Comparison Of Faulkner's Views In The Sound And The Fury

In his novel, The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner employs the views of the three Compson sons: Benjy, Quentin, and Jason, as well as a third party view that centralizes around the family’s maid, Dilsey, in order to depict the slow and drawn out deterioration of their once dignified, well-respected family. Faulkner appears to have a specific perception of his characters and their relationships that he would like his readers to develop in reading the novel, specifically about Caddy as a central cause of the Compson family’s undoing. These intentions are apparent through the consecutive order he has placed each of the characters’ chapters in.
Faulkner’s deliberate placement of his chapters in this novel is to allow his readers to understand each character and each character relationship in a way that is key in developing main idea of the entire novel. The first chapter is from the perspective of the Compson’s severely retarded son, Benjy. As a result of Benjy’s mental condition, he is incapable of forming clear opinions or emotions in regards to his family members or the events taking place around him. Benjy’s detached view point allows readers to get to know the characters based solely
They have each allowed her to unintentionally shape their lives and determine their fate. Benjy is preoccupied with trying to be near Caddy at all times, Quentin obsesses over her behaving a certain way and can no longer cope when she chooses not to act in the way he would like, Jason insists on keeping all of Caddy’s money for himself and disciplining her child as if it were Caddy herself. Faulkner’s placement of the Compson brothers’ chapters is what helps readers to fully understand each character and their relationships with each other. Placing these chapters in different orders may have been effective in other ways, it would not have allowed the story to be understood for what it