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Absence in The Sound and Fury by Faulkner The Sound and the Fury is considered to be Faulkner's greatest work, although its controversial nature resulted in many critics disclaiming Faulkner's novel, as too modernist. It is not a secret that Faulkner was a proponent of this literature style, which used to be fashionable, at the beginning of twentieth century. It could not escape people's attention that the fundamental lack of completeness characterizes The Sound and the Fury, as whole. The reader gets to feel that he can never grasp the main idea of the novel, because it is too illusive.
This is because Faulkner was using a modernist approach to convey his thoughts to the public. That is why, we learn about certain things in his novel, from their contextual prospective. This effect is being accomplished, by Faulkner defying the concept of time. We can say that time is absent in his novel, although The Sound and Fury is chronologically structured.
The paradox lies in the fact that the chronological structure of Faulkner's novel is deprived of time. It is being emphasized by the author, over and over, throughout the work. But the most clear indication of Faulkner intentionally defying the time, can be found in Chapter 2, where Quentin breaks off the hands of a watch, which was given to him by his father: When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight oclock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfathers and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; its rather excruciatingly apt that you will use it to gain the reduce absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his fathers.
I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it (Faulkner). Also, when mentally retarded Benjy begins to tell us of his memories, we realize that he is incapable of understanding the concept of time, as he continually confuses the events of the past with what going on in the present. This makes Faulkner's novel an incredibly hard to read, but it is necessary for the novel's main idea to be felt by the reader, on subconscious level: Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting (Faulkner).
It is not by mere accident that Faulkner creates the illusion of time disappearance, throughout his novel. This is because he wanted to emphasize inconsistency between the realities of 20 th century and the outdated morality of an Old South. In a way, we can say that Faulkner applies the idea of social abnormality, which he clearly associates with the South. It is only an abnormal society that would not recognise the abnormality of one of its members. The so called Bible belt is strongly associated with people's overly exaggerated politeness, as well, as with the monogamy, incest and other abnormalities.
The absence of time is also emphasized by the novel's structure. Benjy's story is meant to be read first, even though it is dated 18 years later than Quentin's one, which comes the second. This complicates the novel to the point, where it becomes almost unintelligible, as if author wanted to say that the absence of time was not only affecting his characters, but the whole novel, as well. This absence, in its turn, results in the fact that many characters in the novel, whose influence on the events cannot be underestimated, only appear in it indirectly.
For example, Mrs. Compson is mentioned throughout the novel, on the continuous basis, yet, she does not participate in the events. She is withdrawn from the reality, yet she influences it in very direct way. In my opinion, this is because Faulkner wanted to illustrate the unnaturalness of some abstract ideas, affecting people's real lives. Mrs.
Compson absence resulted in Caddy being forced to take care of her brothers. Yet, she could not spare them of the harm of Southern spiritual decay. Mrs. Compson's absence corresponds to the absence of the spiritual foundation, upon which Compson's morality was based. It appears that it was being regulated by the whole set of different rules, which had lost it s original meaning, long ago. Quentin is the most despicable character of the novel, not because he is a loser, but because he tries to impose his views on others.
Yet, these views have nothing to do with the reality, because they ignore it. The absence of time in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury appears to be ideologically motivated. Author wanted to show that Southern way of life cannot be considered as competitive. The main reason why Confederates lost the Civil War is because they did not allow the social progress. This was the result of Southerners understanding the Bible literally. Its poison affected the whole Southern society to the point, where their ethical code became grossly immoral.
This relates to the absence of God in Faulkner's novel, although he is being constantly mentioned by the characters. The irony lies in the fact that, even though God remains silent, he is never thought of in terms of being absent. Author also refers to the Christian motives, in order to underline the emptiness of Christian dogma: In the midst of the voices and the hands Ben sat, rapt in his sweet blue gaze. Disney sat bolt upright beside, crying rigidly and quietly in the annulment and the blood of the remembered Lamb (Faulkner). Quentin's ultimate tragedy comes as the result of his belief in something non-existent.
His morals were being based on the outdated notions of spousal faithfulness. He viewed his sister as being deprived of sexuality and when this view of her began to confront the reality, Quentin could not come up with anything better, than drowning himself. He choose the absence, as the ultimate way to deal with the reality, which did not correspond to his ideas. Later, in Jason's story, Caddy is being referred to as absent. After giving birth to Miss Quentin, Caddy had no choice but to leave the house, because she was being publicly ridiculed for conceiving the child, out of wedlock. Slowly but surely she begins to be associated with Mrs.
Compson, who also did not take any active part in upbringing of her children. This causes Miss Quentin to grow up into the really ignorant person, who would run into another extreme from being the puppet of conventional morality to the denying the morality, as whole. We can say that the Faulkner's novel revolves around the absence of the essence, as its main idea. The character's actions are motivated by the social inertia more than by anything else. They do not derive out of peoples's pi ritual convictions, as it usually the case in normal societies. The characters cannot explain the logistics of their behaviour.
Instead, they refer to different artificially designed rules of social conduct, as something that define their actions. This, of course, results in creation of very unhealthy situation, when people begin to act like a puppets, while there is no puppeteer. The Sound and the Fury is better than any other of Faulkner's novels shows that the absence of the essence is very abnormal, in the social sense of this word. It manifests itself through the absence of time and through the physical absence of some of the main characters of the novel.
In order for us to fully appreciate The Sound and the Fury we need to understand that it is much more philosophical than it might appear on the surface. This is because author was able to encrypt his message, so that the real ideas, contained in this novel, can only become apparent through the literature analysis. The Sound and the Fury is not only the Faulkner's novel, where he follows the effects of metaphysical disparity between the form and the content. His story Rose for Emily is another example of the tale about absence.
Still, in The Sound and the Fury author was able to refine his earlier ideas, which made this novel to be considered as one of the greatest works of American literature in 20 th century. Bibliography: Faulkner, William The Sound and Fury. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. Padgett, John The Sound and the Fury. 17 Aug. 2006.
William Faulkner on the Web. 3 Dec. 2006 < web >.
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