(Miss) Quentin

Submitted by rlcoleman@usout... on Thu, 2014-04-10 23:22
Text: 
The Sound and the Fury
Character Key: 
(Miss) Quentin
Display Name: 
(Miss) Quentin
Sort Name: 
Quentin, (Miss)
Parent: 
Caddy Compson
AKA: 
Quentin Compson
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Female
Class: 
Upper Class
Rank: 
Major
Vitality: 
Born
Family: 
Compson
Family (new): 
CompsonsInSF
First Mentioned: 
Compson Inset: Swing in The Sound and the Fury (Location)
Home: 
Compson Place in The Sound and the Fury (Location)
Date of Birth: 
Thursday, September 1, 1910 to Wednesday, November 30, 1910
Other Texts: 
"Appendix: Compson"
The Mansion
Biography: 

There are two Compsons named "Quentin" who appear in the novel, the second (a female) born not long after the first (a male) commits suicide. Miss Quentin is the illegitimate daughter of Caddy Compson and an unknown father; her last name is never actually specified in the novel, though presumably she attends school - when she is not playing hooky - as "Quentin Compson." In the 1946 Appendix to The Sound and the Fury Faulkner describes her as "The last. Candace's daughter. Fatherless nine months before her birth, nameless at birth and already doomed to be unwed from the instant the dividing egg determined its sex." She is the youngest Compson in this novel too. When she is born less than nine months after Caddy's marriage, Caddy's husband Herbert casts off both mother and daughter. At Caddy's request, Mr. Compson takes Miss Quentin home to Jefferson to raise; Mrs. Compson, however, refuses to allow Caddy to see her, so the girl grows up effectively motherless as well as fatherless. At 17, having become at least as promiscuous as Caddy was at her age, and very possibly pregnant too, Miss Quentin runs away from the Compsons with a man she has just met, taking with her the three thousand dollars that her uncle Jason had been embezzling from the funds that Caddy had sent over the years for her support.

Note: 
Not long after Jason III's funeral, Caddy shows up incognito to the gravesite and gives Jason IV some money so she could see the baby. Jason takes the money, but instead of arranging a place where Caddy could hold her daughter, he drives by the curb where Caddy is standing and holds the baby up so Caddy could see her. After Quentin's suicide and Caddy's removal from the family, Jason III drinks himself to death, which leaves Miss Quentin to be raised by the same distant mother who raised Caddy, Quentin, Jason, and Benjy. Caroline spends most of her time upstairs complaining about her burden while Jason IV mistreats Miss Quentin and tries to control Miss Quentin's sexuality. Jason possibly blames her or resents her (and Caddy) for his being stuck in Jefferson without a banking job since Herbert divorced Caddy shortly after Miss Quentin's birth. AND FROM THE DELETED BIO OF Head, Quentin: Quentin Compson is the daughter of Candace Compson, and her father is likely Dalton Ames. However, Caddy is already two months pregnant when she marries Sydney Herbert Head on April 25, 1910. For a brief period, Quentin lives with her mother and Head in Indiana, until he divorces Caddy in 1911. She then brings her infant daughter back to Compson Place, leaving the child there and departing on the next train. As an infant, Quentin is cared for by Dilsey and Caroline Bascomb Compson. As a teenager, she continue to live at Compson Place, eventually confronting Jason Comspon, IV about the money that Caddy has been sending to her, but which Jason has been stealing. On April 6, 1928, Quentin breaks into Jason's room to steal the money back. She escapes, climbing down the rainpipe and running away with the pitchman.
Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

digyok:node/character/4035