I think Faulkner really nailed it this time around. The Sound and the Fury is replete with symbols and imagery, but without the cardboard obviousness of his previous novels. Here there is subtlety and ambiguity, room for nuance and myriad interpretations. In fact, things get so subtle at times, I had to check Sparknotes to make sure I had all the character relationships correct and to put events in some sort of timeline. While I was there, I found an interesting comparison of Benjy to Christ: Benjy is 33, the supposed age Christ was when he was crucified; three of the four narratives take place on Easter weekend of 1928; Benjy is an outcast among his own people, just like Christ; etc.
Whether that is valid or not, it made me think more deeply about the character of Caddy, specifically regarding her relationships with her brothers. I found his fixation on her to be inappropriate if he is actually supposed to be a Christ-like figure. I know his obsession with her isn't of a sexual nature, like Quentin's, but the only person Benjy seems to have any regard for at all is her. I would even go so far as to say he could care less if anyone else died or got hurt. Doesn't seem very Christ-like to me (of course, that could have been Faulkner's point).
What seemed like a more valid parallel to draw was one between Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, and Caddy. Mrs. Compson is a hysterical hypochondriac, totally incapable of caring for her children. She leaves a void of the mother figure in Jason, Quentin, and Benjy's lives, a void that is left to either Dilsey or Caddy to fill. While Dilsey is certainly a hero of the novel, I don't think the children form any sort of motherly associations with her.
Caddy certainly does step in to act as a mother figure, however. She is the only one that understands Benjy and has any idea of how to really care for him. If we wanted to get all Freudian, I think we could say Quentin transferred his Oedipus complex from Mrs. Compson to Caddy, affirming her place as the real mother of the Compson boys and also making his incestual longing a little clearer. Jason certainly seems to hate Caddy, but nonetheless he is fixated on her, intent to get her into trouble. Because she never actually gave birth to any of them, she is, in every sense, the virgin mother of the Compson family.
Her sexual promiscuity, however, makes this symbolism a little more complicated and a lot more interesting. The virgin motherhood of Mary, both before and after the birth of Jesus, is a fundamental tenet of Christianity. If it were ever disproved, it would most likely put into doubt the divinity of Christ himself. Caddy's sexual activity and out-of-wedlock pregnancy cast a stain on her purity as a mother figure. Perhaps this is a comment on the irrelevance of Christianity in modern times: if Christ were to be incarnated in the exact same way today as he was the last go round, it would be a total failure. Caddy cannot hold on to her purity, pressured by the fast pace of life in the modern world.
Furthermore, this contributes to Faulkner's illustration of the downfall of the Southern aristocracy. With such Christian mores as honor, chastity, and integrity as the anchor of their lives, how could they possibly survive if Caddy, the "Virgin Mary" of the South, cannot even stay pure? This realization devastates the Compson family in several ways, as seen in the novel.
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I think this is a very insightful post. I never would have made the biblical associations on my own, so this angle is extremely interesting. We discussed in class how the dates must somehow be relevant because with Faulkner, everything is intentional. I agree that the parallel between Benjy and Christ is weak, but I can clearly see Caddy as the Virgin Mary. It seems evident that all three of the boys, in there own way, transferred their Oedipus complexes from Mrs. Compson to Caddy. The fact that this literately makes Caddy a virgin mother is actually quite brilliant to me. I would like to discuss this idea further, and look into the possibility that the three Compson boys perhaps all represent different aspects of Christ. I wonder if this is the case. No matter what, I think that drawing this parallel is great. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if you were able to decipher this on your own or if you sought guidance in all of this? I was really impressed by your post, that's why I'm asking. I would never have been able to come to all of that because I was too confused about what was even going on.
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