Tag Archives: women

Jason’s Attitude towards Women

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In the third chapter of The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner presents the story to us through Jason’s perspective. From the beginning, we can determine his personality and his attitude towards women because of the words he utilizes. He seems to be a man who only cares about himself, even though he has taken the economic responsibility for the family after his father died due to alcoholism. However, he does not worry about Benjy, his mother, or his niece Quentin. He is a selfish, emotionless, and ambitious man. Jason lies to his mother, to Caddy, and to Quentin and takes the money that Caddy sends for her daughter. 

Jason thinks that women should be controlled and that he is actually the person who can control the women in his family. He states, “If you want me to control her, just say so and keep your hands off. Everytime I try to, you come butting in and then she gives both of us the laugh” (Faulkner, 181). In these lines, Jason is talking with his mother about Quentin because he believes that he needs to control her because she is skipping school. He is the type of person that believes that he must mistreat someone in order to make them follow the right path. This is the easiest way for him to make Quentin understand that she should attend school, instead of sitting and talking to her calmly so that she could realize what is best for her. 

Nonetheless, for Jason, women deserve no respect, and that he can treat them the way he wants. We are able to see an example of this when he is hitting Quentin and Dilsey gets in between them to protect Quentin, “She held to my arm. Then the belt came out and I jerked loose and flung her away. She stumbled into the table. She was so old she couldn’t do any more than move hardly. But that’s all right: we need somebody in the kitchen to eat up the grub the young ones cant tote off” (Faulkner, 185). Through these words, we are able to realize how terrible Jason’s personality is because he thinks that women are in this world to be in the kitchen and take care of the house. The fact that Jason is the only person who works in the house, except Caddy, who sends money for her daughter, makes Jason consider that he has the right to hit, offend and lie to the women in this house. 

According to Jason, women are not capable of being productive. He mentions, “I opened her letter first and took the check out. Just like a woman. Six days late. Yet they try to make men believe that they’re capable of conducting a business” (Faulkner, 190). Based on his own words, women are not capable of being entrepreneurs, be in front of a business, and conduct it properly for it to progress. He considers that important jobs are for men, and women are just left out with house chores, etc. Nevertheless, he takes the money that Caddy sends for Quentin, and makes use of it, only for his convenience leaving Quentin without the money her mother provides for her support. Hence, we can determine that Jason’s attitude towards women is emotionless, he treats them mercilessly and assumes that their wellbeing is not important.

Drusilla, Dru. Dru, Drusilla.

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[#3]

The Unvanquished (TU) provides a space for the characters of women to be bold and courageous, something that has been uncommon in Faulkner’s work. Normally, women in Faulkner’s texts are seen as traditional women who are meek, sensitive, and powerless. However, in TU, Drusilla is a character who embodies the male spirit, especially during the Civil War. She is strong and unafraid, and respectable in the eyes of the male figures in the text, especially young Bayard Sartoris.

We’re first introduced to Drusilla (Dru) in the chapter “Raid.” Bayard compares her to the likes of a man several times in our introduction. For example he states, “…Cousin Drusilla riding astride like a man and sitting straight and light as a willow branch in the wind. They said she was the best woman rider in the country.” and again, “Then she saw me. She was not tall, it was the way she stood and walked. She had on pants, like a man. She was the best woman rider in the country;…” (89). Bayard admires and even respects his cousin. He can admire her, while also acknowledging that she is still a woman. The repeated phrase, “She was the best woman rider in the country, ” makes her an equal to a male counterpart with the same skill set.

It’s clear that Drusilla rejects the traditional values that are placed onto women. In the midst of the Civil War, she takes advantage of the freedom that has been granted to her so briefly. During the war, Drusilla was free to  embody the qualities and lifestyle that was granted to men. Being able to live like a “man,” Drusilla is able to reflect and comment that there’s much more to life than just growing up in “your father’s house.With her taste for freedom, Drusilla believes it be almost like a dream in which she doesn’t want to get up because if she were to wake up from her dream, then she’ll be forced to go back to living an ordinary life, which is something she is strictly against. Drusilla almost wishes that it wouldn’t end or that it didn’t have to. She doesn’t want to live a routined life. The war has given her so much to think about and experience:

 Who wants to sleep now, with so much happening, so much to see? Living  used to be dull, you see. Stupid. You lived in the same house your father was born in and your father’s sons and daughters had the sons and daughters of the same negro slaves to nurse and coddle, and then you grew up and you fell in love with your acceptable young man and in time you would marry him, in your mother’s wedding gown perhaps and the same silver for presents she had received, and then you settled down forever… (100-101).

Interestingly, Drusilla used the word “stupid” to describe her life before the war. Or more specifically, life for a woman before the war. She describes life as being simple and ordinary; you’re born, live in your father’s house, grow up with brothers and sisters, fall in love, get married, and on and on the cycle goes. It offers no excitement or alternate perspective to living except for the one simple fact that as a woman, you’re destined to perpetuate this cycle of being confined to the house and familial duties. Drusilla doesn’t want the simple kind of life, she doesn’t want to be sheltered from the experiences real life has to offer.

 

For women, traditional values only point in one direction: family. Men have their own set of traditional values, but many of these values overlap. Men aren’t bound to the home the way women are. Being a man means experiencing life, taking action, having flexibility. These are just some attributes Drusilla wishes she can take on without having to be a man. I think she questions if there can be such a life/or time for a woman to live outside the boundaries of tradition.

A Tentative Approach to Jason

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“Once a bitch, always a bitch, what I say” (TSAF, 180) are the words with which Jason Compton begins his section. It’s easy to loathe Jason; he is cruel to Dilsy, Quentin, Benjy, and Caddy. He thinks of Benjy should be “the state asylum’s star freshmen” (230) and he withholds Quentin’s money. He literally made his ‘fallen’ sister chase after his carriage once he allowed her to get only a quick, teasing glimpse of her infant daughter. And yet, Jason felt justified for his cruelty; based on the terms of his arrangement with Caddy, he technically did fulfill his end of the deal – he sneaked out baby Quentin so that Caddy could see her. Jason is not a stupid character; he knew that there was more to that deal, but because it was only implied, not spoken, and because he felt aggrieved at Caddy having cost him a job, he “didn’t feel so bad” (205) as he counted the money she paid him. It seems that in Jason’s world, while he understands the familial responsibilities he has to shoulder the burden of such as dealing with and complying with all of his maudlin mother’s wishes, and housing and paying for the care of  Benjy and Quentin, Jason is concerned first and foremost with himself. Having grown up with three other siblings but having no distinguishing characteristics, save for his brutality, he was largely ignored. Only his mother gives him attention and professes that he is the only one of her four children “who isn’t a reproach” to her (181) and is really the last beacon of hope for the Bascombs. Her attentions toward her son are not altogether altruistic – mother is aware of what she benefits from by putting all her hopes for the family’s future on Jason. I can’t help but wonder if Jason’s fight with Quentin is from a place of fear; fear that Quentin will end up like her mother, a fallen woman and this is not to say Jason is concerned with her morality, but how another fallen woman in the family would make Jason look to people he’d want to forge business ties with.

Unclear Sentiments about TSAF [#1]

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A Note: I wanted to focus on the impressions I made of Caroline and Caddy in Benjy’s section. I realize that there’s more to Caddy in Quentin’s section.

There were several components about The Sound and the Fury that stuck out to me, even as I remain unclear about how to process them. Readers are first introduced to Caroline Compson [Mother] on page 5, when she’s  protesting Benjy going outside on account of it “being too cold” but preferring that he “go to the kitchen” rather than stay near her. Uncle Maury’s persuasive skills convince Caroline that it’s in her best interests to let him go, since worrying over him will make her sick, to which she responds [as she frequently does], “I know…it’s a judgement on me.” I can’t help but be mostly annoyed with Caroline’s martyr-like tone, especially as she worries about her impeding departure, almost as if she wants everyone around her to both pity her and pay attention to her.

I was comparing Caroline to her stubborn and haughty daughter, Caddy, and thought of how different Faulkner created them. As Faulkner himself wrote, he had a certain kind of joy, as one “approached women, perhaps with the same secretly unscrupulous intentions” [Faulkner on TSAF, top 226]. I was wondering if Faulkner’s secretly unscrupulous intention was to demonstrate the fragility of women [Caroline] as well as the indecorous sexuality of women [Caddy]. I get the impression that Caroline was painfully aware of her maudlin-like anxieties, such as when she said, “nobody knows how I dread Christmas. Nobody knows. I am not one of those women who can stand things. I wish for Jason’s and the children’s sake I was stronger” [TSAF, 8]. Perhaps I am determined to dislike Caroline, but I read her words as something she was almost proud of. I read “I am not one of those women who can stand things” as though ‘those women’ ought to be ashamed of their strength or resilience, as though whatever things ‘those women’ could stand were not things proper ladies should bear. Since Caroline also kept mentioning she was sick and other people, such as Dilsey and uncle Maury echoed her claims, I wondered if she was actually sick, or if people had long ago learned to humor her. Furthermore, I thought of Caroline as a mother; although she made frequent displays of concern for Benjy’s well-being, such as not wanting him to go out and play in the cold because he would get sick, she did not want to be near him. While Caddy called him Benjy, Caroline insisted on calling her son by his newly-given name, Benjamin, which seemed to stress a formal kind of relationship. Then there were times when Caroline would refer to Benjamin not by his name, but as “that baby” [TSAF,8] right in front of him. I understand he’s deaf, but it seemed  cruel, which got me wondering if being a kind mother to a disabled child was one of those things Caroline could not stand.

I think if Caroline thought she embodied what was was proper, then Caddy’s outrageous behavior was Faulkner’s mischievous way of playing with the norms of ‘proper Southern girls.’ Caddy is boisterous, commanding [Benjy mostly obeys her ‘hush’ orders], defiant, foolish [threatens to run away], reckless [apparently having had rendezvous’ with Charlie], and messy [ her muddy drawers and wet dresses]. ‘Good girls’ do not muddy their drawers and they most certainly do not climb trees that give the boys on the ground a view [even if those boys happen to be your brothers]. Though there is something inspiring about Caddy’s rebellious nature mixed with her tender affection for Benjy, I can’t help but think things won’t end well for her, like the world will either quell her defiance or permanently subdue her, but I want to find out. As Faulkner stated in his introduction, “Art is no part of Southern life…[for art] to become visible [in the South], must become a ceremony” [Faulkner on TSAF, bottom 228]. Are the polarities between Caddy and Caroline the ceremony? Are their exaggerations the art?

Women in Faulkner

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Absalom Absalom! begins differently, compared to his other three novels, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Light in August, as the readers are quickly given a narration as to how the downfall of a family came to be.  Coldfield’s story of Sutpen, can easily be Ms. Burden, from LIA, or Hightower’s story, a story related to the Civil War that involves slavery and isolation. I found it quite interesting that Faulkner would situate a story prior to Quentin’s travel to Harvard and death. As told in The Sound in the Fury, the interpretation that Quentin’s death was primarily due to Caddy’s actions may be false. Absalom Absalom! Travels before the birth of Quentin, to a period that may explain why the once Aristocratic Compson family lost their wealth and reputation. The usage of “ghosts”, involvement of Mr. Compson, the non-present father figure in TSAF, and a female’s voice, may explain why Quentin was so heavily affected by Caddy’s actions and with his conversations with his father. Though Coldfield tells Quentin her stories due to his Ivy League education, “So maybe you will enter the literary profession as so many Southern gentlemen and gentlewomen too are doing now and maybe some day you will remember this and write about it…” My interpretation of Miss Rosa Coldfield’s reasoning as to why she chose Quentin to tell her story is similar to Ms. Burden’s forcefulness and want to control Christmas’s life and future in LIA. Miss Rosa Coldfield expects Quentin to join the literary profession, get married, own a house, and publish stories in magazines, yet she knows nothing about Quentin. Mr. Compson states, “Do you want to know the reason why she chose you… It’s because she will need someone to go with her- a man, a gentleman, yet one still young enough to do what she wants, do it the way she wants it done…” It seems Faulkner expresses each female in his novels as a demanding, emasculatory, and dominant figure in comparison to males that are easily manipulated and insecure with their own identity and inability to grasp control of their desires and futures.  Also, the analogy of ghosts to ladies “Years ago we in the South made our women into ladies. Then the war came and made the ladies into ghosts.”(AA!) , may implicitly tune into the ability of  women playing drastic roles in males without their presence being significant such as the lack of Addie’s presence in AILD, yet memories of her still allowed her to play a significant role in her son’s life through animal magnetism, a fish and a horse. However, due to Quentin’s naïveness, “Quentin thought, long ago when she was a girl—of young and indomitable unregret, of indictment of blind circumstance and savage event; but not now; only the lonely thwarted old female flesh embattled for forty-three years in the old insult; the old unforgiving outraged and betrayed by the final and complete affront which was sutpen’s death…”, in comparison to Mr. Compson’s belief of Miss Coldfield’s intentions, this leaves a question as to why did Faulkner decide Quentin be told this story instead of Quentin’s father or perhaps to another person who is more aware of Sutpen’s identity. By reading TSAF, LIA, and AILD, we are able to have a better grasp on how women, men, and the setting /town play a role into each person’s life through manipulation and interpretations.