Sanctuary

The world as portrayed in Sanctuary is an ugly one. One which, no doubt, requires places of refuge for all of the sufferers involved. This seems, then, to be the source of Faulkner’s title.

At one point the novel’s greatest hero, Horace Benbow, imagines many of the novel’s main characters together in a cell:

“He thought of her, Popeye, the woman, the child, Goodwin, all put into a single chamber, bare, lethal, immediate and profound…Removed, cauterized out of the old and tragic flank of the world.”

Benbow puts himself in this cell too, “thinking of how that were the only solution.”

This placing of victims of sufferance in a cell seems to tie in with Goodwin’s idea of being safer in his jail cell than he is a free man in that frightening world beyond, where Popeye lurks, waiting. Of course, Benbow puts Popeye is in this place of refuge too. The reader learns later of the traumatic childhood lived by the novel’s villain. He is a product of the ugly world, too.

In a way, Tommy (“Tawmmy”) can be said to be a source of protection for Temple. When trapped in that big house, she seeks him out as a protector, a role he undertakes on his own.

In light of the novel’s title, Temple’s name must hold significance as well. According to the esteemed dictionary.com, some of the definitions of “temple” include:

“an edifice or place dedicated to the service or worship of a deity or deities.”

“a building, usually large or pretentious, devoted to some public use…”

Temple certainly does seem to be an object of worship for many young men. She is certainly valued above such a woman as “Mrs.” Goodwin, who is seen as a common whore for her sexual liaisons. Of course, the readers learns that Mrs. Goodwin’s sexual conquests were honorable (though gullible, considering the disgustingness of the man she loved and whored for) and that she remained faithful to one man throughout it all, while Temple played her teasing games with several young lads.

The last definition I included seems to somehow tie in to Temple’s role at that large house, with all of those men wanting her. While there, as a girl, she was, to Van and Popeye, an object for their own use.

Popeye I find to be a gross, hideous man. But I will say that it seems that Temple Drake could possibly be, for him, a sanctuary of sorts. I suppose I can argue this in class.