Structures Used in The Sound and the Fury Essay -- Sound and the Fury

Structures Used in The Sound and the Fury In Christian and Freudian Structures, Carvel Collins points out some interesting systems used by Faulkner in The Sound and The Fury. Collins refers to the first system Faulkner uses as a Christian structure, which shows how all three Compson sons are in parallel with Christ. When discussing the Christian structure, Collins says that it is important for the reader to know that three of the four sections are set on Easter Sunday and the two days preceding it (71). First, he discusses the Quentin section because it dates back to a thorium with the other sections being on Friday (Jason), Saturday (Benjy), and Sunday (fourth section). The Thursday in which the Quentin section takes place symbolizes Christs experience on Holy Thursday and some points of similarity are 1) Quentinss Last Supper with Shreve, Gerald, and their companions in the picnic, in which they drink wine. (Wine in biblical terms symbolizes the blood of Christ.)2) The breaking of the bread with the little Italian girl (bread=body of Christ).3) Quentins tortured conversation with his father stands out in his memories which takes place on the same day of the week as the event of Christ crying out in torturing upon his father and4) Quentin is captured and taken before a court, just as Christ was. Next in history was Good Friday which compares to the Jason section. One event that took place on Good Friday was that disciple took her (Christs mother) into his own (John 19). Christs mother was in association with her son, just like Mrs. Compson and Jason Jason was the only child in which she cared for. Jasons name also seems to be significant because it was used for Jesus by Hellenized Jews. One ... ...epresents the ego, which Freud presents as a battleground between the urges of the id and the restraints of the super-ego and Jason at that of the repressive super-ego (73). apply these Freudian terms and characteristics, the three Compson sons merge into one wi th Benjamin representing the id, having only instinct and does not care about time. He goes to sleep at the stop of his section. Then in the first sentence of the Quentin section, Quentin wakes up aware of the time (ego first part of the personality to become aware of time) (74). full treatment Cited Collins, Carvel Christian and Freudian Structures. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Sound and The Fury. Ed. Michael H. Cowan. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice Hall, Inc., 1968. 71-74. Life Applications Bible for Students. The New King James Version. Illinois Tyndale Publications, Inc., 1994.