In the final section of William Faulkner's the sound and fury , we see a clear and more focused view coming from the Compson's servant Dilsey. Dilsey is the one character that brings a proper balance of the past and the present. I believe this is due to the fact that she has been with the Compson family for so long. She also different from the Compson's for she fully embraces the qualities of love and familial duties. Dilsey doesn't judge others for their actions and she doesn't hold the old "southern views " the Compson family has.
Faulkner sets up his novel so that it ends in this way because he wants to finally set the main message of his novel : "Old Southern Views are not okay, and even at the smallest unit of society, the family, we can see the wrongness in this society." Different from all the characters, Dilsey has a more optimistic view on society, she is the only true sign of hope for the Compson family. Her section is told on Easter Sunday and the house is chaotic on this particular day, and she is the only one who brings order to the house, and unlike characters like Jason. She believes in positive ideas and she even has a strong believe in God.
Macbeth's quotation—"[life] is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing," represents a view that there is no purpose to life. Most religious people in that southern society believed that their was a higher purpose to life, and this quotation dismisses that notation. This relates to Faulkner's novel that is told four times in the fact that people in that Southern wouldn't really take what Benjy, an idiot says , to signify anything and by the time we get to Dilsey's section we see, contrary to this Macbeth quote. The book symbolizes how societal views affect the family as a unit and can even cause families to become dysfunctional, such as the Compson family is.
I liked how you summarized the main views of Faulkner in this novel. I also like how you said that Disley was a sign of hope on the family. I agree that the main theme in this book is that life is ultimately meaningless and that we will all fade into the sound and fury of the world.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you described Dilsey as "the proper balance between past and present." She is the most level headed and the wisest, which seems strange because she is not even a member of the Compson family, yet she is the only sane one that can really show us who each member of the family really is. I also agree with what you said is Faulkner's main message of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI like the explanation you give of Disley and the way you describe why she is the normal one. I like the way you compare Disley to Jason. I didn't really think about the fact that it as Easter Day, and Disley's character is well shown during the scenes.
ReplyDeleteYour idea about the flaws in souther values being visible at the family level is thought-provoking. It's interesting to think about how the fundamental ideas that were so prevalent in the south were so deeply rooted into the culture that at the most basal level, the family, they are amplified until they spin out of control.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is great. Your critical analysis of Faulkner and his writing I think nails it. You create great ideas and make great conclusions. Something that I thought was very good is when you emphasized Faulkner's ending message. You said, "Old Southern Views are not okay, and even at the smallest unit of society, the family, we can see the wrongness in this society." and in all honesty I think this really is his message.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis of the old southern ideals, and how they applied to that region, not just the family. Additionally I think your interpretation of Faulkner's message was very concise, thus making it more respectable.
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