There are numerous symbols and allusions throughout T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land such as fertility, fragmentation, religion and many others. Another important allusion is the constant references to water and deaths associated with water. At the end of the section titled A Game of Chess, Eliot alludes to Ophelia's suicide in water. This allusion is important because it is yet another reference to suicide. Eliot is suggesting the potential for suicide and its prevalence in an upset world, a waste land of emotion.

The idea of water and death associated with it, is contradictory to the typical meaning behind the symbol of water. Water is generally thought of as a place of birth or rebirth. The greatest idea of this symbolism lies within the idea of baptism. In water, you are born a child of god and the act of dipping your head in water is what accomplishes this. In The Waste Land, the symbol of water is constantly shown as a symbol for death, infertility/unproductiveness and fear. Looking back at the first allusion in the first line of the poem,

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Eliot is commenting on the fact that water does not bring life. April is normally associated with a lot of rain which brings life to flowers but an excessive amount of rain will kill the flowers. This inverted idea can be seen against the end of the second section, the reference of the death of Hamlet’s Ophelia. This reference to Ophelia ,who kills herself in water surrounded by flowers, illustrates the idea of how water can directly kill. The water kills both Ophelia and the flowers, saying that too much of anything is never good.

The section titled The Fire Sermon offers more symbols and allusions to Eliot's inverted and twisted idea behind the symbol of water. In the beginning of the section water is referred to as dull, "while I was fishing in the dull canal" (Eliot 189). This allusion represents the barren picture of the unusual waste land Eliot is referring to. A waste land is normally associated with the idea of a barren place, most likely a desert, yet Eliot's waste land is alive with symbols of life, yet they are all dead or dying. The dull canal is portrayed by the swarming rats, symbolizing scavengers feeding off the remains of the unwanted or deserted. The rats also symbolize the idea that the narrator is in a waste land, because nothing around is living except these scavengers.

The title of section four is Death by Water shows his negative portrayal of water through the title itself and through the understanding of the section. It is the shortest section of the entire poem and it describes the death of the dead Phoenician sailor that was predicted by Madame Sosostri in first section of the poem. This section provides a contrast between the Phoenician sailor and to Christ. The Phoenician is referred to rising and falling, “As he rose and fell He passed the stages of his age and youth" (Eliot 317-318) just as Christ rose from the dead and then fell back to the dead. Eliot contrasts Christ to the sailor to show that there is not rebirth in the waste land, there is only decay. The sailor has died and forgotten the world and everything he knows. He is gone and he will never return.

In the final section, What the Thunder Said, Eliot references children’s song, "London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down" (Eliot 426). A bridge is what protects man from water. With the construction of a bridge man is now able to cross water more easily and safely. Here, Eliot is describing the London Bridge collapsing. The bridge can no longer protect man from water, showing the connection between water and death. Additionally, Eliot's choice of a song that talks about the destruction of a symbol of connecting life, the London Bridge, shows that everything is falling apart. Another allusion in the final section is the final line which states, "Shantih Shantih Shantih" (Eliot 433). The final line of the poem is an allusion to the Book of Philippians, and it means “the peace which passeth understanding”. This is important because it concludes a section that offers an understanding to the world and why it is a waste land. Eliot is saying that we cannot understand peace because we only know the waste land and its death and destruction.
Eliot uses the symbol and allusions of water to reinforce his idea that the world has become a desolate waste land. He stresses in the poem is that there is no rebirth and that water does not give life and instead it causes death, "you should fear death by water" (Eliot 55). Eliot's atypical view of the world is a reaction to the horrors he sees because of wars. His history is a cyclical view that features death, but no true rebirth; he praises winter for its honesty, a season of death, and despises the spring season for its false idea of life.

Quention and His Shadow

As I went through Quentin’s section, I noticed the constant reference to shadows. Quentin is concerned with upholding the Compson family tradition, and his shadow may represent his family heritage: he wants to leave something substantial behind him, but all that is left of him and his family line are shadows, the imprints of something great that had once been. He seems to associate shadows with nostalgia for the past when he describes how he walks into a dark entrance that was empty, “just the stairs curving up into shadows echoes of feet in the sad generations like light dust upon the shadows, my feet waking them like dust, likely to settle again.”

Numerous times, Quentin describes his attempt to trick his shadow. For instance, he says: “my shadow leaning flat upon the water, so easily had I tricked it that would not quit me. At least fifty feet it was, and if only I had something to blot it into the water, holding it until it was drowned.” Quentin is obsessed with time, and defeating his shadow can be understood as his attempt to free himself from the constraints of time, for shadows reflect the position of the sun in the sky. He is relieved when his shadow is no longer following him, viewing darkness and the disappearance of his shadow as his own victory: “I walked upon my shadow, tramping it into the dappled shade of trees again.” Quentin is searching for his own identity and must harmonize that with his familial expectations. It is also possible that he views his shadow as his family baggage, and while he wants to uphold his family honor, he also desires to defeat it and find his unique identity. Quentin additionally discusses shadows in relation to the many women who are not virgins, depicted in his mind as “walking along in the shadows and whispering with their soft girlvoices lingering in the shadowy places.” Shadows can possibly represent Quentin’s guilt about his inappropriate sexual feelings towards his sister, which he wants to subdue.

Quentin’s chapter concludes with much imagery of light and darkness. He closes his section by describing how he is “turning off his light” and drifting off into the darkness of death, never having to face his shadows again.

The Brothers Compson

Benjy and Quentin Compson seem as different as two relatives could possibly be. While they may be made of almost identical genotypes, they seem to bare almost no resemblance to one another as individuals, let alone in a familial sense. However, I’d like to argue that in all honesty, the two have more in common than what first meets the eye.

While Benjy has one very important difference, that being his mental deficiencies, it is clear that he is far from the idiot title that he has been ascribed. And similarly, while Quentin is meant to represent the elegance of the southern gentleman, the grace of his family name; his ultimate suicide is a clear indication of the mess that laid hidden beneath the surface. Both men are attached to labels that do not accurately describe the human within.

Both men are clearly very sensitive. This is depicted in Benjy’s character by his moaning for Caddy and his cries when something bad is occurring. He constantly shows impressive observational skills with his auditory reactions. Quentin too is often caused physical pain over his emotions. He was horribly distraught over his sister’s pregnancy, a despair that h never truly recovered.

Lastly and perhaps most significantly, both Compson sons are trapped by themselves. While they each feel a great deal, neither one is able to act upon his thoughts or emotions. In the case of Benjy, he quite often senses what is happening around him, sometimes even more accurately than most of the other Compsons. However, due to his disabilities, he is not able to communicate any of his feelings to his loved ones or peers. This isolates him in a world where no one understand him. Likewise, Quentin is paralyzed as well. He is paralyzed by the southern code that he holds so dear, and often cannot separate from it and think practically. Quentin is always full of vague ideas, such as his plots for revenge on Dalton Ames, but in reality, Quentin becomes too consumed by his thoughts to ever bring them to fruition. Because of this, he too remains isolated. These two brothers who seem to be worlds apart actually share many of the same battles, making them closer than one would have thought.

The Function of Time

Throughout the novel the concept of time comes up again and again imparting different messages that are linked to this motif. In fact, Faulkner’s representation and use of time was what made his novel so modern and revolutionary. Faulkner suggests that people can relate to the concept of time in different ways and it is not an objectively understood concept. I believe Faulkner seems to suggest that for some, time does not work in a linear fashion starting with a beginning point continuing straight to an end point. Rather, Faulkner suggests that time is more like a circle, where one can access the past and different points on the timeline regardless of whether those instances already happened.

This idea is evident through his writing style, especially the Benjy section, which jumps from the present to numerous time periods in the past and back to the present. Faulkner chooses to put us in the mind of a mentally disabled individual, who does not have a concept of time as a function of past, present, and future, in order to teach us this new approach to time. Instead Benjy does not consider specific instances as part of a timeline but thinks about different time periods based on how they relate to other things such as smell and sound. For example, in the very beginning of the novel Benjy’s mind goes from his 30-year-old self to a time when he was younger, when he hears the sound of his sister’s name, Caddy. For Benjy, it doesn’t matter if something happened in the past or is currently happening, all thoughts are in his mind and come up as they are evoked by the world around him. Furthermore, Benjy’s disability enables him to draw connections between the past and present that others may not see, permitting him to escape the other Compsons’ obsessions with the past greatness of their name, which haunts them.

In great contrast to Benjy is his brother Quentin, who seems to be trapped by time and cannot move past his memories of the past. One of the key scenes in the Quentin section depicts his attempt to break from time. Quentin tries to escape time’s grasp by breaking his watch, which was a gift from his father. Every time he sees his watch, it most likely reminds Quentin of his father and the legacy he is expected to continue. Even once he breaks the watch, Quentin is unable to escape from his preoccupation with time. Instead Quentin is haunted by the watch’s incessant ticking even without its hands, reminding him of the passing of time. Perhaps Quentin’s suicide was a final attempt to part from time because if he is no longer alive at least he can no longer be bound by time.

Caddy - Faulkner’s Unheard Voice

It was not for The Sound and the Fury that Faulkner first created the character Candace Compson, but rather for an earlier short story named “Twilight.” Faulkner claimed that he loved the character of Caddy so much that he felt she deserved more than a short story, and so he made her the central character in this novel. In the novel’s style Caddy’s story is revealed in three separate narrations by her brothers, as a source of obsessive love for Benjy and Quentin and vengeful anger for Jason. While it was Faulkner’s intention to present Caddy in this structure, it leads to my frustration as the reader because I would have liked to have heard Caddy express her own story too.

By dividing the book into separate sections with different perspectives, Faulkner brings more depth to the individual brothers’ nature and motives for behavior and most importantly their distinct perceptions of their sister Caddy. Although she is the focal point for them, she never gives her point of view. In Benjy’s disjointed shifting between the present and the past, we learn of both his love for and memories of Caddy. She is more of a mother to him than Mrs. Compson who shows no capacity to love or care for her children. While she views Benjy with feelings of shame and pain, Caddy treats him with love and affection. However, we never learn of Caddy’s thoughts and feelings in these relationships. Was she angry, resentful, sympathetic or understanding towards Benjy and her mother as she served this role? We know Benjy never recovered from the void in his life since Caddy left because his thoughts reflect this loss; happy memories of his sister include her "smelling like trees," and in sad ones he moans and cries. When a golfer calls his "caddie", he is overcome by desperate yearnings for her. Caddy never gets to share her feelings and concerns for the person she mothered and then had to abandon. Nor do we learn her feelings towards her parents who disown her in her hour of greatest need.

Both Benjy’s and Quentin’s relationships with Caddy stem from the same close bond formed between siblings whose mother neglected them. Quentin’s inordinately strong attachment to his sister and jealousy of her boyfriends leads to his despair over Caddy’s promiscuity and his fantasizing about an incestuous relationship between them. However, Caddy never expresses her feelings about her emerging sexuality. The reasons and urges that lead her to engage in promiscuous relationships are also left unknown. Her brothers frustrate her efforts to socialize with boys, but we can only surmise her inner feelings toward them for their actions. Unable to adjust to and tolerate his sister’s situation, Quentin commits suicide. When he takes this fatal step, does she see herself as the cause of her brother’s death and blame herself? Does she now regret her earlier refusal to share his fate in the suicide pact he suggested? How great a guilt does she feel in not only Quentin’s suicide but their father’s decline and early death through alcoholism as a result of their actions? Why does she give his name to her daughter, the very product of the promiscuity that drove them apart?

While Benjy and Quentin long for the past relationship they had with Caddy, Jason feels only contempt for the past. His feelings of resentment and rage are reflected in his cruel treatment of both Caddy and her daughter. He blames her promiscuity, which resulted in her divorce, for ruining his chances of a job in Herbert Head’s bank. Jason’s loss serves as the justification for every sadistic and criminal thing that he does. Yet we never hear of the emotional turmoil Caddy must have gone through that pushes her into marriage with such a person who had been expelled from Harvard for cheating nor the emotional and social pain she suffers in her subsequent divorce. While we cringe at Mrs. Compson’s and Jason’s decisions and actions in regard to Caddy’s and Quentin’s treatment, we are not privy to Caddy’s thoughts of despair and helplessness. How does she live life on a daily basis throughout the many years in which she is abandoned by her family, fears for her daughter’s well-being and money, and is powerless to do anything about it.

Although the last section is assigned to Dilsey, Faulkner is the narrator, and he uses this section to imply a hope that the Compson name might be redeemed through Dilsey’s proud spirit and strong values. In choosing this more positive ending, one which reflects a sense of hope and order from decline and chaos, Faulkner purposely omits a "Caddy Section", a decision which he does amend by giving some additional information in the appendix that he wrote later on. However, the fact remains that Caddy's voice is never heard, and we never learn her intimacies and motivations. While Caddy serves as the object of her brothers’ revelations, I wonder why she is not afforded the reciprocity to share hers too.

Who Wins in an Honor Driven Family?

The theme of honor plays a large role in each of the central character's lives in The Sound and The Fury. Everyone has a different perception of the family honor and how to maintain the family honor. Their reactions, understandings, personality, and experiences all have an effect on shaping and protecting their version of the family glory. By setting the novel in the south, honor becomes more poignant and prevalent, because of their fixation with the Civil War. There is a progressive aspect to the unique approaches of honor.

Benjy is the first character we are introduced to as the reader, because of his mental handicap he is unable to speak. His idea of honor is very subtle and only showed through actions. From Benjy's perspective one sees the quiet and silent aspect to honor. His take is very simplistic and based off of what he observes from others. There is a mild sense of frustration, because Benjy cannot defend his own honor nor the family honor. He is constantly being judged by others (within the family unit and the world at large) and can only respond with a groan of disapproval. Caddy sees the destructive nature of her family's honor and chooses to save herself rather than protect the family. Her solution is to run away to salvage her chance at freedom. While Caddy may seem to represent the selfish honor, I think she simply valued herself more than the family unit and was rebellious in her honor. This theory is evidenced by Caddy not thinking about the consequences of leaving her family and how it would affect the members of her family.

Quentin is the protector of the family honor, who differs from Caddy who runs away from the problem of the declining honor. He seeks to always maintain the stature of the family and secure the prospects. As the smartest in the family, Quentin has the potential to save the family monetarily and in terms of continuity. However, there is a slight crack in this seemingly perfect solution. Quentin allows the pressures of attending Harvard to advance his existing craziness and has deep emotional desires for his sister Caddy. These two facts prevent Quentin from redeeming the Compson family and once Quentin realizes he is unable to be the savior he kills himself.

At this point Jason is the last opportunity to continue the Compson name in all its glory. Jason is unable to achieve this task, because he is selfish and lives his life rooted in what could have been. He feels a sense of entitlement and as if he is superior to everyone else. Based on these qualities, Jason represents the perverted or misguided honor. He only cares about protecting his ego and addressing his needs. Jason steals the money Caddy sends for miss Quentin, because he feels as if it his anyway and needs the money to pay off his debts. Here lies the difference between Jason and Caddy, she stills cares about others whereas Jason is egocentric and oblivious to his surroundings. His personal honor of paying back a debt is more important to Jason than showing his niece that her mother cares and loves her. Dilsey represents the final stage of the moral compass to the family. She has true honor and is always the mediator of the family. Her job is to protect the family from themselves and one another while maintaining a true honor. Dilsey balances her own honor, her family's honor, and the Compson honor with grace. This is why I believe Dilsey is entrusted with the continuation of the Compson name albeit in a degraded state. She symbolizes the hope that the family honor can one day reach a great height again.

To summarize, Faulkner makes these characterizations and distinctions to show how one can begin with good intentions but go awry. The progression of the interpretation of honor starts with a very basic sense of honor, which moves to a rebellious honor, which then develops into a protector, and ends with a selfish misplaced sense of honor. Dilsey conveys the ideal type of honor in the progression and caps the transition to provide hope and aspiration. Faulkner uses the overarching theme of honor not just to elaborate on his character's personalities, but as a forum to comment about society as well. Honor is symbolic of the decaying state of the typical southern white family. Faulkner presents a few different methods to coping with the decline through his characters. Ultimately, the fall is occurring and the only positive light is the hope of a future rise to their former glory.