Inquest for a Soul in The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner

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In William Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and The Fury, he explicitly engenders Caroline Compson in order to allow her character to make a strong impression on any reader. With that engenderment it causes a seemingly abortive meaning of her importance to the novel. Granting that she appears as a negative character throughout the novel, if looked at closer, she makes a noticeable gyration at receiving sympathy from readers, due to her vast confusions of what is expected of her. Even though, Caroline is a non-sympathetic character who exhibits a demeanor of selfishness, egotistical behaviors and the lack of affection, with a different perspective, one might extract more compassion and understanding towards her by realizing a perplexity to which she was foreseen to be.
William Faulkner purposely fabricates Caroline Compson to be portrayed as a non maternalistic character in The Sound and The Fury. A colossal moment, in which it is shown, is the sense of selfishness that is exercised by her. The way she portrays selfishness is her use of guilt specifically towards her family and the Gibson family, with intentions of receiving remorse from them. “It’s all my fault. I’ll be gone soon…” (Faulkner 39). Caroline’s goal in this quote is to obtain reassurance from everyone around her to make sure she is still wanted and to increment her lack of self-esteem. Mrs. Compson also verifies to the readers that she feels that giving birth to her son, Benjamin, was a punishment from a vengeful God, “I thought that Benjamin was punishment enough for any sins I have committed I thought he was my punishment for putting aside my pride and marrying a man who held himself above me I don’t complain I loved him above all of them because of it because my duty...

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...uld have. Mrs. Compson will always be trapped in what role she should have in life and sadly that is all she cares about. She will never find her true soul nor did Caroline want to inquest for it, she just expects to be cared for and wanted by others that will never be able to fulfil her true desires.

Works Cited

Castille, Philip Dubuisson. “Dilsey’s Easter conversion in Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury.” EBSCOhost. Web. 8 May. 2013.
Faulkner, William. The Sound and The Fury. Ed. David Minter. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc: 1994. Print.
Padgett, John B. William Faulkner on the Web. University of Mississippi, 2001. Web. 5 May. 2014.
Weinstein, Phillip M. “If I could Say Mother”: Constructing the Unsayable About Faulknerian Maternity.” In Faulkner, William The Sound and The Fury. Ed. David Minter. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc: 1994. Print.

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