The significance of the structure in Faulkners Sound and Fury

William Faulkners novel Sound and Fury is a curious novel in terms of its structure and represents the modernist trend of experimenting with the structure and the furious quest of trying to find the more adequate modes of representing the essence or what they thought was the most important of realities and experiences of their times. The novel begins with the incoherent and maybe to a certain extent surreal narrative of Benjy the mentally retarded member of the Compson family. The next three narratives gradually tend towards more coherence and a simpler and more traditional mode of narration. The title of the novel id derived from the fifth Act of Shakespeares play Macbeth and its significance has been interpreted by several critics. In her paper The interior Monologues of The Sound and the Fury Carvel Collins says that, it is possible to demonstrate that several elements of Sound and Fury stem from the exploitation of this Shakespearean passage and I agree that it seems quite plausible that it is an important link in interpreting the significance of Faulkners novel. Quentins narrative although far more coherent than the first is also in the form of the stream of consciousness technique. Quentins account of the incidents that affected him and which he narrates is an obsessive account of his love-hate tinged with incestuous longing for his sister Caddy whose libertine ways are deemed scandalous and immoral by almost all the characters in the novel. Then come the third narrative much more coherent but brutally racist and anti feminist narrative by Jason the uneducated but materialistic member of the Compson family. And last of comes the narrative of the omniscient narrator. I agree with Carvel Colloins that the title of the novel and its meaning in terms of its source in Shakespeares text is helpful in interpreting the novel and the justification according to Faulkner for the first chapter being the absurdly incoherent Benjys narrative. Critics have debated the usefulness and the drawbacks of having such a narrative structure to the text of the novel and many readers have complained about the difficulty of understanding Benjys narrative especially without having gone through the whole text while reading it for the first time and I must admit I find such complaints quite valid and therefore would like to discuss in more detail the possible motives of the complex and characteristically modernist style of the structural organisation of the novel. In making the progression of the novel in the increasing order of coherence the author seems to be pointing to the importance of having a satisfying and coherent perspective. But going by that logic it is doubtful whether the author has been able to carry out his convictions of giving importance to a rational perspective as the last narrative of the omniscient narrator fails to be as conclusive or analytical as would be expected from a more coherent and rational narrative. I argue that the reader gets to know more about the Compson family and its problems and history from Jasons narrative rather than the last narrative. And yet he can hardly be said to have a rational or satisfying perspective. The famous 20th century French writer and intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre in his assessment of Faulkners novel has said that the tone of the novel is a despairing one and he says that it results from Faulkners peculiarly despairing metaphysic. Sartre seems to feel that Faulkners worldview didnt allow for any optimism from the future. The novel can indeed seem quite obsessive about certain aspects and events in the history of the Compson family.

The theme of this despairing worldview and the lack of a coherent perspective also symbolised by the title come out strongly in the novel whose first two narratives are extremely disordered and especially the first and in which the third narrative although very coherent is by a extremely narrowminded and it might even be said crude racist and almost misogynistic person and the last chapter which is in the much more traditional and orthodox form of the omniscient narrator but which however fails to be conclusive or provide some more satisfying to reading the text. Therefore the novel ends on a note of further despair as the absence of order and perspective in terms of both the meaning(s) of the text as well as the condition and the Compson family becomes very evident. In a remarkably satisfying reading of the novel one Lawrence Edward Bowling while talking about the third part of the novel says that the only characteristic which it has in common with the other three sections is the strictly objective attitude the author maintains towards his material....Whereas Benjys section is restricted in point of view and not narrowly restricted in time-span, the last section is restricted in time-span to the events of one day but still acquires breadth of outlook by being written from the omniscient-omnipresent point of view which gives the reader the impression of being outside the characters and at a sufficient remove to view the whole general panorama.. he goes on to say that the first and the last narrative serve as a convenient introduction and end respectively to the novel for the reader because of the comprehensive quality of these two narratives in contrast to the highly subjective nature of the other two narratives by Quentin and Jason. He then says that this disintegration and disorder represents the absence of perspective in the lives of the Compsons which in turn is intended to be symbolic and representative of a whole social order. Although I agree with this interpretation of the novel and its structure and technique what seems lacking is the significance of depicting this disordered, disintegrating social order which Sartres essay tries to explain in terms of a lack of perspective about the future. The technique of the disordered and fragmented narrative gives the impression of the gloomy philosophical outlook of the author which was certainly in keeping with the modes of literary and philosophical discourse fashionable during the time of modernism in the early twentieth century. The novel bears out the insecurities of modernism in terms of the lack of faith in the older forms of story-telling or writing and the reluctance of talking about social realities in a direct objective manner but the need to do so through the means of individual consciousness of some of the characters. It can be said that the novel indirectly emphasizes the importance the need for a perspective. The reader is literally (so much so that the first chapter is considered by many to be a major hurdle in understanding the story and also rather unnecessary) made to suffer the consequences of not having a rational or coherent point of view especially through the first two absolutely subjective and rather incoherent and fragmented narratives. Benjy is simply not able to grasp and understand or describe his experiences in any satisfactory manner. Quintins narrative although certainly more coherent than Benjys is also distorted by his obsession with Caddy due to which he finally ends his life. On the other hand Jasons narrative is a much simpler and rather straight forward account of the things that affect him, suffers from its own lack sophistication by the fact that it is extremely racist and parochial and therefore it can be said is hardly adequate. The despair in the novel has also been seen as resulting from the disintegration morally, psychologically as well as economically of the Compson family. Whereas theme of the decline is clear and is felt most acutely by the character of the old fashioned and religious Mrs Compson and Dilsey the black female servant in the family who has been serving the family for a long time and therefore

has come to wield some influence in the family and who helps taking care to a great extent considering that Mrs Compson is so passive and withdrawn into her religion and Puritanism and according to which point of view she reacts in such an exaggerated manner against caddys scandalous behaviour and her daughter Quentin . Her views are to a certain extent similar to that of Jason. She seems to agree with him and goes a great length in supporting him even endorsing his views. She has given him her power of attorney which he unfairly exploits to his own supposed advantage and she even agrees to his almost violent methods of trying to control Quentin. And although she is much less hostile towards Dilsey and however passive is a racist like Jason to the core. When Jason keeps sayings things like they have to keep a kitchen full of niggers she sympathises with him and says that she wishes that she wished she was strong enough to be able to do all that work himself. She has also given him all the authority to run the household and for which the servants and Quentin have to suffer. She escapes into religion and leaves Jason to run the household in his highly strong-handed manner. She is as much worried about the reputation of the family as Jason and can go to absurd lengths to save the honour of the family. This disorder and the crumbling of feudal slave owning values and structures is not necessarily a cause of despair. When Jason gets injured and he need a black man to drive the car for him he is forced to bargain with him on the black mans terms however begrudgingly Jason, because helpless then, allows it to happen. The function of the omniscient narrator at the last narrator is likely to be a device to provide more coherence and perspective to the text. It is arguable to what extent this objective has been met because the last narrative fails to provide any kind of a conclusion or that much of a perspective to the text. If at all there is anything positive about the ending of the novel, it is that the black characters and the women dependent on the Compson family seem to have a more promising future and freer time to look forward to. The structure is very important in underlying the meaning of Faulkners novel and Jason being defeated by Quentin towards the end can be seen as having symbolic meaning. The decline of the Compson family which is symbolised by Caddys libertine sexuality, her brother Quentins death and the disability, helplessness and impotency of Benjy is also affected by the rebellious retaliation by Caddy as well as her daughter. Caddys daughter also runs away and carries away Jasons money is a defeat felt very acutely by Jason so much so that he is not even able to talk about it. After this the very last few pages of the novel by the omniscient narrator till the end is about some black characters who it almost seems because of the absence of Jason are having a relatively jolly and time. It might be significant that the very last scene features Luster riding away and its not mentioned where he is going. The decline of the Compson family which as many critics have pointed out is symbolic of the crumbling old South values is a positive think for such oppressed groups and the servants. Caddys daughter proves to have the same rebellious spirit as her mother and she is the one responsible for making Jason feel so defeated towards the end of the novel.