad luck; “that’s two”
- Benjy is castrated (?): “How did he get out?”; schoolgirls
swinging satchels
- Death of Mr. Compson
(1912): Dan howling
- Trip to cemetery (?): T.P. driving carriage with Mrs.
Compson, Benjy
- Death of Roskus (?):
“Dilsey moaned”;
Blue howling
- Present (April 7, 1928): Luster looking for a quarter; circus
in town.
Quentin’s Section
Quentin’s
section has flashbacks to fewer moments in the past and is less
disjointed than Benjy’s section, but because
he is more intellectual and abstract, his section is much more fragmented.
His memories are often only hinted at by key words or phrases (which
are not always italicized) early in the section, which are repeated
and expanded upon later. As his section progresses, and Quentin
gets closer to his suicidal destiny, the language he uses reveals
more and more the fragmentation of his psyche. A long scene with
Caddy at the branch takes
the form of a dialogue without punctuation or capitalization, though
each time the speaker changes a new paragraph is formed. Very late
in the section, Quentin recalls a conversation he had with his father
in which he claims to have committed incest with Caddy--here, even
paragraphing has disappeared along with punctuation, with speaker
changes indicated by “and he ... and i ... and he” etc.
Nearly all of Quentin’s flashbacks, except
minor memories (such as breaking his leg) and those depicting conversation
with his father, concern Caddy’s sexuality and/or Quentin’s reaction
to it. His most significant memories, in chronological order, are
the following:
- Damuddy’s death (1898)
- Benjy’s name change
(1900)
- Kissing Natalie (undated)
- Caddy kissing a boy (1906-1907)
- Caddy having sex with Dalton
Ames (late summer 1909)
- Wedding announcement (1910)
- Meeting Herbert
Head (April 23?, 1910)
- Wedding eve (April 24, 1910)
- Wedding (April 25, 1910)
The Title
The title and some of the imagery in the novel
derive from a soliloquy by the title character in Shakespeare’s
tragedy Macbeth.
In Act
V, Scene v, following the death of his wife, and as he begins
to realize his dire situation, Macbeth speaks his “Tomorrow”
soliloquy:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
These are characters who appear in the
novel. Links lead to entries about these people in the glossary.
Characters whose proper names are not given are indicated in quotation
marks. Characters who appear only in the novels “appendix”
are in brackets. Major or significant characters are listed in boldface.
- Ames, Dalton
- Anse
- Bascomb, Maury
- Beard
- Bland, Mrs.
- Bland, Gerald
- Burgess
- Burgess, Mrs.
- “Carnival
worker”
- Charlie
- Clay, Sis Beulah
- Compson, Benjy
- Compson, Caddy
- Compson,
Caroline Bascomb
- [Compson,
Charles Stuart]
- [Compson,
Jason Lycurgus]
- [Compson,
Jason Lycurgus, II]
- Compson,
Jason Richmond Lycurgus, III
- Compson, Jason
Lycurgus, IV
- Compson, Quentin
- Compson,
Miss Quentin
- [Compson,
Quentin MacLachan]
- [Compson,
Gov. Quentin MacLachan]
- Daingerfield,
Miss
- Damuddy
- Deacon
- “Drummer”
- Earl
- Frony
- Gibson, Dilsey
- Gibson, Roskus
- Gibson, T.P.
- Gibson, Versh
- Hatcher, Louis
- Hatcher, Martha
- Head, Sydney
Herbert
- Henry
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- Holmes, Miss
- Hopkins
- [Ikkemotubbe]
- [Jackson]
- Job, Uncle
- Julio
- Junkin, Professor
- Kenny
- Laura, Miss
- Lorraine
- Luster
- Mac
- MacKenzie, Shreve
- Mike
- Mink
- Myrtle
- Natalie
- Parker
- “Patterson
boy”
- Patterson, Mr.
- Patterson, Mrs.
- Peabody,
Doc
- Rogers
- Russel, Ab
- Sartoris,
Colonel
- Shegog, Reverend
- “The Sheriff”
- Simmons
- “Sister”
- Snopes, I. O.
- Spoade
- Thompson
- Turpin, Buck
- Vernon
- Walthall, Parson
- Wilkie
- Wright, Doc
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Sartoris |
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As I Lay Dying |
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