One of the main concerns facing many readers of Faulkner centres upon the interpretation of his frequently non-linear and freely associative narrative techniques, usually referred to as stream of consciousness writing. The Sound and the Fury is no exception, as the first two sections of the novel are written from the perspective of a mentally handicapped adult and a neurotic and suicidal adolescent (or young post-adolescent). However, it is through these rather disjointed narratives that one can more fully appreciate the relationships between the various family members. The principle focus of Faulkner’s text is Caddy, the sole daughter in the Compson household. While Benjy was certainly loved by his sister, there seems to be a much closer relationship between her and Quentin. Throughout his section of the narrative, Quentin almost single-mindedly concentrates on his sister, reliving old memories to the point of confusing them with his contemporary world: “How many where there?”. His narrative – in a sense ‘a day in the life’ of a mentally unstable individual – is much more disjointed and seemingly arbitrary than Benjy’s, which despite its free association of memories still retained a cohesive structure. Once a reader begins to understand Benjy’s conventions his text is rather easy to comprehend. Alternately, Quentin’s narrative continually degenerates into a neurotic stream of consciousness, especially toward the end of his section as he approaches the moment of his suicide.
Quentin’s section is perhaps most vividly able to portray the corruption of the entire Compson family (or dynasty, as Faulkner relates in his Appendix to this novel, which traces the Compsons from colonial times). It is he who seems to be the last “great white hope” for his family, and it is for him that a part of the estate is sold to pay for a Harvard education. Of all the members of the family except perhaps his mother, it is Quentin who most fully internalizes the concept of the majestic old South along with a sense of southern nobility. Within this context he is to be the defender of his sister, and indeed as the eldest son, he must act to protect the entire family. When Quentin reveals his feelings toward his sister in relation to her involvement with Dalton Ames, there is a profound sense of powerlessness in his thoughts. In fact, one could argue that he has not only internalized the southern chivalric code, but the extreme sense of meaninglessness and absurdity felt by the South after the American Civil War. It is possible to understand his rather pathetic “fighting spirit” in regards to this profound sense of purposelessness. There are in fact two fights in this section of the novel, although Quentin’s narrative confuses the two. Early in the year he had challenged Dalton Ames to a duel in order that Caddy’s honour could be reclaimed, which he of course believed to have been tarnished by their sexual relationship. Dalton had refused the challenge, and apparently while remembering this instance, Quentin proceeded to lash out at Gerald Bland, who promptly defended himself by bloodying his attacker. Such violent tendencies reflect a self-hatred and nihilism inherent in suicidal individuals: the urge to fight a superior opponent, which was the case with both Ames and Bland, is a repressed desire to kill oneself.
So what does in fact lead to Quentin’s suicide? Certainly there are numerous factors in such an maximal and final decision. The aforementioned sense of powerlessness, despite adherence to the Southern code of chivalry and nobility, extended into everything surrounding Quentin. He tried to argue against his father’s nihilism, yet everywhere he looked was evidence to support an absurd existence. Yet the most overwhelming element present in Quentin’s section is his relationship with his sister Caddy. Much like many men throughout recorded history he views his sister within the virgin / whore paradigm. For him his entire sense of Southern nobility is maintained by his sister’s virginity, and its loss is the final proof for Quentin of the degeneration of that mentality, and as well that all existence is absurd. When he proclaims to his father that it was in fact he who took his sister’s virginity, he is attempting to preserve her dignity by (in a sense) “keeping it in the family”. Yet this very passage demonstrates how corrupt his vision of Southern chivalry has in fact become. Perhaps it even portrays the extent to which his mind has become unhinged and all his thoughts are theoretical. Certainly his life is lived in the abstract: one cannot interpret Quentin’s perception of time, as depicted in the clockmaker sequence, as a perception of reality. When everything has lost its physicality and becomes completely abstracted, a concept such as self-destruction through suicide is entirely feasible.
There is very much a perception in Quentin’s section (as well as in Jason’s narrative) that Caddy’s awakening sexuality precipitates the downfall of the entire Compson dynasty. Faulkner’s emphasis upon her soiled underpants in Benjy’s section – she had climbed a tree that her brothers could not to look upon death, and consequently revealed her undergarments – is perhaps a rather obvious metaphor, yet it does succeed in anticipating both Quentin’s and Jason’s opinions of their sister as revealed in their later monologues. One is therefore left to wonder whether it was in fact the sins of Caddy – if such rather normal adolescent behaviour can be so negatively labelled – which will motivate the downfall of the Compson family.
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