DAISY MILLER
Henry James has had a tremendous influence on the development of the novel. Part of this influence has been through the type of realism that he employs. On the other hand, the most frequent criticism against James has been that he is not realistic enough. Many critics have objected that James does not write about life, that his novels are filled with people whom one would never meet in this world. One critic (H. L. Mencken) suggested that James needed a good whiff of the Chicago stockyards so as to get a little life into his novels. Others have suggested that James' world is too narrow and incomplete to warrant classification as a realistic depiction of life.
Actually James' realism is of a special sort. By the early definitions, James is not a realist. The early definitions stated that the novelist should accurately depict life and that the novel should “hold up a mirror to life”; in other words, the realist was supposed to make an almost scientific record of life.
But James was not concerned with all aspects of life. There is nothing of the ugly, the vulgar, the common, or the pornographic in James. He was not concerned with poverty or with the middle class who had to struggle for a living. Instead, he was interested in depicting a class of people who could afford to devote themselves to the refinements of life.
What then is James' special brand of realism? When we refer to James' realism, we mean James' fidelity to his own material. To best appreciate his novels and his realism, we must enter into James' special world. It is as though we ascended a ladder and arrived at another world. Once we have arrived at this special world and once we accept it, then we see that James is very realistic. That is, in terms of his world, he never violates his character's essential nature. Thus, James' realism, in the truest sense, means being faithful to his character. In other words, characters from other novels often do things or commit acts that don't seem to blend in with their essential nature. But the acts of the Jamesian character are always understandable in terms of that character's true nature,
James explained his own realism in terms of its opposition to romanticism. For James the realistic represents those things which, sooner or later, in one way or another, everyone will encounter. But the romantic stands for those things that, with all the efforts and all the wealth and facilities of the world, we can never know directly. Thus, it is conceivable that one can experience the same things that the characters are experiencing in a James novel, but one can never actually encounter the events narrated in the romantic novel.
When James, therefore, creates a certain type of character early in the novel, this character will act in a consistent manner throughout the entire book. This is being realistic. The character will never do anything that is not logical and acceptable to his realistic nature, or to our conception of what that character should do.
Writing about realism in later years, James maintained that he was more interested in a faithful rendition of a character in any given situation than in depicting all aspects of life. Accordingly, when he has once drawn Winterborne's or Daisy Miller's character in one situation, the reader can anticipate how that person will act in any other given situation. Likewise, the governess' actions, even in view of possible unrealistic apparitions, are always consistent. We are always able logically to understand all the actions of any character. Thus James' realism would never allow the characters to perform actions that would be inconsistent with their true natures.
Henry James was a true cosmopolite. He was a citizen of the world and moved freely in and out of drawing rooms in Europe, England, and America. He was perhaps more at home in Europe than he was in America, but the roots of his life belong to the American continent. Thus, with few exceptions, most of his works deal with some type of confrontation between an American and a European.
Henry James was born in New York in 1843. His father, Henry James, Sr., had inherited a considerable sum of money and spent his time in leisured pursuit of theology and philosophy. The father often wrote essays and treatises on aspects of religion and philosophy and developed a certain degree of mysticism. Among the guests in the James household were some of the most famous minds of the mid-nineteenth century. Henry James was able to hear his father converse with people like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and George Ripley. The father was insistent that his children learn to approach life with the broadest possible outlook.
In the strictest sense of the word, Henry James had no formal education. As a youth, he had private tutors. Then in his twelfth year, his father took the entire family to Europe, where they moved freely from Switzerland to France to Germany in pursuit of stimulating conversation and intellectual ideas. The world of Europe left an everlasting impression on young Henry James. He was ultimately to return and make his home in Europe.
When the family returned from Europe, the elder James decided to settle in New England. He chose Cambridge because this was the center of American intellectual thought. Many of the writers of Cambridge, Boston, and nearby Concord, where Emerson and Thoreau lived, were often visitors in the James household. It was in Boston that James met the first great influence on his literary career. He established a close friendship with William Dean Howells, who as editor of one of America's leading magazines, was able to help James in his early efforts to write and publish.
In Boston, Henry James enrolled briefly in the Harvard Law School but soon withdrew to devote himself to writing. His older brother, William James, the most famous philosopher and psychologist America had yet produced, was also a student at Harvard, where he remained after graduation to become one of the most eminent lecturers in America.
By the late 1860s, James had done some reviewing and had sold one work of fiction to the Atlantic Monthly. He also went to Europe on his own, to see the continent as an adult. He returned again to Cambridge and New York in the hope of continuing his literary career, but he gradually came to the realization that Europe was more suitable for his writings. Thus, in 1876, when he was in his thirty-third year, James made the momentous decision to take up residence abroad. With the exception of short trips to various parts of the world, he lived the rest of his life in and near London. Until 1915, he retained his American citizenship, but when World War I broke out, he became a naturalized citizen of England in protest over America's failure to enter the war against Germany.
James' life and background were ideally suited for the development of his artistic temperament. Even though he was not extremely wealthy, he did have sufficient independent means to allow him to live a leisured life. His father's house provided all the intellectual stimulation he needed. The visitors were the most prominent artists of the day, and James was able to follow the latest literary trends. In his travels, he moved in the best society of two continents and came into contact with a large variety of ideas.
With such a life, it is natural that James' novels are concerned with a society of people who are interested in subtle ideas and subtle refinements. There are no really poor people in his novels. He wrote about people who had enough money to allow them to develop and cultivate their higher natures. His novels develop with a deliberate slowness and conscientious refinement. Many critics and readers resent the deliberate withholding of information and the slow development found in the Jamesian novel, but James' life was lived with a high degree of leisure and refinement. And finally, James was the first American qualified to develop the theme of the American in Europe. By the time he made his decision to settle in Europe, he had made several trips there and had lived and attended school in several parts of Europe. Thus, the subject matter of most of James' works is concerned with an American of some degree of innocence meeting or becoming involved with some European of experience.
In spite of his decision to live abroad, James remained essentially American in his sympathies. His greatest characters (or central characters) are almost always Americans. But at the same time, some of his most unpleasant characters are also Americans. But the important thing is that the characters who change, mature, and achieve an element of greatness are almost always Americans.
This short story serves as both a psychological description of the mind of a young woman, and an analysis of the traditional views of a society where she is a clear outsider. Henry James uses Daisy's story to discuss what he thinks Europeans and Americans believe about each other, and more generally the prejudices common in any culture. In a letter James said that Daisy is the victim of a "social rumpus" that goes on either over her head or beneath her notice.
The names of the characters are also symbolic. Daisy is a flower in full bloom, without inhibitions and in the springtime of her life. Daisy contrasts sharply with Winterbourne, who is more ambivalent and unwilling to commit to any relationship. Flowers die in winter and this is precisely what happens to Daisy, after catching the "Roman Fever" or, to put it more bluntly, the attention of foreign men. As an objective analogue to this psychological reality, Daisy catches the very real Roman fever, the malaria that was endemic to many Roman neighborhoods in the 19th century.
[edit] Syntax and the characterization of Winterbourne
Imprimis, it must be said that although the sparknotes of this story mentions that the syntax of the narrator is gossip-like and contributes to a motif, this is untrue. The narrator is one of Winterbourne's confidants, and his syntax, particularly the use of I, suggests that he is somehow linked to the narrator. But then how do you explain the fact that the narrator does not know what became of Winterbourne at the end of the novella, as he only received "varying accounts"? From this puzzling question, it can be deduced that the narrator is Winterbourne.
Throughout the short story, Winterbourne's voice sounds noticeably distinct. Henry James creates this effect through the use of subtle syntactic techniques that give Winterbourne a much more formal-sounding voice than any other character. A casual reader may at first find this syntax elusive, but close re-reading should clearly show that Winterbourne's speech reveals him to be a latent homosexual. Particularly in his musings regarding Giovanelli, Winterbourne's grammatical patterns display disjointed, flushed thinking that is the result of homosexual attraction. This is most evident when Winterbourne first meets Giovanelli.
Similary, we see through James' subject-verb arrangement that Winterbourne serves as a symbol for the rise of socialism in western Europe. Through his careful syntactic choices, James creates sentences in which the subject and the predicate are equal in terms of emphasis and tone. The concept that all parts of the sentence are equal, and no one subject is placed in front of the rest, is James' brilliant technique of incorporating socialist theories into his writing. His sentences utilize all parts of speech equally from transitive verbs to gerunds, just as a socialist government would serve all its citizens equally. A careful reader will surely be able to pick up on this subtle political statement, which is one of the many striking nuances of James' meticulous syntax.
[edit] Critical evaluation
Daisy Miller was an immediate and widespread popular success for James, despite some overheated criticism that the story was "an outrage on American girlhood." If the Amazon.com sales ranks are any guide, the story continues to be one of James' most popular works, along with The Turn of the Screw and The Portrait of a Lady. Critics have generally praised the freshness and vigor of the storytelling, though the point of the narrative has gotten somewhat lost. Not too many people nowadays would care about Daisy's flirtations, after all.
Despite changes in times and customs, the forthright if naive Daisy can still cast a spell on today's readers. The touches of humor help offset the pathos of the tale, and the supporting cast is vividly portrayed. While some may feel that James tries to overload a simple story with too many trappings of tragedy, few readers will be unaffected by Daisy's fate.
In 1909 James revised Daisy Miller extensively for the New York Edition of his fiction. He deepened the tone of the story but some feel he robbed the original version of its color and immediacy. Fortunately, both the early and late versions of the tale are available online (see below) so readers can compare for themselves.
Major Themes
The incongruity between reality and appearance: The idea of subtext is a metaphor for the manner in which the European-American social circle in Europe misunderstands the true character of Daisy Miller. She is innocent and uncultured and incautious but the circle sees only the surface of her character and the actions that character takes. They imagine a member of their social circle, thus someone with the experience and knowledge to understand and exaggerate the mores and codes of the European culture, acting in the way that Daisy Miller does. They do not take the time to look beneath this pretense to find that she is naturally innocent, acting on impulse instead of caution and convention. She rebels not by having a great knowledge of the rules which bind the society and consciously deciding to throw them out the window, but by being limited in her scope of experience and by refusing to change her natural ways in order to please a culture to which she does not belong. She oversteps even these bounds but not in the manner for which she will be ridiculed and rejected by her compatriots. The great theme of the disparity between reality and appearance is at its greatest strength in the relationship between Winterbourne and Daisy because of the conflict which roars inside of Winterbourne regarding the appearance he cannot overcome and the reality he cannot accept. He constantly asks himself, should she know better? Yet he does not realize that she does not know better and will ruin herself because of it.
Knowledge as evil versus inexperience as innocence: James explores the type of an American girl who is innocent of the knowledge of evil and immorality. However, she is immersed in an environment of an elusive evil, concentrated in Rome and symbolized mainly in the dark foreshadowing of Daisy's ruin in the shadowed cavernous scene of the Colosseum. One better understands the hypocritical evil of the Euro-American social circle when they gossip about Daisy's behavior through vespers at St. Peters, symbolic of the evil of their experience and knowledge. Daisy's lack of knowledge and experience deceives Winterbourne who is incapable of seeing life through the lens of inexperience after leaving America. He thus fails to understand her inexperience as innocence.
Outward action versus inward meditation: This theme focuses on the problems of communication, especially in regards to the relationship between Daisy and Winterbourne, and the differences in types of character. Daisy is a character who reacts on impulse to the world around her and will say something or act without hesitation. Winterbourne, on the other hand, more representative of the European American circle, acts on pretense frequently and will often contain his feelings inwardly. He meditates on Daisy's character repeatedly, trying to decide how to view her, but usually overthinks the situation. Winterbourne attempts to apply the conventional rules he has accepted since leaving America to Daisy without realizing that she is not dissecting the world with the same meditating process that he undertakes.
Nature versus urbanity: A rather broad theme which acts as a vehicle to illustrate the conflicts between natural response and convention and social custom. Rousseau believed that natural man's innocence and purity was destroyed by the rigid rules of formalized civil society. By referring to the Golden Age in chapter four, the reader is reminded of the philosophic notions of nature's ruin at the hands of civilization. James is likely implying subtextually that Daisy's position in a sort of Golden Age is a state of innocence and goodness, not something to be insulted or ridiculed by characters such as Mrs. Costello. Daisy, as her name symbolizes, is simple and natural whereas her companion, the "beautiful Italian", is an imitation of a gentleman, urbane and artificial. The urbanity symbolized in the formal civilized setting of Rome overwhelms the natural innocence of Daisy and she succumbs to harsh condemnation, incaution, and a lack of love. Nature overcomes urbanity in the end, as Giovanelli confesses Daisy's innocence to Winterbourne.
SETTING
The action begins in Vevey, Switzerland, at a lake resort in the Alps. The lake is ringed with hotels and tourists, including a large number of Americans. For the most part, the Americans belong to the monied class, the inheritors of American industrial prowess. They strive to imitate what they see as the exclusivity of their European progenitors; at the same time, they distrust individual Europeans.
At the opening of the story, all the characters are staying at the venerable Trois Couronnes, a "classical" hotel that is also quite luxurious--the place to be if you are a rich American. Chapter One takes place here, except for a trip across the lake that Daisy and Winterbourne take to tour the castle, Chateau de Chillon. The second chapter takes place at a variety of hotels, apartments, and tourist attractions in Rome. Most significant of these is the penultimate scene: Daisy, Winterbourne, and Giovanelli at the Colosseum at night. Presumably the time period is the 1870's.
CONFLICT
Protagonist
Daisy Miller is the protagonist and central character, and the story is named after her. The reader is invited to be both attracted and appalled by her lively, unconventional spirit.
Antagonist
The antagonist for Daisy is the refusal to accept the social standards of the American "society" in Europe, which frowns upon her lively and daring behavior. Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker, in particular, represent that society and its constricting power.
Climax
The tragic climax of the story for Daisy is clearly foreshadowed at Mrs. Walker's party. While in Rome, Daisy has flaunted her disregard of social conventions to further and further extremes. When invited to Mrs. Walker's party, she arrives late with Mr. Giovanelli and announces she has been alone with him in the hotel. The hostess is horrified at her behavior.
At the party Daisy finally meets her disgrace when Mrs. Walker refuses to say good night to her and then declares that she will have nothing more to do with Daisy. As a result of the party, Daisy becomes a social outcast, but refuses to change her behavior. She foolishly sits in the Colosseum with Giovanelli at midnight, still defying social standards; this act of defiance is the climax and her final undoing. As a result of her midnight outing, she contracts malaria and dies.
Outcome
The story ends in tragedy for Daisy Miller. She refuses to behave according to accepted social norms and is, therefore, snubbed by Mrs. Walker. Even after she is rejected by the American "society" in Europe, she continues to act improperly, sitting in the Colosseum at midnight with Giovanelli. This foolish act causes her to contract malaria and die.
THEMES
In Daisy Miller, Henry James develops the theme that it is difficult to resolve the differences in opposing positions: the old vs. the new, the male role vs. the female role, the American vs. the European, or the innocent vs. the experienced. Through the character of Daisy, the author addresses the problem of tragic innocence in uncultivated Americans, especially in their susceptibility to damage in the presence of their more experienced compatriots.
Daisy is created as the pinnacle of American innocence, which is socially and personally destructive but also refreshingly attractive and charming. It is her charm and spontaneity that attract Winterbourne, who is the only one that correctly judges Daisy as an innocent. But because of false starts, romantic posturing, missed opportunities, and different social backgrounds, Winterbourne and Daisy, who genuinely like one another, are never able to develop a serious relationship, a fact which contributes to the overall tragedy of the story.
MOOD
The mood of the story is at times playful (as in scenes with Randolph or even Mrs. Costello) and at times somber (at Mrs. Walker's party, the Colosseum scene, the funeral). The general mood of the characters in Daisy Miller is one of interested confusion, largely due to Winterbourne. The omniscient narrator follows Winterbourne closely, and it is his curiosity about Daisy that fuels the plot.
THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS
James is a very sophisticated author who carefully chooses characters and events for his stories. He obviously picks the name Daisy intentionally, and through it he points out one of the themes of the book. The transient and common nature of beauty is suggested by the main character's name. A daisy is a common flower, pretty and plain, but like all flowers, also fragile. As Daisy is "milled" or put through a finishing process during her trip to Europe, she is crushed; her physical beauty is transient and can not ensure her survival. The beauty of Rome has also decayed, and it is appropriate that Daisy's own decay and final demise takes place in this city.
The story starts in the high, cold altitudes of the Swiss Alps, a place of strength and permanence that nature rules and changes slowly; when the setting moves to the decaying seat of western civilization, Daisy's decay is hurried forward. As a tourist in ancient Rome, she represents America's innocence and the decay of social conventions, caused by the rough-and-tumble attitude of the new and wealthy American industrialists. But in Rome, even the audacious and spontaneous Daisy can not remain unaffected by the centuries of social order that surround her. The buildings, like the Colosseum, may be in decay, but the social code remains in tact. Unfortunately, the innocent Daisy is unable to negotiate her way through the complex web of propriety. As a result, the story ends with her demise (decay) both socially and physically.
James also develops the theme of man's inhumanity to man. He uses Christian symbolism in the story to drive home the point that Daisy was "sacrificed" at the hands of a cruel society. At the climax of the story, she sits in the Colosseum at the base of a cross, the Christian symbol for sacrifice and forgiveness. Ironically, the Colosseum is a "pagan" site of human brutality and sacrifice. It is appropriate that Daisy meets her end in this pagan place, for she is martyred to an unforgiving society.
More importantly, Daisy sits beneath the cross, in the position of the Virgin Mary; there she is symbolized as purity and protected by forgiveness. Giovanelli stands before her, a Roman soldier figure, and the agent of her demise. But it is night, centuries have passed, and the suggestion of darkness and moonlight casts a shadow over the scene. When Daisy is buried in a dark corner of a small Protestant cemetery, her New World posture is effectively crushed and her marginal status confirms her martyrdom.
It is always questionable, when reading James, whether he exalts or demeans America and Americans. It is obvious in Daisy Miller that he views some Americans, like Daisy herself, as innocents who have some good attributes and intentions; but there are also the less pleasant American characters, like Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker, who are poor imitations of their European ancestors and who destroy American innocence. Europe, the site of James' most famous tales, is always presented as complex, interesting, and threatening to the Americans. It is obvious that, in general, James prefers the Europeans.
The final theme deals with the upper class that James always portrays in his fiction. He criticizes this class, with its elite status and controlling interest, as cruel and outdated. His upper class characters never change and have very limited perspectives. James knows that the upper class cannot deal with the messiness of "real" life; therefore, its members simply shun living life to its fullest. In the end of the book, Daisy, who tries to have fun at any cost, is really a much more charming character than Mrs. Costello, or Mrs. Walker (the upper class characters that are ruled by social tradition).
THE RED BADAGE OF COURAGE
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As The Red Badge of Courage opens, members of a newly recruited regiment are debating a fresh rumor‹they are finally going to move out on the next day and engage the enemy. One young soldier, named Henry Fleming, does not engage in the debate and instead reflects on what will become of him when he get to battle. Will he run or will he stand and fight bravely. He enlisted because he wanted to be a hero, thinking of Greek epics. His own mother, however, was not interested in such ideas, and discouraged him from enlisting. When he finally did, she did not have an impassioned speech for him. She merely says that if he is ever in a situation where he will be killed or do something wrong, he should go with his feelings. With these words, Henry left his home and entered his army duty.
He had not seen his foes yet, save a conversation with one across a riverbank late one night. The veterans tell them of gray, mad, rampaging hordes; but he does not trust their tales very much. However, he does not care who he fights, just that he will not run away. He is panicked at the proposition. He talks with other soldiers‹the tall one (named Jim Conklin) and the loud one (named Wilson). Both believe in themselves enough to say that they will fight as hard as they can, but neither goes as far to say that they definitely will not run.
The regiment does not move out on the rumored day, but soon thereafter. They march through other Union armies, dressed in blue. Their youth shows, as their uniforms still seem so new they gleam. Soon after, though, the tall soldier kicks Henry awake. The regiment is gathered and the men run down wood roads. During this time, Henry's thoughts are mixed and various. He feels that he should have never enlisted and misses his home. The next moment, he feels the overwhelming need to see a battle taking place. After he does so, upon cresting a hill and looking at a skirmish down below, he watches in quiet fascination, but does not desire to participate. Then, after the men march more and he sees his first dead body, he begins to suspect that they are being led to their slaughter, to be sacrificed to a red war god. He wants to tell his mates, but is afraid of their jibes and scoffing in return.
Soon, the regiment is facing an actual conflict. Wilson, the loud soldier, is so certain he will die that he gives Henry a packet of letters to send to his family. As they line up to fight, rumors fly again about the state of their army. Smoke and noise from guns rise around them. Bullets and shells whistle towards them. A regiment in front, already engaging the enemy, is beaten and flees the battleground. The youth imagines that they were beaten by a monster. He resolves to get a view of this monster, even if he very well may flee himself. The regiment is soon engaged. They work feverishly, firing and reloading. The smoke chokes them and makes their eyes red. Henry feels full of rage. Men fall occasionally around him. Soon, the enemy retreats. The men relax. Henry feels satisfied that he has overcome the trials of war.
However, the men have not rested for long when the Rebels attack again. They fight fiercely once more. Henry feels different this time. He feels that the monster of war, a red and green dragon, will come through the gray smoke and swallow him. After a few men around him flee, the youth's own fear gets the better of him. He drops his weapon and runs from the battle. As he goes through the forest and past cannons, he is sure that the dragon is pursuing him and that these others fighting against it are fools, going like lemmings to their death. However, as he finally stops by an officer, he finds that his regiment won the battle. He is thunderstruck. He realizes that he has done something very wrong, though he tries to justify it to himself that it was through superior powers of observation. He imagines the insults he will have to bear when returning to camp and attempts to get as far away from them and the monster of war as possible. He walks into a forest. The noises of the conflict gradually become fainter. He feels more at peace, that his actions are more in congress with nature. However, as he goes, he encounters a corpse, with a faded uniform. The glassy-eyed stare grabs him for a moment in fear. Then the youth slowly turns away, creeping from the body; then he turns and runs away as fast as he can.
He goes through the forest and into the open. He finds a road and walking upon it a procession of wounded soldiers. They are suffering and moaning as they limp down the road. A tattered soldier, wounded twice, tries to talk to Henry about the battle and where the youth has been shot. These questions bring his embarrassment and guilt out. He tries to run away in the crowd. He eventually runs into Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, wounded and near death. Henry tries to help him, but his friend is too close to death. The tattered man comes up to assist as well, but Jim runs off into the fields, where he staggers and falls over dead. The tattered man tries to talk more with Henry, telling him stories of men he knows in the army and how he became wounded. Again, the man asks Henry where his wounds are located. The youth tells him to not bother him, and slips away from the man, leaving him blubbering and wondering about in the field.
As he continues on, Henry eventually encounters a retreating band of carts and horses. This makes him feel temporarily good; if the whole army is retreating, his flight will not be so suspicious. However, soon a column of troops comes up the road. Henry looks at these men as brave, and he soon gets the will to fight. However, more thoughts come into his head. He considers that he is low and guilty. His comrades will see him as a worm. These thoughts make him thirst and ache. He tries to justify his flight in his head, but his emotions betray him. He wishes he were dead.
Soon, the column comes running out of the grove into which they marched. All is chaos and pandemonium. Henry is shocked to see that these heroic figures have been so quickly turned into scampering animals. He tries to stop one to ask him what happened, but only blubbers his words. The man hits him on the head with his rifle. Henry is dazed and injured. He wonders in the dark until a kind man helps him find his regiment.
There, no harsh words await him. Wilson and another soldier bandage his wound, which Henry claims is from a bullet. The others do not seem to care that much, just that he gets attention and rest, which he does. When he awakes, he finds that his friend, Wilson, is not so much the loud soldier he once was. He takes special care of Henry, is reflective, and breaks up fights around him. The youth notices this change from irritation to tranquility. However, he feels that he has a weapon against his friend‹the packet of letters he gave in haste at the beginning of the battle the day before. Fearful of being discovered as a coward, he imagines that with this packet he can ward off any shame that questioning from Wilson would give him. However, Wilson sheepishly asks for the packet before Henry can do anything. While he maintains a haughty air, the youth can say no barbs against his friend as he hands the envelope back to him.
The regiment today moves from one embankment to another, always taking cover and seeing some of battle, but not actually participating in it. The youth is now talkative, perhaps overly so. He tries to show his pride, and is silenced for it; for he knows that he in fact fled battle yesterday and was not shot. A sarcastic soldier cuts him down and later his lieutenant tells him to stop talking and start fighting. The regiment does this soon enough. They are attacked by the Rebels and repel them. This battle, Henry fights as if he were crazed, shooting at them long after the battle is finished. This makes some of the men look at him with curiosity. Henry regards himself as a barbarian.
Soon, Wilson and Henry take an opportunity to get water for the regiment. After they search for a stream unsuccessfully, they encounter a general and his staff in a road. In the midst of the conversation, they hear that their regiment of "mule drivers" is going to charge the enemy, with perhaps many casualties. They return to their fellow soldiers with this news, but do not tell them that the general doubted that they will survive.
The charge begins soon. It takes the regiment a minute, but they are soon running with haste at the enemy. Many are shot in the process. Henry now feels that he sees things clearly. He and the other men go into a frenzy. But eventually, they stop. The lieutenant yells, screams, and curses at them to continue. Wilson breaks the spell by firing his rifle. Others soon follow his lead. Soon, Henry sees the flag of his army, which revives him. As his color sergeant is soon shot, he leaps for the flag, along with Wilson, to hold it for himself. The battle rages on, with Henry holding the flag aloft. The men dig in slightly, as their numbers diminish. Henry is full of rage. He is thinking little, only feeling his anger. The lieutenant and Henry are both trying to get the men to continue. Soon, the officer sees that the men in gray are trying to advance onto their position. Automatically, the regiment fires into them, causing the enemy to retreat. Satisfied, they go back to their lines.
When they return, they are greeted with jeers from the veterans and reprimands from the higher officers. They stopped short of an impressive charge, they learn. The men, who had been so proud of themselves, find that their efforts are not seen as sufficient, let alone brave. Soon, though, Wilson and Henry here a story through one of their fellow soldiers that a colonel and lieutenant were discussing their particular prowess in battle. This fills their hearts with pride.
Soon, the battle is on again. The men in blue charge the men in gray once more. Again, the regiment finds itself in open territory, peppered by bullets. Henry is intent on standing upright, keeping the flag strong, though the men around him are still falling. Then the order comes to charge. The men to not shirk; they fix bayonets and wildly charge toward the gray smoke of the enemy's guns. On the other side, the youth knows, are the men who made this. He must see them. As they approach the enemy lines, the opposing flag comes into view. Wilson leaps at it and grabs it from the hands of the just-shot color sergeant. There are four prisoners of war, all looking very young and very human in their own faces. The men in blue are victorious.
Henry, upon walking away with the regiment, first feels pride in his accomplishments of battle. Then he remembers his flight and his treatment of the tattered man, and guilt riles up in him again. He is concerned his mate will see it. However, he eventually lets this go. He now sees his previous thoughts on war and battle as silly and is happy to find himself doing so. He has made it through the trials of battle, from the red and the black, and is changed into a man. The gold (instead of the yellow) of the sun streams through the clouds as he marches with his regiment.
Character List
The youth (Henry Fleming): the main character of the book. Fights with the 304th regiment, flees his first battle, fights courageously in his second. His musings, thoughts, and responses to war are the focus of the book; because of his changing minds and deeds, he matures as the book progresses.
The loud soldier or the friend (Wilson): begins the book headstrong and proud, but through battle gains a sense of tranquility. He takes close care of Henry when he returns to the regiment and fights bravely in battle the next day. His maturity is a clue for what will happen to Henry.
The tall soldier (Jim Conklin): one of Henry's friends. He converses and argues much with Wilson before any battle begins. During his journeys after deserting, Henry encounters Jim in a procession of wounded soldiers. He is there when Jim breathes his last.
The tattered soldier: one of the wounded soldiers. He tries to chat with Henry about the battle and about Henry's wounds. His questions make Henry so upset and guilty that he runs away from him, leaving the tattered man stumbling in a field.
The young lieutenant: the commander of Henry's regiment. He is shot in the hand in the first battle and in the arm in the second. He tries to get his men to fight and charge, even when they are stagnant and even when all he can do is curse.
Henry's mother: does not approve of her son's enlisting, but does not prevent him from going. She only tells him to do what he thinks is right, instead of telling him to be a hero.
Stephen Crane's internationally acclaimed work, The Red Badge of Courage, was published in 1895. Unique in style and content, the novel explores the emotions of a young Civil War recruit named Henry Fleming. What is most remarkable about this classic is that the twenty-four-year-old author had never witnessed war in his life before writing this book. Crane's story developed to some degree out of his reading of war stories by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the popular memoirs of Civil War veterans, yet he also deviated from these influences in his depiction of war's horror. Critics have noted that his portrait of war is an intensely psychological one, blending elements of naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism. Indeed, he broke away from his American realist contemporaries, including his mentor William Dean Howells, in his naturalistic treatment of man as an amoral creature in a deterministic world.
For this reason, critical reactions to the The Red Badge of Courage in 1895 were mixed: some disapproved of Crane's use of the vernacular—the common slang of everyday folk and soldiers—and the impressionistic technique. Crane also experimented with psychological realism, and his venture into the realm of the human psyche radically changed the common perception of the novel in America. As he faces combat for the first time, Henry experiences an intense array of emotions: courage, anxiety, self-confidence, fear, and egotistic zeal. Interestingly enough, the naturalistic flavor of the work operates against this serf-important ego. The individual is not of primary importance, as is evidenced time and again in the words of Henry's mother, fellow soldiers, and officers. Henry is often referred to quite impersonally as "the youth." The men, untried and untested, are treated like scared animals against the backdrop of inimitable Nature and War. Crane also used color imagery, both vibrant and subtle, to describe war. He describes a skirmish as sounding like a "crimson roar," for example, and writes of war as "the red animal." Crane's sense of color pervades the work; note his description of the sky, which remains "fairy blue" during the day, as if to underscore the indifference of nature to the carnage taking place.
Neglected for two decades after his death, Crane's work was rediscovered in the 1920s by poets and novelists, such as Amy Lowell and Sherwood Anderson, who recognized in his experiments with new subjects, themes, and forms something of the spirit of their own literary aims. In the 1950s, critical essays focused on his religious themes. Today, Crane's novel is widely read and appreciated for its amalgamation of artistic themes and techniques.
Analysis of Major Characters
Henry Fleming
Throughout the novel, Crane refers to Henry as “the young soldier” and “the youth.” Both the best and worst characteristics of Henry's youth mark him. Unlike the veteran soldiers whom he encounters during his first battle, Henry is not jaded. He believes, albeit naïvely, in traditional models of courage and honor, and romanticizes the image of dying in battle by invoking the Greek tradition of a dead soldier being laid upon his shield. On the other hand, because he is young, Henry has yet to experience enough to test these abstractions. As a result, his most passionate convictions are based on little else than fantasies, making him seem vain and self-centered.
Henry's reasons for wanting to win glory in battle are far from noble. The philosophical underpinnings of the war do not motivate him; neither does any deeply held, personal sense of right and wrong. Instead, Henry desires a reputation. He hopes that an impressive performance on the battlefield will immortalize him as a hero among men who, because of the domesticating effects of religion and education, rarely distinguish themselves so dramatically. Ironically, after fleeing from battle, Henry feels little guilt about invoking his own intelligence in order to justify his cowardice. He condemns the soldiers who stayed to fight as imbeciles who were not “wise enough to save themselves from the flurry of death.” This is how he restores his fragile self-pride. When Henry returns to camp and lies about the nature of his wound, he doubts neither his manhood nor his right to behave as pompously as a veteran. Henry's lack of a true moral sense manifests itself in the emptiness of the honor and glory that he seeks. He feels no responsibility to earn these accolades. If others call him a hero, he believes he is one.
When Henry finally faces battle, however, he feels a “temporary but sublime absence of selfishness.” A great change occurs within him: as he fights, he loses his sense of self. No longer is he interested in winning the praise and attention of other men; instead, he allows himself to disappear into the commotion and become one component of a great fighting machine. As Henry finds himself deeply immersed in battle, the importance of winning a name for himself fades with the gun smoke, for “it was difficult to think of reputation when others were thinking of skins.” It is ironic, then, that Henry establishes his reputation at these very moments. Officers who witness his fierce fighting regard him as one of the regiment's best. Henry does not cheat his way to the honor that he so desperately craves when the novel opens; instead, he earns it. This marks a tremendous growth in Henry's character. He learns to reflect on his mistakes, such as his earlier retreat, without defensiveness or bravado, and abandons the hope of blustery heroism for a quieter, but more satisfying, understanding of what it means to be a man.
Jim Conklin
Jim contrasts sharply with Henry in the opening pages of the novel. When Henry asks Jim if he would flee from battle, Jim's answer—that he would run if other soldiers ran, fight if they fought—establishes him as a pragmatist. He is strong and self-reliant, and does not romanticize war or its supposed glories in the manner that Henry does. Unlike Wilson, whose loud complaints characterize his early appearances, Jim marches through his days efficiently and with few grievances. He informs Henry that he can unburden himself of his unnecessary munitions, declaring, “You can now eat and shoot . . . That's all you want to do.”
Jim has little patience for the kind of loud, knee-jerk criticism or vague abstraction that distracts Wilson and Henry. He prefers to do what duty requires of him and finds a quiet, simple pleasure in doing so. He silences Wilson and Henry from discussing the qualifications of their commanding officers while they are eating because he “could not rage in fierce argument in the presence of such sandwiches.”
Jim's quiet demeanor persists even as he dies. He does not indulge in a protracted death scene, curse his fate, or philosophize about the cruelties and injustices of war. Instead, he brushes Henry and his offers of comfort aside. He seeks to die alone, and those present notice “a curious and profound dignity in the firm lines of his awful face.” The solemn poise with which Jim dies puzzles Henry, who wants to rail loudly at the universe. In death, as in life, Jim possesses the rare, self-assured goodness of a man who knows and fulfills his responsibilities.
Wilson
Whereas Jim Conklin's character remains notably steady throughout the novel, Wilson undergoes a dramatic change. Wilson is initially loud, opinionated, and naïve. For the first half of the book, Crane refers to him almost exclusively as “the loud soldier.” Wilson indignantly assures Henry that if battle occurs, he will certainly fight in it: “I said I was going to do my share of the fighting—that's what I said. And I am, too. Who are you anyhow? You talk as if you thought you was Napoleon Bonaparte.” Shortly thereafter, he approaches Henry again. Certain that he is about to meet his doom, he gives the youth a yellow envelope to deliver to his family should he die in battle. This erratic shift from obnoxious bravado to naked vulnerability demonstrates Wilson's immaturity. Like Henry, he is initially little more than a youth trying desperately to assure himself of his manhood.
Wilson's transformation becomes clear relatively quickly. After disappearing into battle, he resurfaces to take care of Henry with all of the bustling of an “amateur nurse” upon Henry's return to camp. He further displays his generosity by insisting that Henry take his blanket. Upon waking the next day, Henry notes the change in his friend: “He was no more a loud young soldier. There was now about him a fine reliance. He showed a quiet belief in his purpose and his abilities.”
Wilson's attitude toward the envelope which he earlier entrusted to Henry further demonstrates the maturation that he has undergone. Though ashamed of his earlier display of fear, he asks Henry for the envelope back—he is no longer interested in his reputation or in the amount of sheer bravery that his comrades associate with his name, two issues that ponderously plague Henry. Instead, Wilson seems to have “climbed a peak of wisdom from which he could perceive himself as a very wee thing.”
This transformation furthers one of the novel's explorations, showing plainly what happens when one realizes the relative insignificance of his or her life—an awareness that Henry seems to have gained by the novel's end. Furthermore, the development of Wilson's character contributes to the noise/silence motif. Through the sounds of battle, endless gossip, and empty bragging of the soldiers, noise comes to be associated with youth, vanity, and struggle. Toward the end of the novel, these sounds give way to a peace and quiet that suggest the eventuality of the progression past youthful struggle to the more reflective musings of manhood.
THEMES
Courage
Given the novel's title, it is no surprise that courage—defining it, desiring it, and, ultimately, achieving it—is the most salient element of the narrative. As the novel opens, Henry's understanding of courage is traditional and romantic. He assumes that, like a war hero of ancient Greece, he will return from battle either with his shield or on it. Henry's understanding of courage has more to do with the praise of his peers than any internal measure of his bravery. Within the novel's first chapter, Henry recalls his mother's advice, which runs counter to his own notions. She cares little whether Henry earns himself a praiseworthy name; instead, she instructs him to meet his responsibilities honestly and squarely, even if it means sacrificing his own life.
The gap that exists between Henry's definition of courage and the alternative that his mother suggests fluctuates throughout The Red Badge of Courage, sometimes narrowing (when Henry fights well in his first battle) and sometimes growing wider (when he abandons the tattered soldier). At the end of the novel, as the mature Henry marches victoriously from battle, a more subtle and complex understanding of courage emerges: it is not simply a function of other people's opinions, but it does incorporate egocentric concerns such as a soldier's regard for his reputation.
Manhood
Throughout the novel, Henry struggles to preserve his manhood, his understanding of which parallels his understanding of courage. At first, he relies on very traditional, even clichéd, notions. He laments that education and religion have tamed men of their natural savagery and made them so pale and domestic that there remain few ways for a man to distinguish himself other than on the battlefield. Having this opportunity makes Henry feel grateful to be participating in the war. As he makes his way from one skirmish to the next, he becomes more and more convinced that his accumulated experiences will earn him the praise of women and the envy of men; he will be a hero, a real man, in their eyes. These early conceptions of manhood are simplistic, romantic, adolescent fantasies.
Jim Conklin and Wilson stand as symbols of a more human kind of manhood. They are self-assured without being braggarts and are ultimately able to own up to their faults and shortcomings. Wilson, who begins the novel as an obnoxiously loud soldier, later exposes his own fear and vulnerability when he asks Henry to deliver a yellow envelope to his family should he die in battle. In realizing the relative insignificance of his own life, Wilson frees himself from the chains that bind Henry, becoming a man of “quiet belief in his purposes and abilities.” By the novel's end, Henry makes a bold step in the same direction, learning that the measure of one's manhood lies more in the complex ways in which one negotiates one's mistakes and responsibilities than in one's conduct on the battlefield.
Self-Preservation
An anxious desire for self-preservation influences Henry throughout the novel. When a pinecone that he throws after fleeing from battle makes a squirrel scurry, he believes that he has stumbled upon a universal truth: each being will do whatever it takes, including running from danger, in order to preserve itself. Henry gets much mileage out of this revelation, as he uses it to justify his impulse to retreat from the battlefield. His conceits—namely that the good of the army and, by extension, the world, requires his survival—drive him to behave abominably. He not only runs from battle, but also abandons the tattered soldier, though he knows that the soldier is almost certain to die if he does not receive assistance. Soon after his encounter with the squirrel, Henry discovers the corpse of a soldier. This sets in motion Henry's realization that the world is largely indifferent to his life and the questions that preoccupy him. Courage and honor endow a man with a belief in the worth of preserving the lives of others, but the pervasiveness of death on the battlefield compels Henry to question the importance of these qualities. This weighing of values begs consideration of the connection between the survival instinct and vanity.
The Universe's Disregard for Human Life
Henry's realization that the natural world spins on regardless of the manner in which men live and die is perhaps the most difficult lesson that Henry learns as a soldier. It disabuses him of his naïve, inexperienced beliefs regarding courage and manhood. Shortly after his encounter with the squirrel in the woods, Henry stumbles upon a dead soldier, whose rotting body serves as a powerful reminder of the universe's indifference to human life. As the drama of the war rages on around him, Henry continues to occupy his mind with questions concerning the nature of courage and honor and the possibilities of gaining glory. Death, he assumes, would stop this drama cold. Yet, when he encounters the corpse, he finds that death is nothing more than an integral and unremarkable part of nature. As he reflects at the end of the novel: “He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death.”
Together, Henry's encounters with the squirrel and the corpse form one of the most important passages in the novel, for it is here that Crane establishes the formidable opposing forces in Henry's mind: the vain belief that human life deserves such distinctions as courage and honor, and the stark realization that, regardless of such distinctions, all human life meets the same end.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Noise and Silence
Great and terrible sounds saturate much of the novel. The book opens with soldiers chattering, gossiping, and arguing about when and if they will see action on the battlefield. Soon enough, the pop of gunfire and exploding artillery drown out their conversations. The reader comes to associate these sounds with boys, battle—both physical and mental—and bravado. Wilson, who often airs his opinions indignantly, embodies these associations early in the novel when Crane refers to him almost exclusively as “the loud soldier.” The transformation of Wilson and Henry into men of quiet resolve marks a process of maturation, wherein a peaceful disposition wins out over an unquiet one and the security of feeling courage internally silences the need for public recognition.
Youth and Maturity
Although the novel spans no more than a few weeks, the reader witnesses a profound change in the characters of both Henry and Wilson. Though these men do not grow considerably older during the course of the narrative, one can best describe the psychological development that the novel charts for them as the passage from youth into maturity. Innocence gives way to experience, and the unfounded beliefs of boys make way for the quietly assured, bedrock convictions of men.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Dead Soldier
In writing The Red Badge of Courage, Crane tried to render battle, and the lives of common soldiers, as authentically as possible. Accordingly, a realistic, almost journalistic style of writing dominates the narrative, leaving little room for the development of an overt, more literary system of symbols. However, there are a few noteworthy symbols in the novel. One of these is the dead soldier, who represents the insignificance of mortal concerns. Henry encounters the corpse, decaying and covered by ants, at a crucial moment: he has just reassured himself that he was right to flee battle and that the welfare of the army depends upon soldiers being wise enough to preserve themselves. Then the dead soldier, whose anonymity strips him of any public recognition of courage and glory (regardless of whether or not he deserved them), forces Henry to begin to question himself and the values by which he measures his actions.
. One of the most important themes of the novel is that nature is indifferent to human life. How does the book convey this theme? What are some of its most important symbols? What does it mean for the universe to be “indifferent?”
Henry's first inkling of nature's indifference comes after his first battle, when he sees that the sun looks pretty in the treetops, and feels surprised “that Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment.” Later, Henry sees the corpse of the soldier in the chapel-like glade in the forest, its face swarming with ants. After Jim's death, Henry wants to make an impassioned speech, but he is cut off in the novel by Crane's description of the uncaring sun “pasted in the sky like a wafer.” Each of these images serves as an important symbol of the fundamental indifference of nature to human affairs: the universe neither knows nor cares what happens to individual human beings. In his short story “The Open Boat,” Crane imagines that men in mortal danger want to confront fate, nature, or God on one knee and say “Yes, but I love myself.” In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry does exactly that, and finds that fate, nature, and God say nothing in return.
An ongoing critical debate exists as to how Stephen Crane should be classified. Some critics argue that he is a naturalist, some that he is a symbolist, and others that he is an impressionist. What is the difference between these different movements, and to which, if any, does Crane belong?
The question of a writer's identity is always far more complicated than simply lumping him or her into a single movement. Every writer is an individual, and in creating his individual vision, Stephen Crane employed elements of naturalism, symbolism, and impressionism, while not fitting perfectly into any of them. His work is extremely realistic in its development, its graphic depiction of battle, and its intent. This places him with the naturalists. However, unlike most naturalists, he invested the minutiae of his novel with symbolic meaning, and to that extent he is a symbolist. Nevertheless, his vivid, poetic descriptions of battle seem to refrain from overusing symbols in favor of creating an impression of experience, and to that extent he is an impressionist. There is no right answer to this frequently asked question; Stephen Crane is all and none of these things.
Coming-of-Age, Self-knowledge and Courage
When Henry leaves his mother's farm to sign up for the Union army, he knows little about the world, or about himself. He appears to have led a sheltered life in a rural environment. What he knows about war is only what he has read in the classics of the ancient world. He thinks war is a glamorous thing, and he looks forward to playing his part in it and performing great deeds of valor. At the same time he doubts whether modern man, made timid by education, can still muster the “throat-grappling instinct” that is the nature of true heroic struggle. (At least that's what he thinks heroism is, based on what he has read in books.)
There is a vast difference between Henry's idea of military service and that of his mother, who, naturally enough, is older and wiser. After he tells her he has decided to enlist, he is disappointed that she does not give him the instructions supposedly given to warriors in ancient Sparta: return either with your shield or on it. In other words, conquer or die in the attempt. His mother has a more realistic view of what is necessary; she tells him not to think that he can defeat the entire rebel army by himself: “Yer just one little feller amongst a hull lot of others, and you've got to keep quiet an' do what they tell yuh” (p. 17). She also tells him that when a difficult situation arises, he must just do what is right.
Henry hardly listens to her. His education in courage only begins when the battle starts. To his dismay, he founds out what he is capable of, and it is the opposite of courage. He deserts under fire. And then he allows his mind to perform all kinds of tricks to prove that what he did was right, that it was a reasonable response to circumstances. Henry reaches his lowest point when he deserts the tattered soldier—he cannot even offer support to a wounded man who will probably die soon if he receives no assistance. If war is quickly showing Henry what he is really made of, the verdict so far is not a happy one. He has found that he can sink very low.
That Henry manages to redeem himself is greatly to his credit. He becomes desperate to prove himself, so he too, like the wounded men he encounters, can have a “red badge” of courage. And when the time comes, he just does what he has to do. This time, he does not think too much of what he is doing. That was his error the previous time, when he ran away. He allowed his mind to take over. This time he gives full rein to his instincts. He allows the “war god” to take over. By doing so, he discovers resources within himself that he had not known were there, and he becomes an inspiration to officers and men alike.
In the course of just a few days, Henry has received an education about war and about himself. He has discovered that the reality of war is very different from what he had imagined it to be, and he now despises his former, idealistic, romantic notions. He has had a gruesome initiation. He has seen wounded men, dying men, dead men, men under the terrible stress of battle. The noise of battle has pounded in his ears, and he has become familiar with what today is sometimes called “the fog of war.” In the fog of war, rumors fly, uncertainty abounds. The individual soldier knows little about the larger details of the battle. The only sure thing he knows is that the bullets are flying and that he must fight back.
At the end of the novel, Henry has come to know what he is capable of. He remembers his act of cowardice but he does not let it dominate his thoughts. He also knows that he showed courage when it mattered. Like his friend Wilson, he has become wiser and more mature as a result of his experiences in war.
Imagery and Metaphor
Crane employs a colorful style that abounds in vivid sensory images, as well as similes and metaphors. Opening the book at almost any page, especially in the battle scenes, will produce examples.
War is presented in a variety of metaphorical ways. (A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one object is identified with another object. The purpose is to invest the first object with one or more qualities possessed by the second object.) War is a “red animal” and a “blood-stained god.” The war-as-god metaphor occurs several times. It conveys the idea that war is something much larger than the collection of individuals that participate in it, and they have no control over it. It transcends them.
Animal imagery of varying kinds occurs frequently in connection with battle. It makes the point that war turns humans into animals, acting from instinct rather than reason. On one page alone for example (p. 110), the enemy are “like flies sucking insolently at his [Henry's] blood”; the fighters resemble “animals tossed for a death struggle into a dark pit”; and the army line “curled and writhed like a snake stepped upon.” Later, Henry plunges toward the enemy flag like a “mad horse.” (These are similes, in which something is compared to something else that on the surface is very unlike it. The simile brings out some way in which the two things are similar.)
There are many more similes regarding battle. They include Henry's perception that battle “was like an immense and terrible machine”; the description of the two armies engaging “like a pair of boxers”; and the image of bullets raining down like a “thousand axes.”
The Union flag is the subject of two metaphors, coming one after the other: “It was a goddess, radiant, that bended its form with an imperious gesture to him. It was a woman, red and white, hating and loving, that called him with the voice of his hopes” (p. 123). The metaphors are appropriate because they help to explain why the flag is so cherished, and why the standard-bearers in battle hold on to the flag as if their lives depended on it.
The literary technique known as the pathetic fallacy is frequently employed. The pathetic fallacy is when natural objects are invested with human feelings or emotions. The trees “tremble with eagerness” (p. 13) for example. The battle flag in the wind “seemed to be struggling to free itself from an agony” (p. 42). Then in the next paragraph, “The flag suddenly sank down as if dying. Its motion as it fell was a gesture of despair.”
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
Plot Overview
Attempting to apply traditional plot summary to The Sound and the Fury is difficult. At a basic level, the novel is about the three Compson brothers' obsessions with the their sister Caddy, but this brief synopsis represents merely the surface of what the novel contains. A story told in four chapters, by four different voices, and out of chronological order, The Sound and the Fury requires intense concentration and patience to interpret and understand.
The first three chapters of the novel consist of the convoluted thoughts, voices, and memories of the three Compson brothers, captured on three different days. The brothers are Benjy, a severely retarded thirty-three-year-old man, speaking in April, 1928; Quentin, a young Harvard student, speaking in June, 1910; and Jason, a bitter farm-supply store worker, speaking again in April, 1928. Faulkner tells the fourth chapter in his own narrative voice, but focuses on Dilsey, the Compson family's devoted “Negro” cook who has played a great part in raising the children. Faulkner harnesses the brothers' memories of their sister Caddy, using a single symbolic moment to forecast the decline of the once prominent Compson family and to examine the deterioration of the Southern aristocratic class since the Civil War.
The Compsons are one of several prominent names in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. Their ancestors helped settle the area and subsequently defended it during the Civil War. Since the war, the Compsons have gradually seen their wealth, land, and status crumble away. Mr. Compson is an alcoholic. Mrs. Compson is a self-absorbed hypochondriac who depends almost entirely upon Dilsey to raise her four children. Quentin, the oldest child, is a sensitive bundle of neuroses. Caddy is stubborn, but loving and compassionate. Jason has been difficult and mean-spirited since birth and is largely spurned by the other children. Benjy is severely mentally disabled, an “idiot” with no understanding of the concepts of time or morality. In the absence of the self-absorbed Mrs. Compson, Caddy serves as a mother figure and symbol of affection for Benjy and Quentin.
As the children grow older, however, Caddy begins to behave promiscuously, which torments Quentin and sends Benjy into fits of moaning and crying. Quentin is preparing to go to Harvard, and Mr. Compson sells a large portion of the family land to provide funds for the tuition. Caddy loses her virginity and becomes pregnant. She is unable or unwilling to name the father of the child, though it is likely Dalton Ames, a boy from town.
Caddy's pregnancy leaves Quentin emotionally shattered. He attempts to claim false responsibility for the pregnancy, lying to his father that he and Caddy have committed incest. Mr. Compson is indifferent to Caddy's promiscuity, dismissing Quentin's story and telling his son to leave early for the Northeast.
Attempting to cover up her indiscretions, Caddy quickly marries Herbert Head, a banker she met in Indiana. Herbert promises Jason Compson a job in his bank. Herbert immediately divorces Caddy and rescinds Jason's job offer when he realizes his wife is pregnant with another man's child. Meanwhile, Quentin, still mired in despair over Caddy's sin, commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles River just before the end of his first year at Harvard.
The Compsons disown Caddy from the family, but take in her newborn daughter, Miss Quentin. The task of raising Miss Quentin falls squarely on Dilsey's shoulders. Mr. Compson dies of alcoholism roughly a year after Quentin's suicide. As the oldest surviving son, Jason becomes the head of the Compson household. Bitterly employed at a menial job in the local farm-supply store, Jason devises an ingenious scheme to steal the money Caddy sends to support Miss Quentin's upbringing.
Miss Quentin grows up to be an unhappy, rebellious, and promiscuous girl, constantly in conflict with her overbearing and vicious uncle Jason. On Easter Sunday, 1928, Miss Quentin steals several thousand dollars from Jason and runs away with a man from a traveling show. While Jason chases after Miss Quentin to no avail, Dilsey takes Benjy and the rest of her family to Easter services at the local church.
A Note on the Title
The title of The Sound and the Fury refers to a line from William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Macbeth, a Scottish general and nobleman, learns of his wife's suicide and feels that his life is crumbling into chaos. In addition to Faulkner's title, we can find several of the novel's important motifs in Macbeth's short soliloquy in Act V, scene v:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
(V.v.18-27)
The Sound and the Fury literally begins as a “tale / Told by an idiot,” as the first chapter is narrated by the mentally disabled Benjy. The novel's central concerns include time, much like Macbeth's “[t]omorrow, and tomorrow”; death, recalling Macbeth's “dusty death”; and nothingness and disintegration, a clear reference to Macbeth's lament that life “[s]ignif[ies] nothing.” Additionally, Quentin is haunted by the sense that the Compson family has disintegrated to a mere shadow of its former greatness.
In his soliloquy, Macbeth implies that life is but a shadow of the past and that a modern man, like himself, is inadequately equipped and unable to achieve anything near the greatness of the past. Faulkner reinterprets this idea, implying that if man does not choose to take his own life, as Quentin does, the only alternatives are to become either a cynic and materialist like Jason, or an idiot like Benjy, unable to see life as anything more than a meaningless series of images, sounds, and memories.
Character List
Jason Compson III - The head of the Compson household until his death from alcoholism in 1912. Mr. Compson is the father of Quentin, Caddy, Jason IV, and Benjy, and the husband of Caroline.
Caroline Compson - The self-pitying and self-absorbed wife of Mr. Compson and mother of the four Compson children. Caroline's hypochondria preoccupies her and contributes to her inability to care properly for her children.
Quentin Compson - The oldest of the Compson children and the narrator of the novel's second chapter. A sensitive and intelligent boy, Quentin is preoccupied with his love for his sister Caddy and his notion of the Compson family's honor. He commits suicide by drowning himself just before the end of his first year at Harvard.
Caddy Compson - The second oldest of the Compson children and the only daughter. Actually named Candace, Caddy is very close to her brother Quentin. She becomes promiscuous, gets pregnant out of wedlock, and eventually marries and divorces Herbert Head in 1910.
Jason Compson IV - The second youngest of the Compson children and the narrator of the novel's third chapter. Jason is mean-spirited, petty, and very cynical.
Benjy Compson - The youngest of the Compson children and narrator of the novel's first chapter. Born Maury Compson, his name is changed to Benjamin in 1900, when he is discovered to be severely mentally retarded.
Miss Quentin - Caddy's illegitimate daughter, who is raised by the Compsons after Caddy's divorce. A rebellious, promiscuous, and miserably unhappy girl, Miss Quentin eventually steals money from Jason and leaves town with a member of a traveling minstrel show.
Dilsey - The Compsons' “Negro” cook, Dilsey is a pious, strong-willed, protective woman who serves as a stabilizing force for the Compson family.
Roskus - Dilsey's husband and the Compsons' servant. Roskus suffers from a severe case of rheumatism that eventually kills him.
T.P. - One of Dilsey's sons, T.P. gets drunk with Benjy and fights with Quentin at Caddy's wedding.
Versh - Another of Dilsey's sons and Benjy's keepers.
Frony - Dilsey's daughter. Frony is also Luster's mother and works in the Compsons' kitchen.
Luster - Frony's son and Dilsey's grandson. Luster is a young boy who looks after and entertains Benjy in 1928, despite the fact that he is only half Benjy's age.
The man with the red tie - The mysterious man with whom Miss Quentin allegedly elopes.
Damuddy - The Compson children's grandmother, who dies when they are young.
Uncle Maury Bascomb - Mrs. Compson's brother, who lives off his brother-in-law's money. Benjy is initially named after Uncle Maury, but Benjy's condition and Caroline's insecurity about her family name convince her to change her son's name.
Mr. and Mrs. Patterson - The Compsons' next-door neighbors. Uncle Maury has an affair with Mrs. Patterson until Mr. Patterson intercepts a note Maury has sent to her.
Charlie - One of Caddy's first suitors, whom Benjy catches with Caddy on the swing during the first chapter.
Dalton Ames - A local Jefferson boy who is probably the father of Caddy's child, Miss Quentin.
Shreve MacKenzie - Quentin's roommate at Harvard. A young Canadian man, Shreve reappears in Absalom, Absalom!, one of Faulkner's later novels, which is largely narrated by Shreve and Quentin from their dorm room at Harvard.
Spoade - A Harvard senior from South Carolina. Spoade once mocked Quentin's virginity by calling Shreve Quentin's “husband.”
Gerald Bland - A swaggering student at Harvard. Quentin fights with Gerald because he reminds him of Dalton Ames.
Mrs. Bland - Gerald Bland's boastful, Southern mother.
Deacon - A black man in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to whom Quentin gives his suicide notes.
Julio - The brother of an Italian girl who attaches herself to Quentin as he wanders Cambridge before his suicide.
Sydney Herbert Head - The prosperous banker whom Caddy marries. Herbert later divorces Caddy because of her pregnancy.
Lorraine - Jason's mistress, a prostitute who lives in Memphis.
Earl - The owner of the farm-supply store where Jason works. Earl feels some loyalty toward Mrs. Compson and thus puts up with Jason's surliness.
Uncle Job - A black man who works with Jason at Earl's store.
Reverend Shegog - The pastor who delivers a powerful sermon on Easter Sunday at the local black church in Jefferson.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Corruption of Southern Aristocratic Values
The first half of the nineteenth century saw the rise of a number of prominent Southern families such as the Compsons. These aristocratic families espoused traditional Southern values. Men were expected to act like gentlemen, displaying courage, moral strength, perseverance, and chivalry in defense of the honor of their family name. Women were expected to be models of feminine purity, grace, and virginity until it came time for them to provide children to inherit the family legacy. Faith in God and profound concern for preserving the family reputation provided the grounding for these beliefs.
The Civil War and Reconstruction devastated many of these once-great Southern families economically, socially, and psychologically. Faulkner contends that in the process, the Compsons, and other similar Southern families, lost touch with the reality of the world around them and became lost in a haze of self-absorption. This self-absorption corrupted the core values these families once held dear and left the newer generations completely unequipped to deal with the realities of the modern world.
We see this corruption running rampant in the Compson family. Mr. Compson has a vague notion of family honor—something he passes on to Quentin—but is mired in his alcoholism and maintains a fatalistic belief that he cannot control the events that befall his family. Mrs. Compson is just as self-absorbed, wallowing in hypochondria and self-pity and remaining emotionally distant from her children. Quentin's obsession with old Southern morality renders him paralyzed and unable to move past his family's sins. Caddy tramples on the Southern notion of feminine purity and indulges in promiscuity, as does her daughter. Jason wastes his cleverness on self-pity and greed, striving constantly for personal gain but with no higher aspirations. Benjy commits no real sins, but the Compsons' decline is physically manifested through his retardation and his inability to differentiate between morality and immorality.
The Compsons' corruption of Southern values results in a household that is completely devoid of love, the force that once held the family together. Both parents are distant and ineffective. Caddy, the only child who shows an ability to love, is eventually disowned. Though Quentin loves Caddy, his love is neurotic, obsessive, and overprotective. None of the men experience any true romantic love, and are thus unable to marry and carry on the family name.
At the conclusion of the novel, Dilsey is the only loving member of the household, the only character who maintains her values without the corrupting influence of self-absorption. She thus comes to represent a hope for the renewal of traditional Southern values in an uncorrupted and positive form. The novel ends with Dilsey as the torchbearer for these values, and, as such, the only hope for the preservation of the Compson legacy. Faulkner implies that the problem is not necessarily the values of the old South, but the fact that these values were corrupted by families such as the Compsons and must be recaptured for any Southern greatness to return.
Resurrection and Renewal
Three of the novel's four sections take place on or around Easter, 1928. Faulkner's placement of the novel's climax on this weekend is significant, as the weekend is associated with Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. A number of symbolic events in the novel could be likened to the death of Christ: Quentin's death, Mr. Compson's death, Caddy's loss of virginity, or the decline of the Compson family in general.
Some critics have characterized Benjy as a Christ figure, as Benjy was born on Holy Saturday and is currently thirty-three, the same age as Christ at the crucifixion. Interpreting Benjy as a Christ figure has a variety of possible implications. Benjy may represent the impotence of Christ in the modern world and the need for a new Christ figure to emerge. Alternatively, Faulkner may be implying that the modern world has failed to recognize Christ in its own midst.
Though the Easter weekend is associated with death, it also brings the hope of renewal and resurrection. Though the Compson family has fallen, Dilsey represents a source of hope. Dilsey is herself somewhat of a Christ figure. A literal parallel to the suffering servant of the Bible, Dilsey has endured Christlike hardship throughout her long life of service to the disintegrating Compson family. She has constantly tolerated Mrs. Compson's self-pity, Jason's cruelty, and Benjy's frustrating incapacity. While the Compsons crumble around her, Dilsey emerges as the only character who has successfully resurrected the values that the Compsons have long abandoned—hard work, endurance, love of family, and religious faith.
The Failure of Language and Narrative
Faulkner himself admitted that he could never satisfactorily convey the story of The Sound and the Fury through any single narrative voice. His decision to use four different narrators highlights the subjectivity of each narrative and casts doubt on the ability of language to convey truth or meaning absolutely.
Benjy, Quentin, and Jason have vastly different views on the Compson tragedy, but no single perspective seems more valid than the others. As each new angle emerges, more details and questions arise. Even the final section, with its omniscient third-person narrator, does not tie up all of the novel's loose ends. In interviews, Faulkner lamented the imperfection of the final version of the novel, which he termed his “most splendid failure.” Even with four narrators providing the depth of four different perspectives, Faulkner believed that his language and narrative still fell short.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Time
Faulkner's treatment and representation of time in this novel was hailed as revolutionary. Faulkner suggests that time is not a constant or objectively understandable entity, and that humans can interact with it in a variety of ways. Benjy has no concept of time and cannot distinguish between past and present. His disability enables him to draw connections between the past and present that others might not see, and it allows him to escape the other Compsons' obsessions with the past greatness of their name. Quentin, in contrast, is trapped by time, unable and unwilling to move beyond his memories of the past. He attempts to escape time's grasp by breaking his watch, but its ticking continues to haunt him afterward, and he sees no solution but suicide. Unlike his brother Quentin, Jason has no use for the past. He focuses completely on the present and the immediate future. To Jason, time exists only for personal gain and cannot be wasted. Dilsey is perhaps the only character at peace with time. Unlike the Compsons, who try to escape time or manipulate it to their advantage, Dilsey understands that her life is a small sliver in the boundless range of time and history.
Order and Chaos
Each of the Compson brothers understands order and chaos in a different way. Benjy constructs order around the pattern of familiar memories in his mind and becomes upset when he experiences something that does not fit. Quentin relies on his idealized Southern code to provide order. Jason orders everything in his world based on potential personal gain, attempting to twist all circumstances to his own advantage. All three of these systems fail as the Compson family plunges into chaos. Only Dilsey has a strong sense of order. She maintains her values, endures the Compsons' tumultuous downfall, and is the only one left unbroken at the end.
Shadows
Seen primarily in Benjy's and Quentin's sections, shadows imply that the present state of the Compson family is merely a shadow of its past greatness. Shadows serve as a subtle reminder of the passage of time, as they slowly shift with the sun through the course of a day. Quentin is particularly sensitive to shadows, a suggestion of his acute awareness that the Compson name is merely a shadow of what it once was.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Water
Water symbolizes cleansing and purity throughout the novel, especially in relation to Caddy. Playing in the stream as a child, Caddy seems to epitomize purity and innocence. However, she muddies her underclothes, which foreshadows Caddy's later promiscuity. Benjy gets upset when he first smells Caddy wearing perfume. Still a virgin at this point, Caddy washes the perfume off, symbolically washing away her sin. Likewise, she washes her mouth out with soap after Benjy catches her on the swing with Charlie. Once Caddy loses her virginity, she knows that no amount of water or washing can cleanse her.
Quentin's Watch
Quentin's watch is a gift from his father, who hopes that it will alleviate Quentin's feeling that he must devote so much attention to watching time himself. Quentin is unable to escape his preoccupation with time, with or without the watch. Because the watch once belonged to Mr. Compson, it constantly reminds Quentin of the glorious heritage his family considers so important. The watch's incessant ticking symbolizes the constant inexorable passage of time. Quentin futilely attempts to escape time by breaking the watch, but it continues to tick even without its hands, haunting him even after he leaves the watch behind in his room.
narrator · The story is told in four chapters by four different narrators: Benjy, the youngest Compson son; Quentin, the oldest son; Jason, the middle son; and Faulkner himself, acting as an omniscient, third-person narrator who focuses on Dilsey, the Compsons' servant.
point of view · Benjy, Quentin, and Jason narrate in the first person, as participants. They narrate in a stream of consciousness style, attentive to events going on around them in the present, but frequently returning to memories from the past. The final section is narrated in third-person omniscient.
tone · The world outside the minds of the narrators slowly unravels through personal thoughts, memories, and observations. The tone differs in each chapter, depending on the narrator.
tense · Present and past
setting (time) · Three of the chapters are set during Easter weekend, 1928, while Quentin's section is set in June, 1910. However, the memories the narrators recall within these sections cover the period from 1898 to 1928.
setting (place) · Jefferson, Mississippi, and Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard University)
protagonist · The four Compson children: Caddy, Quentin, Benjy, and Jason
major conflict · The aristocratic Compson family's long fall from grace and struggle to maintain its distinguished legacy. This conflict is manifest in Caddy's promiscuity, her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, her short marriage, and the ensuing setbacks and deaths that her family members suffer.
rising action · Caddy's climbing of a tree with muddy drawers; Benjy's name change; Caddy's pregnancy and wedding; Quentin's suicide; Benjy's castration; Mr. Compson's death from alcoholism
climax · Miss Quentin's theft of Jason's money, and her elopement with the man with the red tie
falling action · Dilsey's taking Benjy to Easter Sunday service and Benjy's trip to the cemetery
themes · The corruption of Southern aristocratic values; resurrection and renewal; the failure of language and narrative
motifs · Time; order and chaos; shadows; objectivity and subjectivity
symbols · Water; Quentin's watch; Caddy's muddy underclothes; Caddy's perfume
foreshadowing · Caddy's muddy drawers when she climbs the pear tree foretell an inevitable dirtying of the Compson name that will never wash away.
William Faulkner�s The Sound and the Fury is a compelling story about the Compson family, mainly revolving around the four siblings Quentin, Caddy, Jason and, Benjy. However, the book is told by each of the four characters except Caddy, Dilsey tells the last section of the book. Faulkner�s different use of style in each characters section of the novel is based upon each characters different personality in the novel.
The first section in the novel is Benjy�s. Benjamin Compson, is severely retarded, and the whole section is written from his standpoint in the novel. Benjy can't interpret what is going on and doesn't understand the connection between cause and effect. But in simple sentences, most concerned with how things look, and smell, Benjy manages to tell one a lot about what is going on. An example of Benjy�s style can be seen in �They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit� (3). One may not understand what Benjy is talking about until one reads the story, however Benjy is describing a game of golf when he and Luster go out looking for quarters on the golf course. Benjy gives a good description of what the game of golf would look like if it were not understood by a person. Another example of Benjy�s style in the novel is �Caddy was all wet and muddy behind, and I started to cry and she came and squatted in the water. �hush now.� She said. �I�m not going to run away.� So I hushed. Caddy smelled like trees in the rain� (19). Benjy goes into a time change describing how Caddy looked and smelled playing in the pasture when they were kids. Given Benjy�s state of mental retardation, Faulkner uses a simplistic style of short descriptive sentences that gives the reader a visual perception of what�s going on in the novel, however the reader may not understand what Benjy is describing until the reader has understood the book as a whole.
The second section in Faulkner�s The Sound and the Fury is Quentin�s. Quentin is extremely intelligent, a Harvard student, his mind works much more quickly and frequently with time shifts than Benjy�s. An example of Quentin�s quick time shifting can be found in �The month of brides, the voice that breathed she ran right out of the mirror, out of the banked scent. Roses. Roses. Mr. And Mrs. Jason Richmond Compson announce the marriage of. Roses. Not virgins like dogwood, milkweed. I said I have committed incest, Father I said. Roses. Cunning and Serene. If you attend Harvard one year, but don�t see the boat-race, there should be a refund. Let Jason have it. Give Jason a year at Harvard� (77). In this paragraph Quentin is thinking about what a nice day it is and how good the weather is for the Harvard crew's boat race later that day. It is June, the month of marriages. The lines "She ran right out of the mirror..." are a memory of Caddy's wedding. Next he thinks of Caddy's wedding announcement: "Mr and Mrs Jason Richmond Compson announce..." He then thinks of the roses at her wedding--they are red, not virginal white like dogwood blossoms. "I said I have committed incest, Father I said" is a memory of a conversation Quentin had with his father on the night that Caddy lost her virginity. Then his mind returns to the boat race, then thinking about how his father should of let Jason go to Harvard. Unlike Benjy, whose mind calls up one scene at a time, Quentin has run several memories together in a very short span of time. Caddy is still the focus of Quentin's thoughts. He recalls at length the scene in which Caddy stands at the door, with Benjy pulling at her dress, on the night she lost her virginity in �There was something terrible in me sometimes at night I could see it grinning at me I could see it through them grinning at me through their faces it�s gone now and I�m sick, caddy, don�t touch me just promise if you�re sick you can�t Yes I can after that it�ll be all right it wont matter don�t let them send him the Jackson promise I promise Caddy Caddy Don�t touch me don�t touch me What does it look like Caddy What That that grins at you that thing through them� (112). Caddy is still the focus of Quentin's thoughts as he walks along. He recalls at length the scene in which Caddy stands at the door, with Benjy pulling at her dress, on the night she lost her virginity. Several notable memories occur in these pages. In answer to Quentin's repeated question about how many boys she's slept with, Caddy responds, "There was something terrible in me." The night before her wedding, she makes Quentin promise not to let the family send Benjy to Jackson. Quentin�s mind works very rapidly, and in reflecting his mind Quentin�s section is written in a style with long complicated sentences with quick time changes, mostly dealing with Caddy�s sexuality. Just about the exact opposite from Benjy�s section.
Jason's section of The Sound and the Fury is entirely different from Benjy's and Quentin's. Jason's memories of the past are not as vivid as they are for his two brothers. Jason's voice is very different also. While Benjy's voice is calm and gentle, and Quentin's impassioned and complex, Jason's voice is hurried, nasty, and vulgar. Jason's main interests are in the present, unlike his brother�s who are in the past. He is most concerned with his continuing battles with his niece, Quentin, and his cotton brokers in New York. Jason�s meanness, and vulgar language is demonstrated from the very beginning of his section as in �Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say. I says you�re lucky if her playing out of school is all that worries you. I says she ought to be down there in that kitchen right now, instead of up there in her room, gobbing paint on her face and waiting for six niggers that cant even stand up out of a chair unless they�ve got a pan full of bread and meat to balance them, to fix breakfast for her� (180). Right away Jason gives indication that he is a mean and vulgar character by referring to Quentin as a �bitch�, also he discriminates against colored people referring to them as �niggers� and saying that they were made to cook and serve. Jason also demonstrates that he is rude showing no respect for his niece Quentin and his servants. Jason is concerned with his niece Quentin, speculating on what she does out of school, and why she is up in her room. However, Jason�s battles with Quentin aren�t his only concerns, he is also concerned with the cotton market which is shown in �There�s nothing to it, I says. Cotton is a speculator�s crop. The fill the farmer full of hot air and get him to raise a big crop for them to whipsaw on the market, to trim the suckers with. Do you think the farmers gets anything out of it except a red neck and a hump on his back? You think the man that sweats to put it into the ground gets a red cent more than a bare living?� Jason�s interest with the cotton market allows him to talk to any old drummer off the street about the cotton market. Again Jason show�s his vulgarity, showing a lack of appreciation for farmers calling them rednecks. Although Jason is mainly concerned with the present, he does flashback to the past, but his memories aren�t as vivid as his two brothers, he demonstrates this in "I got to thinking about when we were little and one thing and another and I got to feeling funny again, kind of mad or something" (203). Although Jason thinks that he can shuck off the past, he, too, is in its grip. He knows the difference between past and present in a way his brothers don't. But the past still colors Jason's priorities and views of the present. He is punitive toward his niece Quentin, nasty to the world, and paranoid about business, because of his feelings about his siblings. Jason�s section is written in a vulgar form according to Jason, and because Jason doesn�t flashback often, dealing with the present rather than the past, it is also easier to read than his two brothers previous sections.
The last section of The Sound and the Fury is written by an omniscient author; that is, the person who is writing sees clearly, and more or less objectively, what is going on. However, the point of view stays close to that of Dilsey. Since Faulkner wrote the last section in a third person style, it does focus on Dilsey, and along with Dilsey it gives one a presentation on how colored people speak in the South, an example of this would be in �Hush Benjy, Dilseay said. He hushed. She went to the window and looked out. �Is it quit rainin?� she said. �Yessum,� Luster said. �Quit long time ago.� �Den y�al go out do�s a while, I jes got Miss Cahline quiet now� (286). The last sections style is written in southern Ebonics, when the lines come up for the colored characters in the book like Dilsey and Roskus. However the narration is written in textbook English, another example of this type of narration in Textbook English can be found in �The cabin door opened and Dilsey emerged again in the maroon cape and the purple gown, and wearing soiled white elbow-length gloves and minus her headcloth now � (287). Since this last section in the book is written from a outsiders standpoint that is close to Dilsey�s, one receives descriptions of people, items and places, just like a normal book. So different from Benjy, Quentin, and Jason�s sections, Dilsey�s section gives straight forward descriptions that one understands right away without having to find out later, just like what Dilsey was wearing in the quote. The last section in the book is from no one�s perspective, it merely revolves around Dilsey�s action during the course of the present, rather than jumping frequently into time shifts like Benjy�s, and Quentin�s or is heavily opinionated and rude like Jason�s section.
The sound and the Fury was a novel about the Compson family�s different perspectives and viewpoints on the past present and future. Each character tells a different story revolving around the family�s issues based upon their personality. Some characters like to frequently concentrate on the past, some remain in the present, other�s look toward the future. The sound and the Fury is a book of mixed puzzle pieces of the past, present and future, distributed throughout each section of the novel, so that the reader can hopefully put it all back together, feeling a sense of accomplishment reading the novel.
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About The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury was published in 1929, although it was one of the first novels Faulkner wrote. Many critics and even Faulkner himself think that it is the best novel that he wrote. Its subject is the downfall of the Compson family, the offspring of the pioneer Jason Lycurgus Compson. The family consists of Jason Compson III and his wife Caroline, their four children Jason IV, Quentin, Candace (Caddy), and Maury (whose name is changed in 1900 to Benjamin), Caroline's brother Maury Bascomb, and their family of black servants: Dilsey and Roskus and their children Versh, T.P. and Frony. In 1928 when the story mainly takes place, two other important characters are Quentin, Caddy's illegitimate daughter, and Luster, Frony's son.
Each of the first three sections of the novel is narrated by a different member of the Compson family; the first is narrated by Benjamin, the second by Quentin (Jason III's son, not Caddy's daughter), and the third by Jason IV. The fourth section is a third person narrative, although many readers see it as "narrated" by Dilsey, the Compson's old black servant. Although narrated by the three brothers and the servant, the focus of the novel is really the sister Caddy. Each of the three brothers has a different view on Caddy and her promiscuity. To Benjy Caddy is a gentle caretaker whose absence - caused by her promiscuity and marriage - fills his adult life with a sense of loss. To Quentin Caddy's sexuality is a sign of the dissolution of the antebellum Southern world of family honor and the event that spurs him to commit suicide. To Jason Caddy's promiscuity means the loss of a job opportunity and is the reason he is stuck at a desk job that he finds demeaning, as well as the reason he is stuck at home with a hypochondriac mother, retarded brother, rebellious illegitimate niece and family of servants who are eating him out of house and home. The last section of the novel provides a less biased view of Caddy's life and the downfall of the Compson family. Faulkner himself acknowledged the fact that the novel revolves around the absent center of Caddy and her story; he claims that the novel began as a single idea - an image of a little girl up a tree with muddy drawers - and grew into a short story entitled "Twilight." But Faulkner loved Caddy's character so much that he developed this short story into an entire novel.
The first three sections are narrated in a technique known as stream of consciousness, in which the writer takes down the character's thoughts as they occur to him, paying little attention to chronology of events or continuity of story line. The technique is the most marked in the first section, wherein Benjy's mind skips backward and forward in time as he relives events from the past while simultaneously conducting himself in the present. Quentin's section is slightly more ordered, although his agitated state of mind causes him to experience similar skips in time. Jason's section is almost totally chronological, much more structured than the first two. In order to make reading this difficult novel easier, Faulkner at one time suggested printing it in colored ink in order to mark the different time periods, but this was too expensive. Instead, in the first section, he writes some sentences in italics in order to signal a shift in time. Even with these italics, however, the story is difficult to read.
Not much happens in the three days in which the novel is mainly set; instead the stream of consciousness narration allows the reader to experience the history of the Compson family and step into the lives of this dwindling Southern family. The troubled relationships of the family are at once mundane and sweepingly tragic, pulling the reader into its downward spiral.
Growth, Confusion, and the Loss of Innocence: The Differing Roles of Childlike Narration in Roy's The God of Small Things and Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury
One, a story about culture, class, family, and love laws, follows the lives of a pair of twins in Kerala, India as they learn one fateful December day how drastically "Things Can Change in a Day." The other, a story about suicide and incestual desire, tells of the fall of the Compson family from four different perspectives. How can these two seemingly different novels - The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - possibly be related? In both novels, the reader finds himself reading a childlike account of the events that come to pass through the course of the novels. The lack of insight, limited use of modifiers, and simplistic sentence structure of Benjy's section and the phonetic spelling, whimsical adjectives, and interspersed lines of children's songs of The God of Small Things both serve to present the reader with childlike descriptions of the stories. However, they differ not only in the level of insight reached by each of the narrators by the conclusion of the novels, but also in the purpose of the childlike descriptions. In contrast to Benjy's childlike narration that creates a sense of confusion within the reader that parallels his confusion, the childlike quality of Roy's narration sophisticatedly creates a lightheartedness that starkly contrasts against the heavy tone and serious nature of the material, thus representing the gap between innocence and corruption.
While Roy and Faulkner both present the reader with childlike renditions of the events, they approach and accomplish this task through differing methods. Faulkner chooses to tell the section "April Seventh, 1928" from the viewpoint of a mentally-challenged thirty-three-year-old-man. He writes simplistically: "Luster had some spools and he and Quentin fought and Quentin had the spools. Luster cried and Frony came and gave Luster a tin can to play with, and then I had the spools and Quentin fought me and I cried" (Faulkner 19). Within the span of two sentences, Benjy repeats the word spools three times, the verb fought two times, and the verb cried twice. There is no variation; he simply reuses the same word repeatedly when there are a plethora of synonyms that could easily have been substituted in its place. In addition, he only provides the reader with the bare essential facts necessary to formulate an understanding of the event. He gives the subject and the verb, but there are no adverbs and only a few adjectives. What color are the spools? What are they made of? These questions could easily be answered with the addition of a few adjectives, but adjectives are scarce in Benjy's section. The limited vocabulary, virtual absence of modifiers, and simplistic sentence structure of Benjy categorizes his writing style as being characteristic of a child, for it lacks the sophistication usually associated with the more mature writing of an adult. Consisting mostly of nouns and verbs, his account of the events that pass does not extend beyond the mere reporting of the actions he witnesses and experiences. The lack of proper punctuation serves to portray his narration as a report. Luster asks Benjy: "Ain't you going to help me find that quarter so I can go to the show tonight" (Faulkner 3). While the proper punctuation here should be a question mark, the end of the statement is punctuated with a period; this substitution flattens the speech so that there is no evidence of voice inflection or emotion. This flattening of speech shows that Benjy cannot distinguish between a question and normal speech - it is all the same to him. Thus, he is only able to report what he hears. Similarly, although he describes what he sees, he does not possess the capability to interpret the actions. For example, the novel opens with a scene in which the children are playing. Benjy describes: "Then they put the flag back and they went to the table and he hit and the other hit" (Faulkner 3). Although the word hit is a transitive verb, he uses it intransitively. Never does he mention what "they" are hitting - the direct object - or what the game is. It is only when Luster says "'Here, caddie'" does the reader know that "they" are playing golf (Faulkner 3). Because of Faulkner's decision to tell the story from the viewpoint of a mentally-challenged individual, the reader experiences the events as if he were looking through the eyes of a child.
In contrast to Faulkner's choice of simplicity, Roy incorporates phonetic spelling, whimsical adjectives, and interspersed lines of song into the narration to give it a childlike quality. Phrases such as "Their Prer NUN sea ayshun was perfect" and "cheerful chop-chop-chopping" cue the reader that the narrator is a child (Roy 147, 121). But it is interesting that the childlike quality conveys the message more effectively than if it had been absent. For example, in "Their Prer NUN sea ayshun was perfect," the phonetic spelling of the word pronunciation emphasizes the pronunciation of the word, for it is only by saying "Prer NUN sea ayshun" aloud that the reader is able to realize that the broken group of syllables refers to the word pronunciation. By the time the reader finishes reading the word aloud, she has been forced to pause from the normal act of reading and finds herself engaged in a study of pronunciation of the word pronunciation, much like the manner in which they study pronunciation. Thus, the form in which the word is presented to the reader reinforces the content. And in "cheerful chop-chop-chopping," the lengthening of the word chopping into "chop-chop-chopping" creates a sing-song quality that portrays the act of chopping as being cheerful, thus reiterating the adjective that precedes it; in other words, the style reinforces the content. Roy also uses whimsical adjectives as well. When the narrator describes a tune that Mammachi plays on her violin, she describes it as "A cloying, chocolate melody. Stickysweet, and meltybrown. Chocolate waves on a chocolate shore" (Roy 174). This metaphor may seem like nonsense at first, for what can chocolate possibly have in common with a melody? But it is not nonsensical, for both are rich; one is rich in taste while the other is rich in sound. Furthermore, it is fitting to describe the sound as a chocolate "wave" not only because sound resonates when the perfect pitch is attained, but also because sounds physically are waves that travel through the air. And to further elaborate upon the metaphor, as chocolate melts in one's mouth, one can "melt" into the music as one relaxes and surrenders oneself to the swirling melodies that envelop its listeners. In addition, the interspersed lines of children's songs throughout the work contribute to the childlike quality of the writing. As Rahel climbs up the stairs with Baby Kochamma, she sings the song "Popeye the Sailorman" and fills in "Dum Dums" whenever there are pauses. The interspersed lines of children's songs, cheerful alliteration, and phonetic spelling that can be found throughout the narration all contribute to the formation of a playful, lighthearted, relaxed tone that portrays the innocence of childhood.
However, while both narrations are childlike in their own manner, the childlike qualities serve different purposes in each novel. Faulkner's decision to write Benjy's section in the form of stream of consciousness and the lack of transitions between the rapid switching of scenes creates a sense of confusion within the reader. As the reader tackles the first page of the novel, he encounters the following passage: "'Can't you never crawl through here without snagging on that nail.' Caddy uncaught me and we crawled through" (Faulkner 3). The two statements are obviously connected, for both are about Benjy being snagged on a nail, but the characters have changed. Where is Luster, and where does Caddy come from? The change in characters is the only clue that there has been a switching of scenes. That both scenes address the common topic of Benjy being snagged on a nail makes it difficult to notice that one sentence belongs to the narration of one scene while the other is related to an entirely different one - the switching of scenes is cleverly disguised. In reality, the first sentence takes place in the present, but the second takes place on December 25th, a day when Caddy and Benjy delivered a letter to Mrs. Patterson. Thus, the free association among the past and present experiences that Benjy makes confuses the reader so that the reader can properly focalize through the narrator by identifying with Benjy's confusion. Benjy's retardation prevents him from perceiving his surroundings as normal people do. Benjy blurs the boundaries between present reality and the past, so it is only fitting that the reader has difficulty distinguishing between the past and present, as Benjy does. Constantly throughout the novel, he lacks an awareness of his surroundings and of himself. Repeatedly, he doesn't realize that its cold and has to have others tell him to put his hands in his pockets. The reader finds out about Benjy from cues of those around him. For example, through the phrase "What are you moaning about, Luster said," the reader finds out that Benjy has been moaning (Faulkner 5). The reader is not provided with any information that Benjy himself does not have; she learns as Benjy learns. Since Benjy's understanding of the events around him is minimal, the reader is provided merely with disordered fragments of information with which he has to struggle to piece together to form an understanding of the situation. Thus, the writing style of Benjy's section creates confusion within the reader that parallel's Benjy's confusion that results from his diminished mental abilities.
Unlike Faulkner, Roy uses the childlike narration not to parallel a particular character, but to create a stark contrast between the playful lightheartedness of the tone and the seriousness of the material under discussion. The day that the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man molests Estha, Estha has difficulty sleeping at night because he feels nauseous. Roy describes: "Estha Alone walked wearily to the bathroom. He vomited a clear, bitter, lemony, sparkly, fizzy liquid. The acrid aftertaste of a Little Man's first encounter with Fear. Dum Dum" (Roy 113). Taken by itself, the phrase "Dum Dum" conveys a feeling of finality and portrays the seriousness of the situation. However, looking at the phrase in the context of the novel, the reader is forced to acknowledge that it is the same phrase that is in Rahel's version of "Popeye the Sailorman." Because of its origins in the song, the phrase carries with it a lightheartedness that starkly contrasts against the seriousness of Estha's situation. That this phrase that adds humor to the children's song is found at the end of this passage is unacceptable and cruel. It is a deliberate defiance, for its placement dramatically portrays the loss of a child's innocence after he has been exposed to the cruel world. Estha had gone outside of the theatre so that he could joyfully sing a song from "The Sound of Music" in peace without disturbing anyone, but instead of experiencing the expected joy and delight from singing, he encounters Fear. What was lost that day can never be recovered. Thus, it is a statement about the cruel, corrupt world that steals away the innocence of its children. It is in this word that Estha suffers, an unsympathetic world in which while a child vomits out of disgust and fear, his mother ironically is smiling from pleasant dreams a few doors down the hall.
The two narrators also differ in that while one grows in maturity and knowledge of the world, the other remains stagnant. The last paragraph of Benjy's section begins as follows: "Father went to the door and looked at us again. Then the dark came back and he stood black in the door, and the door turned black again" (Faulkner 48). The simple structure, limited use of modifiers, and limited vocabulary characteristic of the style of Benjy's section at the onset of the novel are still present in his narration at the end of his section in the novel. That his writing style has not changed shows that his level of maturity and knowledge of the world have not increased in any way.
In contrast, the changing use of language and depth of insight of the narrator in The God of Small Things signal to the reader that the narrator has matured as a result of the events of the novel. An example of the changing use of language and development of insight is in the use of the phrase "Dum Dum" to signal that a lesson has been learned. The first time the narrator uses the phrase outside the context of the Popeye song is when the narrator responds to Ammu's question of whether Rahel had learned her lesson yet. The narrator answers: "Rahel had: Excitement Always Leads to Tears. Dum Dum" (Roy 94). The first lesson learned is one of books, but as the story progresses, the "Dum Dum" phrases are encountered after life lessons are learned. For example, when the twins discover Sophie Mol is dead and come to the realization that they might go to jail, that realization is followed by a "Dum Dum." And again when they witness the bloody death of Velutha, they learn two lessons: one, that "Blood barely shows on a Black Man (Dum Dum)," and two, "It smells though, sicksweet. Like old roses on a breeze (Dum Dum)" (Roy 293). The shift in placement of the "Dum Dum" phrases from after book lessons to after life lessons shows that they are acquiring more knowledge of the world and are becoming more mature. Moreover, this growth can also be seen through a comparison of the interpretations offered by the narrator of the same scene at different points in the novel. Towards the beginning of the novel, the twins witness a scene where a policeman taps the breasts of Ammu with his baton. The narrator responds by saying that "Inspector Thomas Mathew seemed to know whom he could pick on and whom he couldn't. Policemen have that instinct" (Roy 10). The twins only see that the Inspector is humiliating their beloved mother, and so they think that the policeman is mean. However, when this scene is revisited later on in the novel, the narrator states:
Later, when the real story reached Inspector Thomas Mathew, the fact that what the Paravan had taken from the Touchable Kingdom had not been snatched, but given, concerned him deeply. So after Sopie Mol's funeral, when Ammu went to him with the twins to tell him that a mistake had been made and he tapped her breasts with his baton, it was not a policeman's spontaneous brutishness on his part. He knew exactly what he was doing. It was a premeditated gesture, calculated to humiliate and terrorize her. An attempt to instill order into a world gone wrong (Roy 246).
The later explanation conveys an understanding of society's views and rules concerning the relationship between the Untouchables and Touchables and how their mother had broken those rules, whereas before they had only seen the cruelty of the policeman's action. They are now able to see the action from the policeman's and society's point of view. This level of thought and insight are evidence that the narrator is more mature and knowledgeable of the way that society works. Thus, the narrator has changed from a naive, ignorant child to a person with a more mature mind and an understanding of society.
Trying to find the similarities and differences between these two seemingly different works reminds me of the following quote by Virginia Woolf: "It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men... for if two sexes are quite inadequate, considering the vastness and variety of the world, how should we manage with one only? Ought not education to bring out and fortify the differences rather than the similarities? For we have too much likeness as it is..." Although this comment refers to the differences between the writing styles of men and women, its message can also be applied to the different cultural writing styles that exist as well. The ability of both authors to utilize the unique qualities of their writing styles to create distinctly different childlike narratives serving different purposes are evidence of their creativity and innovation. As we study the characteristics, purpose, and effectiveness of one writing style versus another, we should also take the time to celebrate the rich diversity and variety in the different language styles that exist around the world.
The opening section of The Sound and the Fury is considered one of the most challenging narratives in modern American literature. What makes this section so challenging?
Benjy narrates the first section of the novel. Due to his severe mental retardation, he has no concept of time. This makes his narrative incoherent and frustrating at times because he cannot separate events in the past from those in the present. Benjy can only associate the images of his daily existence, such as the golf course and fencepost, with other occurrences of those images in the past. Benjy's fusion of past and present explains why he still haunts the front yard waiting for Caddy to come home from school—he does not understand that Caddy has grown up, moved away, and will never return.
Benjy's distorted perspective conveys Faulkner's idea that the past lives on to haunt the present. Benjy's condition allows Faulkner to introduce the Compsons' struggle to reconcile their present with a past they cannot escape. This unique narrative voice provides an unbiased introduction to Quentin's equally difficult section, in which Quentin struggles with his own distorted vision of a past that eventually overwhelms and destroys him.
Shortly after The Sound and the Fury was published, the noted critic Clifton Fadiman dismissed the novel, claiming that its themes were too “trivial” to deserve the elaborate craftsmanship Faulkner lavished on them. Many other critics have countered that the novel's themes extend beyond the story of the Compson family specifically, and grapple with issues central to human life in general. In what way might the themes of the novel extend beyond the story of the Compsons' decline?
Although the plot of The Sound and the Fury is rather vague, the novel demands a broader consideration of the history of the South and the extended aftermath of the Civil War. The novel is set in the first thirty years of the twentieth century, but many of the issues facing its characters involve old-fashioned, outdated traditions and codes of conduct that are vestiges of the days before the Civil War. To appreciate the novel's themes, we must view the events in the Compson household as a microcosm of a succession of events resulting, more or less, from the South's defeat in the Civil War. In many of his novels, Faulkner focuses on this ultimate decline of the Southern aristocracy since the Civil War. As the Compsons belong to this aristocracy, The Sound and the Fury portrays their inevitable demise. The members of the family—especially Mrs. Compson and Quentin—fade away because they lead their lives according to outdated Southern aristocratic traditions that are incompatible with the more modern, more integrated South of the early twentieth century. The Compsons are guilty of living in the past and, like many Southern aristocratic families, they pay the ultimate price of seeing their legacy gradually dissolved by the onset of modernity.
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