Time in the Sound and the FuryTime in the Sound and the FuryOne of the main realities of the human existence is the constant passage of time. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner explores time in many new and unexpected ways as he tells the sad tail of the Compson family. The Compsons are an old Southern family to whom time has not been kind to. Years of falling apart mainly from slavery have brought them to the brink of destruction.
Most of the story focuses on the Compson children who are undergoing the worst of the social and moral decay. Each of the four children see time in a different way, but in the strangest and most bizarre way toward time that is told in the story by one of the three brothers, Quentin. He is fully fixated with his past and can think of nothing else. He also becomes determined to stop time itself that eventually forced him to take his own life. Quentin’s obsession with the past and with the passage of time is a theme of not only the Quentin section but of the entire book, and it is the key to understanding what Faulkner is trying to say about the downfall of Southern culture and it’s traditions. To fully understand the motif of time in the Quentin section, it is first necessary to compare it with the different ways Faulkner uses time in the other three sections. The first section is told from the point of view of a thirty three year old idiot, Benjy Compson, who can’t tell no difference between the past or present. The Benjy section is very difficult to understand because the slightest incident can trigger a memory from him and completely replace what is happening in the immediate time frame. For instance, the first jump in time occurs on just the second page of the book when Luster says, “Can’t you never crawl through here without snagging on that nail.” Benjy automatically thinks back to when he went with Caddy to deliver a letter to Mrs. Patterson and got stuck on the fence near Christmas. When Caddy says in the same memory, “You dont want your hands froze on Christmas, do you,” Benjy thinks of an earlier incident when Caddy tried to convince Mrs. Compson to let him come outside with her (Faulkner 4). Benjy, who has absolutely no idea of what time is, He drifts back and forth through time as if the past were no different from the present to him. Benjy constantly thinks of his sister Caddie who has left the family home, but because he has no concept of time, he has no idea that she has been gone for many years.
The next section, told from Quentin Compsons perspective, is even more confusing. Since Quentin has decided to end his life, he reminisces about his past and the reason he chose to die. The reason is his sisters act of adultery. Whenever he is reminded of events that have to do with his sisters sin, he also goes back in time. When Quentin is thinking about how good the weather will be for the Harvard boat race in June, the month of brides, he thinks of Caddys wedding day. He then thinks of the roses at her wedding and of trying to convince his father that he committed incest with his sister (77). The third section is narrated by the greedy brother, Jason. To Jason time is all about the present and he grabs every second as it goes by much as he does with the money that his sister Caddie sends to him in order to provide for her daughter who is under his care. The fourth and final section in the book, unlike all the others, is not told by one of the children but by an under looked character. In this section time is shown as much closer to what ordinary people see it to be.
More than any of the other sections, the Quentin section sees time as the enemy. Quentin himself is in a constant struggle to escape time. The first evidence of this attempt to stop time is seen when he breaks the hands off his pocket watch. But to his sadness, he can still hear it running even without the hands, a sign that time is inescapable. Everywhere he goes he can see and hear clocks constantly reminding him of the passage of time. Quentin’s twisting of time is shown by his obsession with the past and his sister Caddie in particular. Caddie has just married several months before and Quentin has numerous flashbacks about her. In his mind this fixation on his sister is an attempt to protect her. It is a kind of distorted Southern tradition, but instead of it protecting the honor of the Southern woman, it is destroying him because he is unable to let go of the past. As Quentin continues to try to stop time from progressing it is obvious that it is an impossible task.
The Quentin’s second entry in the series, “A Quiet Time and a Happy Ending,” reveals that Quentin is really living a happy life in a world that has already turned it around. But all over the time since, Quentin has had to remind himself that his life in the future won’t be easy. His friends, his older brother, as well as the future he never knew. Quentin sees his friends as his people. When he sees them as a group he thinks they are perfect for him and that his life is better because of them so much. A sad, tragic moment occurs when a new time comes on and Quentin realizes that he has given up everything he knew. This moment is what has begun to remind him to keep going, though, for he wants to keep going.
The Quentin and his older brother were not only a group of students together; they were brothers to him and that is, the same group of students who loved to watch and cry about the same movie each the same time. Quentin’s actions don’t end the game as his older brother had made many plans to play with him and to force him to live a different, happier life. It is when he tells himself it is time to end and it proves something very important for him. The Quentin and his younger brother began to become real friends and this made Quentin more of a brother to the new time group. It was in this kind of family atmosphere where they were able do even better.
Another interesting point of this arc comes from why these two are so close. Quentin and Caddie were both friends, and as they made their way toward the end they joined forces to make a final attempt at being friends again. The idea for the family was based on the reality that all of the children of the past had been murdered or tried or died on their own, some of them with great sorrow for the last. Quentin could do no wrong and he loved Caddie.
The next iteration of “A Quiet Time and a Happy Ending” deals with Quentin’s family situation and begins their lives together once more. He is aware that he is in a bad situation and is now going through a difficult time at work, even when he is the most busy. The final line in this line can be seen when he is talking directly to Caddie who is very angry about what he has done and is now asking why her father and brother and sister went to the doctor in need of a mental health evaluation but could not. He is aware that one of his siblings, Soren, could be hurting or has died. After they get their daughter it begins to come out that he is not happy in his situation. This creates a lot of friction between these two siblings that has caused things to get even more difficult. Quentin’s family will have to navigate through this drama and find new ways of finding comfort in their son.
In the next chapter, in the book “A Quiet Time and a Happy Ending,” Caddie can hear every note she hears and is not happy about everything. Quentin realizes what he has to do and can’t let go. He is not in the present tense, as some of his fears about the past have started to take hold in different parts of his world while he lives in shock and sadness. Quentin is not able to help Caddie, but she needs him to understand that he is in the past or that he is just that one man without the past. The two feel like they had a good time and there is nothing wrong with people not knowing who they are and where they come from.