Abstract
FAULKNER'S fourth novel, The Sound and the Fury, is probably the most widely discussed and best known of all of his works. One aspect of the novel which has especially intrigued readers for the now almost fifty years since its publication is the chaos of thought and feeling at the heart of the Compson world. It is a deteriorating world, represented symbolically by Faulkner in the physical and spiritual maladies of its inhabitants: Mrs. Compson's self-pity and hypochondria, Mr. Compson's fatal alcoholism, Benjy's idiocy, Jason's cynicism and sterility, Caddy's (and her daughter's) promiscuity, and Quentin's madness. Although almost any one of the characters of the novel might serve as a voice for this decaying aristocratic world, Quentin, the narrator of the second section, is uniquely qualified to relate this tale of a family destroyed by its own helplessness, perversion, and selfishness. As the oldest son, he is expected to become the head of the family who will continue the Compson line and preserve the tradition which is central to the Southern experience. His failure to fulfill these obligations reveals not only his own limitations but also the failure of his heritage to provide values by which he can live. The unusual blend of order and chaos in Quentin's section; the illusory, obsessive imagery; his inability to find and express a meaning in his experience-all reflect the decaying world which is at the heart of the novel. Quentin's section encompasses his activities on the final day of his life as well as his memories of events from his past. The actions of the present, which begin in the morning and close with Quentin's final preparation for suicide, at night, are set against his reveries of key events from his past as if Quentin, aware that he is to die, is making a final examination of his life. His activities in the present are remarkable in themselves and directly related to the fixations which occupy Quentin's mind-the breaking of the watch and the visit to
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