Summary
Whoever God is, He would not permit that.
I am a lady. You might not believe it from my offspring, but I am.
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It is Easter Sunday, 1928, the
day after Benjy’s narration and two days after Jason’s. Dilsey walks
up to the Compson house and manages to get the kitchen up and running
despite the interference of Mrs. Compson and Luster. Luster tells
Dilsey that Jason is angry because someone has broken the window
in his room. Benjy eats his breakfast and whimpers. Jason emerges
and testily sends Dilsey to call Miss Quentin to breakfast. There
is no answer from Miss Quentin’s room. Jason suddenly springs up
the stairs, seizes his mother’s keys, and unlocks Miss Quentin’s
door. The window is open and Miss Quentin is gone.
As Dilsey tries to comfort Mrs. Compson, Jason rushes
to his strongbox and finds that it has been forced open. His papers
are there, but all his money is gone. Jason calls the police and
asks them to send a deputy to the house. He storms out. Meanwhile,
Dilsey takes Luster, Frony, and Benjy to an Easter service at the
local black church, where Reverend Shegog gives a boisterous sermon
about the life and death of Christ. When they return to the house,
they find that Jason still has not returned. Jason has gone to see
the sheriff to demand help in tracking down Miss Quentin. However,
the sheriff is suspicious of Jason’s claim and sharply critical
of the way he runs the Compson family. The sheriff refuses to help
without more substantial evidence of Miss Quentin’s wrongdoing.
Jason gasses up his car and goes to find Miss Quentin.
On the way, Jason thinks about Lorraine, his mistress in Memphis.
This thought reminds him of how angry he is to have been ripped
off by a woman yet again. Jason drives to the town where the minstrel show
is stopping next, since he believes that Miss Quentin’s lover—the
man with the red tie—works for the show. Jason rudely asks an old
man where Miss Quentin and her lover are, but the old man takes
offense and becomes violent, and Jason knocks him down. Jason tries
to leave, but the old man comes after him with a hatchet. The man
who runs the minstrel show rapidly leads Jason around the corner
and convinces him that Miss Quentin and her lover are not there.
Jason pays a black man to drive him back to Jefferson.
Back in town, Luster is driving Benjy in the carriage.
As they arrive at the cemetery, Luster deviates from the usual course
T.P. used to take, and Benjy begins howling at the unfamiliar route. Jason
comes across Luster and Benjy. He hits Luster across the head, ordering
him never to turn off the route Benjy is used to taking, and strikes
Benjy in an attempt to quiet him. Benjy continues to howl. However,
as Luster drives Benjy home, the familiar façades, doorways, windows,
signs, and trees of the town of Jefferson all appear to Benjy in
their ordered place, and he finally quiets.
I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de
endin.
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Analysis
The Sound and the Fury ends with the
symbolic completion of the Compsons’ downfall, but also hints at
the possibility of resurrection or renewal. Importantly, this last
chapter takes place on Easter Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection
and thus a powerful symbol of redemption and hope.
We may expect Caddy to narrate the last section, since
she is in many ways the most important character in the novel, and
the only one of the Compson children who has not had a chance to
speak. However, Faulkner narrates this section himself, from a third--person
perspective. This viewpoint takes us a step back from the Compsons’
inner world and provides a more panoramic view of the tragedy that
has unfolded. The narrative voice Faulkner adopts is an objective
one—similar to Benjy’s in its ability to view the Compson world
without resentment, but unlike Benjy’s in that it is omniscient and
relies on a more traditional mode of storytelling.
