Paper Summary:

The paper examines William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" and demonstrates how the corruption of the Compson family reflects the degradation of Southern aristocratic values in the post-war South. The paper focuses on specific events and images that symbolize the degradation of a once-illustrious family and Southern society and also highlights how the Compsons' inability to accept change drives the decay. Finally, the paper shows how despite the Compsons' downfall, Dilsey's simple yet strong presence remains a source of hope and stability.

From the Paper:

"The corruption of the Compson family reflects the degradation of Southern aristocratic values in post-war South. Every character's decline metaphorically echoes Southern society as a whole. As Roger Matuz notes, The Sound and the Fury becomes "an essentially tragic work, comparable in its dimensions and intensity to the family tragedies of the Greeks, the houses of Atreus and Laeus" (Matuz 105). Formerly, the South experienced the prominence of aristocratic families like the Compsons. Indeed, the Compsons boasts a lineage that includes a governor of Mississippi and a Civil War general. Yet, as the South struggles to rebuild after the devastating war and Reconstruction, many could not accept change nor face the new realities of life and consequently, deteriorated into a shadow of their prime."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brooks, Cleanth. "Man, Time, and Eternity." The Yoknapatawpha Country. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963, 325-48. Compiled in The Sound and the Fury. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
• Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
• Jean-Paul Sartre. "On The Sound and the Fury: Time in the Work of Faulkner." Literary and Philosophical Essays. London: Rider, 1955. Compiled in The Sound and the Fury. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
• Jehlen, Myra. "Faulkner's Fiction and Southern Society." Class and Character in Faulkner's South. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976. Compiled in The Sound and the Fury. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.
• Matuz, Roger. "William Faulkner." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Volume 68. Detroit: Gale, 1992. 104-106. Web. Accessed 27 October 2009.

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