The use of point of view in “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner

The Ink of Melancholy

Associative Time, Paternal Nihilism, and the Yoknapatawpha Collapse

The Big Idea:

In The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner utilizes Modernist Fragmentation to document the disintegration of the Southern Compson family. Drawing its title from Macbeth’s nihilistic soliloquy—life as a "tale told by an idiot... signifying nothing"—the novel argues that "truth" is an elusive collection of subjective, often broken, internal perspectives. Through the sensory chaos of Benjy and the doomed romanticism of Quentin, Faulkner demonstrates how the loss of a shared reality leads to the total collapse of the family unit, leaving only those who "endure" to witness the wreckage.

Benjy: The Logic of Associative Memory

Following the scholarship of André Bleikasten, Benjy Compson’s section (April 7, 1928) is an exercise in Involuntary Associative Memory. Benjy exists in a "liquid" state of time; external stimuli—the smell of "trees" or the sound of golfers calling for their "caddie"—act as instant portals to the past. This is the "Sound" of the title: a pure, unmediated report of the family’s fall. To navigate this section, the reader must use the Compson servants as chronological anchors: Versh represents childhood, T.P. signifies adolescence, and Luster marks the impoverished present.

Myth: Faulkner uses italics as a consistent, reliable signaling device for every time shift.
Fact: Faulkner’s italics are notoriously inconsistent. He admitted they were applied "without definite plan." While they often hint at a leap into the past, the reader must rely on contextual clues—such as which family member is present or which servant is speaking—to truly map the timeline.

The Paternal Poison: Quentin and Mr. Compson

Quentin’s section (June 2, 1910) is a study in Temporal Paralysis. Haunted by a warped sense of Southern honor and his sister Caddy’s lost virginity, Quentin attempts to "subdue" time by breaking his watch. However, his internal monologue reveals he is a victim of his father’s Paternal Nihilism. Mr. Compson’s cynical view that all human endeavor is a "temporary phase of the mind" acts as the poison that renders Quentin’s search for meaning impossible, leading him inevitably to the Charles River.

"It’s not when you realize that nothing can help you—religion, pride, anything—it’s when you realize that you don’t need any aid."

Why it sticks: This line is spoken by Mr. Compson, not Quentin. It represents the "Fury" of the novel—the destructive intellectual vacuum that leaves the Compson children without a moral or spiritual foundation. Quentin is not the architect of his despair; he is its primary consumer.

The Objectivity Check: Dilsey’s Endurance

The fourth section (April 8, 1928) shifts to Third-Person Limited/Objective. As Michael Gorra notes, this serves as an Objectivity Check for the reader. After three sections of suffocating interiority, the narrative moves outside to observe Dilsey and the Black community on Easter Sunday. Dilsey is the only character who sees the "First and the Last"—the beginning and the end of the Compson line. Her ability to endure the "Sound and Fury" of the family suggests that the only path to survival is rooted in communal faith rather than isolated ego.

Transferable Skill: Identifying "Narrative Anchors" In high-level literary analysis, track the Physical Constants in a fragmented text. In Faulkner, names (the servants) and smells (honeysuckle, trees) are the only things that stay consistent while time shifts. When the POV becomes unreliable, look for the "Anchor"—the one element the narrator cannot distort.

Conclusion: The Logic of the Appendix

Ultimately, The Sound and the Fury is a document of a world vanishing into its own subjective distortions. While the Compson brothers are destroyed by their inability to escape their internal monologues, Faulkner’s 1946 Appendix provides the final, sober summary: "Dilsey. They endured." The novel remains a foundational text of Modernism, proving that when we lose our shared reality, all that remains is the echo of our own broken voices.

Dinner Table Question: Jason is arguably the "cruelest" brother, but he is the only one who survives economically in the "New South." Does Faulkner want us to see Jason's linearity as a sign of progress, or is Jason’s "rationality" just a different kind of idiocy?

Essay Roadmap:

Intro: Shakespearean Nihilism and the Modernist structural "explosion."
Body 1: Benjy and Associative Memory: Tracking the servant anchors.
Body 2: Paternal Nihilism: How Mr. Compson’s voice destroys Quentin.
Body 3: The Objectivity Check: Dilsey and the shift to external reality.
Conclusion: The 1946 Appendix and the legacy of Yoknapatawpha County.

Written by

S.Y.A.

Literature educator and essay writing specialist. Over 20 years of experience creating educational content for students and teachers.