Text: The Sound and the Fury

Summary:

Quentin recalls a fragment of conversation with his father, perhaps about why he claimed to have committed incest: "it is because there is nothing else I believe" (123).

• Page: 123
• Event Date: 1909-08-01 to 1909-08-31
• Era: Turn of the Century (1890-1913)
• Narrative Status: Remembered
• Keywords:
  • Aesthetics:Narrative:Stream of consciousness narration
  • Aesthetics:Typography/Orthography:Capitalization
  • Aesthetics:Typography/Orthography:Italics
  • Aesthetics:Typography/Orthography:Lack of Punctuation
  • Cultural issues:Religion:Religious faith
  • Themes and Motifs:Futility:Illusion of success or victory
  • Themes and Motifs:Meaning:Meaninglessness
  • Themes and Motifs:Memory:Remembering
  • Themes and Motifs:Morals:Faith
  • Themes and Motifs:Morals:Injustice
  • Themes and Motifs:Philosophical:Nihilism
  • Themes and Motifs:Recurring Tropes:Father said
  • Themes and Motifs:Recurring Tropes:Nothingness

Text: The Sound and the Fury

Location: Compson House

Description:

Built before the Civil War as the "big house" of a prosperous plantation, the Compson house has been slowly deteriorating almost ever since. When the narrator describes it in the novel's last section, we see it from the outside as a "square, paintless house with its rotting portico" (298). After Mr. Compson's death, Mrs. Compson says, "I was forced to sell our furniture" (262), so inside the house is also defined by the contrast between what it once was and its present dilapidation. Benjy, who registers "the tall dark place on the wall" where a big mirror once hung (61), memorably sums up the house's affect when he describes going inside on a December day this way: "We ran up the steps and out of the bright cold, into the dark cold" (7).

Text: The Sound and the Fury

• Present (2):
  • Mr. Jason Compson
  • Quentin Compson