Mrs. Caroline Compson

Caroline Compson nee Bascomb is the sister of Maury Bascomb (Uncle Maury), the wife of Jason, and the mother of Quentin, Candace, Jason and Maury|Benjamin. A bed-ridden neurotic and a hypochondriac, Caroline seems hopelessly preoccupied with herself and, despite her children's needs, with social status. She seems obsessed with the standing of the Bascomb family and largely oblivious to the misery of her own. She often speaks of how badly her children have let her down, but readers are likely to be appalled by how badly she fails them. The only child she recognizes as truly hers is Jason; she is ashamed of Benjy, and hostile towards Caddy and Quentin. Given how consistently she is portrayed as an uncaring and incompetent mother, it is easy to appreciate the depth of feeling in Quentin's (repeated) phrase, "if I'd just had a mother so I could say Mother Mother" (172).