Character Analysis of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury

This week I am going to:

Finish my textual analysis of Macbeth's soliloquy.
Read, analyze and comment on the article: Shakespeare, Faulkner, and the Expression of the Tragic.
Start looking into Billy Collin's poetry.

This is my fourth post about Faulkner and Shakespeare, the second post specifically about Macbeth's soliloquy and The Sound and The Fury.

For this post I am going to look at some of the "lighted fools" of The Sound and the Fury.



From Macbeth's soliloquy:

"And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death"

In the context of the soliloquy, Macbeth is noting how the passage of time waits for none, and the passage of time, or the "yesterdays" leads, or "lightens" fools to death. There is no stopping time, and it eventually expires for everyone.

However, in relation to The Sound and The Fury, I believe this brief quote can take on another meaning, that those that dwell in the past are fools. Many of the characters in The Sound and The Fury and stuck in the past, or dwell on a past time, which limits their progression. Mr. Compson and Jason IV are stuck in the past, when they had land, wealth and a reputation. They resent the changes that have caused their declining prosperity. Benjy doesn't understand or recognize the Compsons' social affairs and decline, and is stuck in a time when his first memories were formed. He fears change because change takes him from his vision of the present and presents uncertainties. As time passes, Benjy's surroundings become less and less coherent.

The Sound and The Fury contains "some of the most memorable characters in American literature" (from the back cover of the book). These characters, similar to many Shakespeare characters, are so memorable because they are identifiable to the reader. How many of us fear change, relive past times, dwell on past experiences or choose to escape the present by focusing on the past?