1. The Sound and the Fury

2. Facts
Published in 1929
Considered one of William Faulkner’s best works and a major role in his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked it sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

3. Title
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

4. Setting
Time:
Place: Jefferson, Mississippi

5. Central Conflict
The Compson family struggles to deal with the loss of their reputation as one of the great Southern aristocratic families due to many shameful acts of the family members.
Financial ruin
Loss of religious faith
Tragic death

6. Style Modernist Southern Renaissance
Stream-of-consciousness/interior monologue
Non-chronological narrative
Four narrators

7. James Joyce, Ulysses
a quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office the alarmlock next door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze off what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so that I can get up early

8. Characters Jason Compson III: a lawyer and a cynical alcoholic
Caroline Bascomb Compson: an extremely self-absorbed hypochondriac who only loves Jason
Quentin Compson III: passionate and neurotic, a student at Harvard
Candace “Caddy” Compson: strong-willed and caring; her husband divorced her because her child was not his
Jason Compson IV: the provider for the Compson family, making him cynical and bitter

9. Miss Quentin Compson: Caddy’s illegitimate daughter
Benjamin “Benjy” Compson: a 33-year-old “idiot,” a source of shame to his family
Miss Quentin Compson: Caddy’s illegitimate daughter
Dilsey Gibson: an important black servant of the family
Versh, Frony, TP, Luster

10. April 7, 1928: Benjy
A series of non-chronological events in a stream of consciousness/interior monologue
The author writes exactly the way characters think with no regard for chronology, punctuation, etc.
Though confusing, this section is the most honest portrayal of the family’s true motivations.
Several traumatic events are described.

11. Shifts in the narrative are indicated by italics.
The names of Benjy’s caretakers indicate when an event is taking place.
Versh: infancy and childhood
TP: adolescence
Luster: adulthood
Benjy, like his other brothers, is obsessed with Caddy.

12. June 2, 1910: Quentin
The narrative alternates between Quentin at Harvard and his memories
Some readers find this section more confusing than Benjy’s, especially toward the end.
Quentin is depressed due to his inability to save Caddy from her loss of purity or his family’s reputation due to Caddy’s actions.

13. April 6, 1928: Jason Takes place on Good Friday
Narrated in a straightforward, linear fashion
He takes the day off work to search for Miss Quentin, who seems to take after her mother

14. April 8, 1928 Takes place on Easter Sunday
The only section with a third-person narrator
The section focuses on Dilsey and her ability to draw strength from her religious faith.
Dilsey takes her children and Benjy to the “colored” church.

15. Themes The corruption of Southern aristocratic values
Failed sons, disgraced daughters, anger between white and black people
Resurrection and renewal
Three sections take place around Easter, and several of the characters can be interpreted as Christ figures.
The failure of language and narrative
Faulkner uses four different narrators to tell the story, and it’s still confusing.

16. Time
Order and chaos
Shadows
Water

17. William Faulkner ( )
Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949
Donated part of his Nobel money "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers", eventually resulting in the PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction, and donated another part to a local bank, establishing a scholarship for African-American teachers

18. Comment on the novel’s structure
Comment on the novel’s structure. What does Faulkner accomplish by choosing an unconventional narrative style?