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The Decline of The Family in Sound and The Fury

The document discusses the decline of the Compson family as depicted in William Faulkner's novel "The Sound and the Fury". It describes how after the Civil War, the fortunes and abilities of the once proud Compson family rapidly declined. The individual members of the Compson family are characterized by varying degrees of degeneracy, including Mr. Compson's self-pity, his promiscuous daughter Caddy, his suicidal son Quentin, and his villainous youngest son Jason. The lack of parental love from Mr. and Mrs. Compson further contributed to the family's deterioration. In contrast to the chaos of the Compson family, their servant Dilsey represents qualities of fidelity, duty, and religion

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289 views2 pages

The Decline of The Family in Sound and The Fury

The document discusses the decline of the Compson family as depicted in William Faulkner's novel "The Sound and the Fury". It describes how after the Civil War, the fortunes and abilities of the once proud Compson family rapidly declined. The individual members of the Compson family are characterized by varying degrees of degeneracy, including Mr. Compson's self-pity, his promiscuous daughter Caddy, his suicidal son Quentin, and his villainous youngest son Jason. The lack of parental love from Mr. and Mrs. Compson further contributed to the family's deterioration. In contrast to the chaos of the Compson family, their servant Dilsey represents qualities of fidelity, duty, and religion

Uploaded by

Safi Ullah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Sound and the Fury: The Theme - Decline of A Family

Basically the novel presents the story of the decline of a family. The family
shown in the novel has traits which can be perceived as signs of
decadence resulting from regional history. Compsons family comprises of long line
of men full of decency and pride. But after civil war in America the familys fortunes
and abilities declined rapidly.

The Compson family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Compson, their four children Quentin,
Caddy, Jason and Benjy. Mr. Compson is the first clear sign of decay in the
family oppressed by the traditions. His self-pitying wife is a terrifying example of
the functionless southern lady. Their children depict different degrees of
degeneracy. Benjy is an idiot, Caddy is promiscuous and her daughter
afterwards takes her path. Quentin drives himself to suicide by an
obsession with his sisters dishonour. Jason is villainous. Faulkner thus identifies
the sources of destruction of the family in their individual character, which are
full of self-destructive urges and impulses.

One aspect of the deterioration in the Compson family is the lack of parental
love. Mr. Compsons cynicism and nihilistic views have a very disturbing effect
on the sensitive Quentin. Compson has a negative attitude towards time. He
wishes to escape from time and regards his watch as a mausoleum of all hope
and desire. To him victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

Mrs. Compson always seems to be complaining about her sickness and children.
She believes that Benjy is a punishment for her and Jason is a source of joy
and salvation. As a mother, she is a nonentity and we find Quentin lamenting in
his monologue upon the fact that there was no one to which he could call Mother.
Mrs. Compsons hypochondria inflict sufferings on the family. She is chiefly the
cause of the familys misfortunes and disaster.

Benjy is the born idiot, incapable of speaking and expressing and almost all
the time mourning and slobbering. Benjy is a grotesque
character representing the degeneracy of an upper class white family.

Caddy, whom Faulkner adorned most, does not give any cause for rejoicing or
even enthusiasm. When seventeen, she becomes promiscuous and becomes
pregnant unaware of her seducer. She married in haste and soon
becomes discarded by her husband. In this way she becomes a fallen
woman. She is not allowed to visit her parental home and the very mention of
her name is forbidden by her mother. Caddy certainly possesses
some redeeming quality. She shows a great affection for Benjy and looks after
him. She also possessed certain feminine charm which attracts different man and
even her own brother. But these qualities cannot redeem the essential corruption of
her nature. Thus she is the great cause of degeneration of the Compson's family.

Quentin started as a very promiscuous boy. He was sent to Harvard even though
the family had to sell a part of estate to pay for his expenses. But he proved
an incestuous passion for his sister. His unfulfilled incestuous love and his
terrible sense of disappointment of Caddys dishonour give rise to the feeling of
despair in him. This leads him to commit suicide. He is also a string reason for
the fall of the Compson's family.

The youngest child of the family grows into a villain. The only positive aspect of his
nature is his sense of humour. He deceives his mother by giving her fake
cheques to burn while he uses to deposit the genuine cheques sent by Caddy in his
account. He defrauds his niece Quentin for small amount of money. His treatment
towards his niece shows his cold heartedness and callousness. He constantly
suggests that Benjy should be sent to metal asylum. The moral sense is totally
missing in him. His attitude towards Dilseys loyalty is unique.

The girl Miss Quentin proves to be much worse than her mother. Whereas, her
mother shows great affection for Benjy but Miss Quentin even does not like to sit
with him and does not care even for her grand mother. She
becomes promiscuous at early age. Although her action in stealing Jason's money
is the punishment which Jason richly deserved yet her theft for the
money and her flight from her house with a lover leaves a very bad taste.

Mrs. Compson, Quentin and Jason are the protagonist of chaos. Each of three
characters are bent upon self-pitying and self-justification.

Sexual perversion and violation of conventional behaviour play significant role in


the story of the Compsons brother. Uncle Mauray was beaten by neighbour for
carrying on an adulterous affairwith the neighbours wife. Jason has a mistress
called Larrine but he is averse to marriage. According to a critic, in a Freudian
sense both Benjy and Jason might unconsciously be attracted sexually by Caddy.

This degeneracy of the Compson family is heightened by the striking contrast


between the member of this family and the servant Dilsey. She is a symbol
of fidelity, companionship, love,devotion to duty, power of endurance,
religious piety and much more as against the chaos of the Compson family.

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