Faulkner’s Contradictory Roles as Father and Artist in the Film, William Faulkner: a Life on Paper

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Faulkner’s Contradictory Roles as Father and Artist in the Film, William Faulkner: a Life on Paper

After viewing the film William Faulkner: a Life on Paper it would be easy to attempt a pseudo-psychoanalytic interpretation of Faulkner’s relationship with his daughter and the other women in his life, but I think that would do a disservice to him. The film focused on the contradiction between Faulkner’s personal life, especially his relationships with women, and his professional life as a writer. The artistic sensibility that caused him to drink to excess and behave erratically does not fit common expectations of a good father. I think, however, that the interviews with his daughter, Jill Summers, and the other women who grew up with him as a father figure (at least one grand-daughter and one niece) indicate how that apparent contradiction was an essential part of the man whom they loved.

I would like to consider two comments made by men who had known Faulkner in Oxford, Mississippi. One, a blacksmith, said that one day Faulkner suddenly left in the middle of a conversation with him. Faulkner’s only explanation later was that “when I think of something, I’ve got to go.” The other, a former friend of Faulkner’s speculated that he didn’t “think anyone knew who Bill really was, he was so moody…he was different from anybody else, seemed like.” The first comment indicates Faulkner’s unpredictability, possibly a humorous idiosyncrasy, but certainly not what is expected of a father. The second comment is intricately tied to the first. Because Faulkner’s behavior was unpredictable, often indicating that he was entirely self-absorbed in his own ideas and work, others found him to be distant.

Those closest to Faulkner—his daughter, Jill, Phil Stone, and even Joan Williams—do not offer a portrayal of him that objects to his being erratic and distant. Probably the most poignant moment with Jill Summers is when she tells the story of asking her father not to drink before her birthday. His response was to remind her that Shakespeare’s daughter was never remembered by anyone. Although Summers relates the other facts of her father’s short-comings with little display of emotion, her face appeared pained after this story. Yet she said earlier in the film that she was absolutely sure that her father loved her very much.

Maybe the problem is partly in what we expect a father to be. The film raises the problem of whether someone can function as both a great

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