The edenic story within The Sound and the Fury is an integral image. This biblical symbol is found and expanded on in a few different aspects of the memories, particularly centering around the day of Damuddy's death. Faulkner does not simply concentrate on the fall into sin, but also, as Mary Dell Fletcher puts it in "Edenic Images In The Sound and the Fury", "a falling into knowledge."
Benjy is Faulkner's Adam. He is the epitome of innocence. Though this innocence, Fletcher argues, because of his lack of free will or even of knowledge of good and evil. These concepts are explored through the concept of time. Benjy's memories are not separated into different time periods. They not distinct from one another, but are rather mixed together into a single, expanded memory. While Benjy certainly in certainly a beautiful model of innocence, Fletcher fails to acknowledge and discuss his reaction to Caddy on the night when she will not wash herself. In this case, Benjy has fallen in to knowledge, but lacks understanding of that knowledge. He knows that Caddy is different , but doesn't understand exactly why, or why she can't fix it.
Caddy's fall from grace is the central story within The Sound and the Fury. The edenic image is most obviously shown in the scene of the night of Damuddy's death. This scene clearly foreshadows her future sinful acts and choices. On page 58, as Caddy attempts to climb the tree (a fruit tree) in order to see the funeral, Versh says, " Your paw told you to stay out that tree." Caddy responds, "That was a long time ago. . . I expect he's forgotten about it. "The story of Eve's disobedience could not be more clear in this moment. Also like Eve, Fletcher points out, as Caddy peers down into Damuddy's funeral, she sees death, but can not understand its immediate meaning. Furthermore, this scene particularly notes the stain on Caddy's undergarments. This stain symbolizes both the sin and the "inclination to sin", which Caddy's future acts demonstrate.
Finally, this scene examines not only the significance of these acts and images on the characters present, but also on the future generations. Caddy's climb into the tree is a fabulous foreshadowing of her daughter's decent from that same tree; signifying the effect of one choice--one sin-- on many people both in the present and in the future; just as Eve's choice stained each person with original sin, effecting each generation to come.
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2 comments:
Nicole--interesting article, interesting blog. My take on the topic is that any story of lost innocence, no matter what form that loss takes, evokes in some way the original story of innocence lost, namely Genesis (retold at greater length in Paradise Lost).
I like the way you explain her ideas; well done.
"Innocence" is a big theme in Faulkner, one might say *the* theme in Faulkner. It is referenced, in one way or another, in nearly every book he wrote. To him, it is not simply the absence of wrongdoing: it is the refusal to accept the consequences of your decisions and learn from them. Before a Faulknerian character can have true agency, he or she must reject this innocence. Benjy never does. He is never able to actually *do* anything. Caddy, however, manages to discard her innocence and commit an act: she abandons her family. It's not an act with positive consequences (she ends up with a Nazi), but it's still *something*. Mr. Compson, Mrs. Compson, Quentin, and Benjy are never able to get this far, and must content themselves with complaining about their lot. Of course, Quentin commits suicide, but did you notice how he never makes a decision to do so? He's very passive about the whole thing. Kinda just drifts into suicide.
So there you see the big difference between Faulkner's "Eden" and the "Eden" of Genesis: Faulkner actually saw "Eden" or innocence as a bad place, a place filled with powerlessness and angst. The real world is perhaps just as bad, and much more dangerous, but it give us our only opportunity to do some good, to accomplish something positive. Not being innocent is not a curse, but rather a kind of mixed blessing. You need to know how to deal with it, like Dilsey does.
So, while Caddy's brothers see it as a fall from grace, the facts of the story depict it as more of an opportunity. Faulkner undoubtedly references the Bible in Sound and Fury, but it is important to remember that he is telling a very different story with a different message.
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