Quentin's Treachery

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Recommended: William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury

Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury details the lives of four siblings and the ultimate downfall of their family. The three brothers’ lives seem to revolve around their perceptions of their sister and time. Benjy’s life is defined by Caddy’s absence and his lack of perception of time, as well as his sense of order and chaos, Quentin by Caddy’s loss of virginity and his fixation on the past, and Jason by (to his way of thinking) Caddy’s treachery and his preoccupation for the present and future. These fixations eventually lead to the downfall of the Compson house.

The first narrator of the story is the mentally-ill Benjy. This section is one the hardest to read since he has no sense of time and experiences everything in the present, whether …show more content…

Quentin is obsessed with Caddy, and was highly dependant on her through their childhood. Although Quentin has a normal interpretation of time, unlike his brother Benjy, his narration can also be quite confusing due to his memories and fantasies being intertwined. The importance of time is emphasised by the recurring motif of clocks throughout his section.Quentin is preoccupied with the past, unlike Jason who is fixated on the present and the future. Quentin can be seen as the opposite of Benjy, who lacks any sense of importance in time, while Quentin is so obsessed with it, his only escape is …show more content…

"I wouldn’t lay my hand on her. The bitch that cost me a job, the one chance I ever had to get ahead, that killed my father and is shortening my mother’s life everyday and make my name a laughing stock in the town. I wont do anything to her." Jason believes that Caddy's promiscuity costed him a job (even though he wouldn't have had that opportunity without Caddy), and wallows in self-pity for the entirety of his narration, much like his mother. He deeply scorns Caddy, and steals the money supposed to be used for Miss Quentin's care from her, and uses it for his personal benefits. Jason is focused on the present and the future, and barely recalls the past unless it has some relevance to the present. The way Jason compares to his ancestors shows the further decay of the family name and how it will eventually all come to an end. Jason, the last lifeline for the Compson name has been reduced to a bitter, thieving, wife-less, (and now penniless)

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