Traditional interpretations of Quentin’s instability point to the loss of the pure, beloved sister as the motive for suicide. Problems abound within this theory; the most disconcerting is the breach of experiential sensibility. Suicide emerges as an option within oneself due to some inner torment that pertains directly to the self. In the Quentin section of the novel, any link that would establish the necessary kind of inner disturbance is far too shallow; Quentin may truly care about his sister, but the reader never sees any indication of such dedication that is not within the interest of the family’s pride. Furthermore, the supposedly ‘obvious’ and ‘strong’ link between Quentin and Caddy is confusing at best due to the lack of any strong established bond between the two in the Benjy section. In fact, there is more evidence that the two children did not get along in their childhood; in the dominant memory of Damuddy’s death in the first section, Caddy and Quentin engage in several quarrels and even separate for much of the memory due to childhood bickering. Such confusion (which truly emerges when the two are suddenly depicted as very close in the second section) about Quentin and Caddy’s relationship gives way to the basic indication that, because he apparently only cares about his sister so much in the times that she does many questionable things, Quentin is merely watching out for the family’s name. In this context suicide is an overwhelming improbability due to the impersonality (in the sense of relation to the inner self) of the subject as it continually bothers Quentin. Even if Faulkner had meant for Quentin to loose faith in life because of Caddy’s impurity, his link to Quentin’s self is far too weak to justify the depicted end. Any intended suicidal reasoning centered around Caddy is therefore far too artificial to be considered a viable emotional course within Quentin’s experience.
May Cameron Brown of the Georgia Institute of Technology argues that Quentin is tormented by his memories of failures regarding his sister and his heritage and that Quentin, in order to escape the burden of those memories, must “defeat time by destroying himself.” This interpretation would satisfy the search for an inner link to Quentin’s self in the form of the haunting of memories and the apparent shame they produce and would provide an apparent drive for Quentin’s suicide. Brown, however, states that “[i]t is Quentin’s partial awareness of the emptiness of words and values which creates his despair and isolates him in a world of shadows.” Quentin’s inner strife would therefore appear to be subject to the outside world, which again leads to the confusing link between Caddy and Quentin and the implied impersonality of suicide. Quentin could easily feel depressed by Caddy’s lack of virtue or the failures with regards to heritage and tradition, yet to kill oneself over such impersonal subjects is a link that Faulkner does not fully develop. The author includes little detail of the emotions behind Quentin’s suicidal tendencies, and to make any such leap to killing oneself would invoke artificiality within the personal chaos. Brown concludes her essay by stating the following:
“Haunted by a past to which he is inadequate, dogged by a present he cannot face, and doomed to no future, Quentin, through his diction and general point of view—both what he speaks and what he thinks—dramatizes a modern yet universal sensibility”
Such a sensibility (which is best demonstrated with Quentin’s monologue about being and not being on page 170) is indeed a strong demonstration of the state of mind associated with suicide and is a powerful and quite real state of human existence when truly felt. However, despite Faulkner’s infusion of feeling in this demonstrated state of being, the feelings and inner turbulence behind such a condition, those which lead to and promote that condition, are precluded from the text, thereby eliminating the fundamental basis upon which the reader can link to Quentin in his final hours of life.
It may seem contrary to reason to believe that Faulkner does not give the reader enough information about Quentin’s inner self to relate to, let alone to interpret and to understand, his suicide, given that the section is written in stream-of-consciousness and is supposed to depict his thoughts. However, suicide falls within the emotional levels of human existence, an area Faulkner does not truly explore in The Sound and the Fury. He merely examines the thoughts and experiences of the characters and implies the emotions linked with those while ignoring the emotions that emerge from deep within the self, emotions that would include suicidal feelings. Suicide is of course a very complicated subject, yet it is one that must be explored in all its facets if it is to be presented in a study of the human experience. The stream-of-consciousness style of this section acts as a lens through which the deepest of emotions are filtered out as the thoughts that go through Quentin’s head become the sole indicator of his feelings. This loss of emotional resolution keeps the reader from understanding exactly how Quentin feels with respect to his experiencing of chaos, his interpretation of chaos, and his view of himself within that chaos, all sensibilities that would help the reader understand and relate to Quentin’s inner strife. It is because Faulkner does not examine how those deep emotions function that he introduces artificial chaos into the Quentin section and leaves the reader with a fragmented view of Quentin’s suicide. (1011)
Brown, May Cameron. “The Language of Chaos: Quentin Compson in The Sound and the
Fury.” American Literature. Duke UP. Jan. 1980: 544-553. JSTOR. Phoenix Country Day School Brewster Lib. 24 Oct. 2008
