Mother Figures in "The Sound and the Fury"

Paper Summary:

This essay compares and contrasts Caroline Compson and Dilsey Gibson as mother figures within the novel "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner. This paper is written within the terms of their relative positive and negative influence on the Compson family, and the Compson children in particular. Throughout the novel Caroline Compson, the children's real mother, is lacking as either a mother figure or a positive influence of any kind, while Dilsey Gibson admirably fulfills both roles. Faulkner, though, implies hope for the Compsons, and, by association, post-Reconstruction South itself. The conclusion allows that in reflecting on the relative strengths and weaknesses of Caroline and Dilsey, it is clear that Dilsey Gibson, not Caroline Compson, finally exerts more influence over the Compson family.

From the Paper:

"Both Caroline Compson and her husband, Jason Compson III, are neglectfully detached from their children. It is Caroline's chronic self-absorption, however (at her children's expense) that, as Faulkner implies, is more hurtful and damaging to them. Caroline seems interested in two things only. The first is her own self, and her numerous personal needs, rather these are imaginary or real. The second is her family's declining social importance within Jefferson. Caroline is in fact so obsessed with the latter that when it becomes clear that the child originally named Maury, after Caroline's brother Maury Bascomb is severely mentally retarded, Caroline changes his name to Benjamin ("Benjy"), so as not to reflect badly on the older Maury, or her family name. Clearly, from that example alone, we recognize that Caroline's first affections and loyalties are not to her children."

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