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.