Noise and commotion

Author: Faulkner
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The Sound and the Fury is one of Faulkner's mature works and the novel he poured the most heart and effort into, as well as his personal favorite. The story tells the family tragedy of the Compson family, a declining Southern aristocratic family. The old Compson is idle and fond of drinking, while his wife is selfish, cold, and always complaining. The eldest son Quentin desperately clings to the so-called old traditions of the South, tormented by guilt over his sister Caddy's promiscuity, which he believes dishonors the Southern lady, to the point of committing suicide by drowning. The second son Jason is cold and greedy, while the third son Benjy is a idiot, with the mental capacity of a three-year-old at the age of thirty-three. The entire novel unfolds through the inner monologues of the three sons, centered around Caddy's fall, and is later supplemented by the "limited perspective" of the black maid Dilsey in the final part, bringing the whole story to a conclusion. The novel extensively employs multiple perspective narration and stream-of-consciousness techniques, making it a classic masterpiece of stream-of-consciousness fiction and the entire modernist novel.