The Sound and the Fury

Quentin, the eldest Compson sibling, is already dead by the time Benjy recounts his memories: He has missed the passing of his father, the dissolution of Caddy’s marriage, and the exile of Caddy herself from the family home. In fact, he makes the decision to die by suicide exactly one week after Caddy’s wedding to Herbert Head, about whom Quentin has grave concerns. While no act of suicide can ever be fully explicable, it appears as if Quentin’s motivation to end his life stems from his unrequited—and forbidden—love for his sister and his despair over her decision to marry. He also bears the brunt of the family’s expectations, particularly Mother’s desire for him to attend Harvard at the cost of his brother’s meager but only inheritance. While Benjy lacks autonomy because of his disability, Quentin feels overwhelmed by duty and by love. Father says to him, during what appears to be their final conversation, “no you will not do that until you come to believe that even she was not quite worth despair” (204). Ironically, if one takes Father’s statement to be a prescient one, Quentin decides to end his life because he finally realizes that even Caddy is not worth his angst. The final line of his section reads, in part, “I didn’t have to open the bag any more” (205). After Quentin has revisited all the agonizing recollections of his past, he is freed from its weight; the bag can now remain closed.

Throughout his narrative, Quentin is shadowed by death. When he approaches the water, he sees “[t]he shadow of the bridge, the tiers of the railing, my shadow leaning flat upon the water” (102). He explicitly points out that some “say a drowned man’s shadow was watching for him in the water all the time” (102). Just as time—the broken watch, the chiming clocks—draws Quentin’s unnerving focus, so too does he see shadows everywhere he looks. He knows his time is up; he is but a mere shadow of himself. There is also the implication that Quentin is something of a martyr, sacrificing himself at the altar of family; he does not want his inappropriate love for Caddy to damage the family name. Ironically, his death by suicide also ensures that the Compson lineage will likely end. The link to martyrdom is made clear by a comment Quentin recalls Father making: “That Christ was not crucified: he was worn away by a minute clicking of little wheels” (87). That “minute clicking” is the sound of the gears of time grinding away. Ultimately, Quentin cannot bear the weight of history, the legacy of the Compson name.

Jason, the middle Compson brother, is consumed by bitterness and resentment. Whereas Quentin buckles under the pressure to uphold his family’s standards, Jason openly flaunts them, begrudgingly assuming responsibility for the household and engaging in unethical behavior: He taunts his mother, insults and cruelly teases the help, goads his niece into fleeing the family home, lies to his employer, and regularly steals from his family, all without remorse. The sense of entitlement that is the hallmark of Mother’s aggrieved attitude is Jason’s true heritage, and he bullies everyone in his orbit the way only those with little actual power are sometimes inclined to do.

Ironically, he is named for his father, who is portrayed as a sensible and compassionate man, who is defeated by life’s circumstances and turns to drink. For example, Father retrieves Miss Quentin when Caddy is cast out by her husband, and he tries to convince Mother to allow Caddy back into the family home—the implication is that he would willingly care for both of them without judgment. Jason, in contrast, treats both Caddy and his niece with utter contempt. When Caddy tries to circumvent Jason to get money to Miss Quentin, Jason gloats about his ability to block her attempts—not to mention any attempt Caddy makes even to see her daughter: “She found out pretty quick that I was a different breed of cat from Father” (231), he thinks. After Father’s death, Caddy and Miss Quentin are at the mercy of Jason’s whims. Ironically, the book implies that it was Jason himself who engineered the break-up of Caddy’s marriage. When Father returns with Caddy’s baby, Mother asks if Herbert Head, Caddy’s husband, would be providing any financial support: “Father says ‘No she shall not touch his money not one cent of it’ and Mother says ‘He can be forced to by law. He can prove nothing, unless—Jason Compson,’ she says. ‘Were you fool enough to tell—‘” (227). The family knows that Miss Quentin is almost certainly not the biological child of Head, and he would almost certainly not have married Caddy in the first place had he known this. Thus, somebody has told him after the fact, and Mother immediately suspects Jason.

Jason’s dishonesty, thievery, and cruelty eventually backfire, and he loses his grip on Miss Quentin. This effectively means that his scheme—taking the money Caddy sends for Miss Quentin’s care—has now come to an end. Thus, he will have no other recourse but to work at the job he believes is beneath him or to continue to gamble with the stock market: “I dont want to make a killing; save that to suck in the smart gamblers with. I just want an even chance to get my money back” (305).