Faulkner – Thematic Questions
Reading Group Guide for William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury
A set of four questions to spark discussion about the themes in this great American Classic.
1.) Near the beginning of Quentin’s section, we get two views of time. Quentin recalls the gift of a watch from his father. It was a watch that once belonged to Quentin’s grandfather. Quentin’s father told Quentin that “I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all breath trying to conquer it.” As Quentin considers what his father said he realizes that “I don’t suppose anybody ever deliberately listens to a watch or clock. You don’t have to. You can be oblivious to the sound for a long while, then in a second of ticking it can create in the mind unbroken the diminishing parade of time you didn’t hear.”
How do you understand time? Does it agree with or contradict Quentin’s father? Quentin? Quentin tries to stop time by smashing the clock and removing the hands but time keeps moving forward measured by the still ticking clock. Finally, Quentin commits suicide in an attempt to take himself out of the march of time. Do you think his suicide took Quentin out of time? How do you think his inclusion in the novel shows us that he is still in time? Is he still part of his family’s life?
2.) What is Caddy’s role in the novel? We never meet Caddy in person during the novel. We only know of her as a memory in the mind of her brothers, all of whom are obsessed with her. Faulkner wrote The Sound and the Fury after writing a brief sketch that included the scene of Caddy in the pear tree with her muddy bottoms showing. Faulkner wrote that she was “the sister which I did not have and the daughter which I was to lose.”
What role does Caddy represent in the lives of her brothers? Is she sister, mother, or lover to them? Is it Caddy’s fault that they all become obsessed with her? Do you think Caddy was deliberately wild or were her actions the result of lack of love from her parents?
3.) Jason is a bitter, violent man. He is his mother’s favorite child and she considers him to be the most Bascomb-like. He imagines that people describe his family by focusing on the failings “one of them is crazy and another one drowned himself and the other one was turned out into the street by her husband.” Jason doesn’t comment on how he thinks people perceive him. However, we do get a glimpse of their feelings when Jason calls the sheriff asking him to help capture Miss Quentin and her circus man.
How does the sheriff respond to Jason’s request? How do you think it reflects the view of outsiders to the Compson family? What does Mrs. Compson favoritism shown for Jason and her consideration of him as a Bascomb say about her values?
4.) Dilsey is an important character in the novel. Near the beginning she comments on Benjy’s name change by saying “‘My name been Disley since for I could remember and it be Disley when they’s long forgot me.’ ‘How will they know it’s Disley, when it’s long forgot, Disley,’ Caddy said. ‘It’ll be in the Book, honey,’ Dilsey said. ‘Writ out.’ ‘Can you read it,’ Caddy said. ‘Won’t have to,’ Dilsey said. ‘They’ll read it for me. All I got to do is say Ise here.’” She believes and she believes that names matter.
Near the end of the novel Dilsey says “I seed the beginnin, en now I sees de endin.”
Do you think Dilsey is worried that because of Benjy’s name change he won’t get into heaven? Why do you think she believes that God thinks names are important? What is literally referring to when she says she has seen the beginning and the end? What is her statement symbolic of?
More About William Faulkner's Masterpiece The Sound and the Fury.
- A review of the novel.
- A summary of the novel.
- Major characters in the novel.
- Minor characters in the novel.
- Different aspects of love as portrayed in the novel.
- Discussion questions regarding William Faulkner's style in the novel.
