凯蒂出走后的困境——喧嚣与骚动的女性主义解读

The Dilemma after Caddy s Running awayReading The Sound and the Fury from Feminist Perspective凯蒂出走后的困境喧嚣与骚动的女性主义解读The Dilemma afterCaddy' s Runningway ReadingThe Soundand the Furyfrom eministPerspectivethAbstract: William Faulkner is one of the greatest American novelists in the 20 cen tury .In many of his works he depicts the decli ne of the aristocratic families in American South, the deterioration of the old traditional values and those people who are distressed in the reality of the modern world. The Sound and the Fury is his first successful work. There are a lot of researches and studies on the novel. In the novel the woman characters play an importa nt role. Caddy Comps on is the core of the whole family. She has a stro ng in flue nee on her three brothers, her family and the society. Caddy ' s promiscuity foreshadows the downfall of the traditional Southern values. Miss Quentin' escape indicates that the downfall cannot be avoided.Key words: traditi onal Souther n values; deterioratio n; wome n摘要：福克纳是美国二十世纪最伟大的作家之一，他的许多作品中都反映了南方大家族的 没落、旧传统的解体、以及处在这一进程中的人们的矛盾和痛苦。喧嚣与骚动 是他的代表作，许多学者对该书进行了探讨和研究。本文从女性角度对其进行了剖 析。喧嚣与骚动中的几位女性在文中起了至关重要的作用，而其中的凯蒂康 普生是小说的中心，她对她的三个兄弟，家庭及社会都有深远的影响。凯蒂的堕落 预示着南方的传统观念必将走向灭亡。凯蒂的女儿小昆丁的出走进一步印证了这一 事实。关键词：南方旧传统；末落；女性第15页共12页ContentsI. Introduction 1A. General Introduction to William Faulkner1B. Introduction to The Sound and the Fury 2C. Introduction to Caddy's Characters .4II . Women' Existence as Caddys Dilemma.6A. Pressure from the Family:.6B. Bondage of the Traditional Code.:8皿.Women's Status asCaddy s Dilemma9A. Women Having FewerRights9B. Women sUnfair Treatment10IV . Conclusion11Works Cited13,which thFaulk ner dI. IntroductionA. General Introduction to William FaulknerWilliam Faulk ner was born in to a Southern aristocratic family on September 25,1897,Oxford,Mississippi (McHaney 6). Faulkner was named after his great-gra ndfather. The family n ame was actually Falk ner, without the“ uwriter added to his name later. His great-grandfather William C. Falkner, known as the“ Old Colonel ” , was an important figure in the history of northerin Mississippi. He was widely remembered for his achieveme nts as soldier, la ndow ner, lawyer, bus in essma n, politician, and writer.He was elected to the legislature before being shot by a political rival in 1889. the old colonel was the prototype for Colonel John Sartoris in his great-grandson ' s writing. Faulkner only attended two years of high school in Oxford, where he had tried his hand at writing early, but more often focused his attention on various diversions until he dropped out in 1915. Like most writers of his generation, Faulkner was eager to go to the First World War, but he was n ever sent to Europe. He joined the Royal Flyi ng Corps in Can ada he was too short to joi n the U.S Air Forceand was still under training when the war was over.After the war, he returned to Oxford and was admitted to the University of Mississippi. Faulk ner bega n to write for the school papers and magaz in es, quickly earning a reputation as an eccentric. His strange routines, swanky dressing habits, and in ability to hold dow n a job earned him the nickn ame“ Count Noco unt. ”not complete the freshman year in the University of Mississippi. He supported himself with a variety of odd jobs in New York and Oxford. He became postmaster of the University of Mississippi in 1921 and resigned three years later. In 1924 his first book of poetry, The Marble Faun, was published, but it was critically panned and had few buyers.Faulk ner en riched his kno wledge by readi ng exte nsively in the ancient classics, the poems by Ezra Pound, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, bega n to teach himself Fren ch, and then leanned the novels of Balzac and the poems of the French Symbolists. In his lifetime Faulkner cultivated a literary friendship with two men, which was of great value to his career. I n his youth Faulk ner got acqua in ted with Phil Stone, a lawyer widely read in classic literature and modern French and English authors. Stone would serve for many years as a sometimes unwan ted adviser, helpi ng William Faulk ner get his early works published.His family had a great in flue nee on Faulk ner. His gran dmother, who was the prototype for Damuddy in The Sound and the Fury, often told him the stories about the South. His mother was also keen on literature and art. She was the center of the whole family for her film character.1924 saw his first book of poetry, The Marble Fau n. William Faulk ner writes 19long novels and more than 70 short novels, most of which are family series setting in the ficti onal Yok napatawpha Coun ty. These no vels invo Ive tales of several gen erati ons, and the time spa ns from the War of In depe ndence to the two world wars with over six hundred fictional characters. The typical Yoknapatawpha series include The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), and The Snopes Trilogy (1940-1957), etc. William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.“ Faulk ner was a dari ng formal experime ntalist. He evolved his literary strategies so as to be better able to com muni cate his ideas. Not only was he a dedicated stude nt of human nature, but he was also a conscious artist the way Henry James was” (Ch245). His “ powers of imagination are very great. Rooting his works in the Deep South, he man ages to create a literary milieu of his own through which he tries to tran sce nd the limits of particularity to reach universality.” (Chang 245). Faulkner and his worlhave attracted intense attentions of readers from abroad and home.The study of Faulk ner and his works has always bee n un der hot discussi on, and the atte nti on to him and his works will not stop.B. Introduction to The Sound and the FuryThe Sound and the Fury, published in 1929, is the fourth novel written by William Faulkner. It tells a story of deterioration from the past to the present. The past is idealized to form a striking contrast with the loveless present (Chang 239). There is in the book an acute feeli ng of no stalgia toward the happy past.Depicti ng the decli ne of the on ce-aristocratic Comps on family, the no vel was divided into four parts, each told by a different narrator. According to Faulkner, the story began with a vision of a little girl' s muddy drawers as she climbed a tree to loolat death while her brothers lack the courage. The first sect ion was told from the pointof view of Benjy Comps on, a thirty-three-year-old idiot, and reco un ted the earliest events in the novel use flashback. As an idiot, Benjy was the key to the novel For the most part, his Ian guage was simplse nten ces were short, the vocabulary was simple. It was not difficult to read this section. However, sensory stimuli in the present brought him back to another time and place in his past instantly because the idiot had no concept of time or place. Most of his memories involved his sister, Caddy, who was the central character of the novel. Most of Benjy ' other memories also focused on Caddy, who alone among the Comps ons genuin ely cared for Benjy. Key memories regardi ng Caddy in clude a time whe n she used perfume, whe n she lost her virgi nity, and her wedd ing. Benjy also recalled his cha nge of the n ame (from Maury to Benjamin) in 1900, his Brother Quentin' s suicide in 1910, and the sequenee of eventsat the gate, which leaded to his being castrated, happe ned also in 1910. The sec ond secti on reco un ted the story from Quentin Comps on' s perspective.Quentin ' s section took place on the day he committed suicide, and the present we followed his wan deri ngs around Bost on (he is a stude nt at Harvard Uni versity) as he fastidiously prepared for his death. Like Benjy, he was obsessedwith the past and freque ntly lapsed in to flashbacks. Uni ike the fairly discrete n arratives of Benjy ' s multiple memories, Quentin ' flashbacks also were much more intellectual than Benjy ' s. Theource of Quentin ' s horror was Caddy. Hearkening back to antebellum views of honor, Southern womanhood, and virginity, Quentin could not accept his sister ' s growing sexuality, just as he cannot accept his father' s notion thatwas merely an invention of men. Most of his flashbacks concerned directly his involvement in Caddy' sexual maturing, but ironically they depicted also just how in effectual Quen ti n was.Secti on three was told by the third Comps on brother, Jas on, and was set on Good Friday. Un like his brothers, Jas on cared much more on the prese nt, offeri ng fewer flashbacks. The tone of Jas on ' section was set in sta ntly by the ope ning senten ce:“ Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.” (Faulk ner 192) Jas on was a sadist, and hisgrimly humorous secti on revealed just how low the Comps on family had sunk from Quen ti n ' s obsessi ons over heritage and honor and sin to Jas on -con sta nt cruetyiear and compla in ts.The fourth and final section was told from an omniscient viewpoint. It was sometimes known as “ Dilsey ' s Section ” because of her prominence in this section, but she was not the sole focus in this sect ion a long seque nee follows Jas on as hes pursuit cpursues his ni ece, who had stole n about $7,000 from him, to “ Motts on. The two mai n n arratives prese nted n this sect ion were fairly straightforward: Jas on his stole n money and his in evitable come-uppa nee whe n he in sulted the wrong man in Motts on.In The Sound and the Fury we can see the social and moral decli ne of one of the Southern aristocratic families, the Compsons. The novel is written in a stream of con scious nessstyle and is split into four sect ions. All the characters in the no vel is worth read ing, they are con trolled by the old Southern traditi ons. Apart from the cultural elements, the narrative strategies used in The Sound and the Fury make it unique and successful.Due to the limitation of race, gender, and times, Faulkner portrays the imagery of Southern white women under suppression and exploitation. His reflection of cross-racial friendship is limited only to have the white as masters, and the black as serva nts. Studies on the female images of the no vel can surely help us un dersta nd the main spirit in the no vel, because the author does not express his thoughts and ideas in the superficial way, on the contrary the unique narrative way is speaking for him.C. Introduction to Caddy's CharactersCaddy is compassi on ate. In the abse nee of the self-absorbed Mrs. Comps on, Caddy serves as a mother figure and symbol of affection for Benjy and Quentin. Caddy becomes the one who nu rtures Benjy and Quen ti n. A moaning, speechless idiot, Benjy is utterly depe ndent upon Caddy, his only real source of affecti on.In 1900, when Benjy is five years old, Caddy is trying to pick Benjy up to comfort him. She tells her mother that she can take care of Benjy. You don'tn eed to bother with him I like to take care of him” (Faulkner 61). Caddy attempts to comfort Benjy by satisfying his needs, for example, letting him play with a cushion. Caddy also protects Benjy. Jas on and Caddy get into a fight whe n Caddy finds out that Jas on has maliciously cut all of Benjy 'paper dolls into pieces. We can see that Caddy acts as a mother figure to Benjy and gives love to him.Besides, Caddy is headstr ong. One ni ght in 1898, their gran dmother Damuddy dies. Caddy is not convin ced that a fun eral is actually tak ing place, so she decides to spy on the adults through the parlor win dow. Caddy climbs the tree to see what happe ns while her three brothers, lack ing courage, wait below. When she is forbidde n to go to the parlor and warned that Father would whip her, she saysf don 'care I' walk right in the parlor. I ll walk right in the dining-room and eat suppe” (Faulk ner 21).Caddy always wants to be the king in the game with her brothers. She will do anything that boys can. She will do what other people cannot do. When all the childre n are left with Dilsey, Caddy wan ts to be the master. She says: Let them mind me toni ght, Father”(Faulk ner 22). She wan ts to go to school after Quen ti n has. Mrs. Comps on says: Whe n Quentin started to school we had to let her go the n ext year, so she could be with him. She couldntbear for any of you to do anything she could'. It was vanity in her, vanity and false pride”(Faulkner 261). When Herbert divorces Caddy, she asks no provisi on from him, not eve n one cent. She will so anything to support her daughter.Caddy is also rebellious. When all the Comps ons childre n play in the bran ch, Caddy gets her dress wet. Caddy wants to take off the dress and make it dry. Caddy tries to challenge the traditional Southern code which south women must follow. She persists in her own way, pay ing no atte nti on to other peopl'idea.Playing in the stream as a child, Caddy seems to epitomize purity and innocence. But she soils her un derwear. It has two mea nin gs: death and loss of virgi ni ty. Whe n she climbs the tree, all three of her brothers catch a glimpse of her dirty un derwear from below. Dilsey reaches up and pulls Caddy down from the tree. Dilsey is putting Benjy and the other Comps on childre n to bed. Caddy's rear end is still muddy but Dilsey does not have time to bathe her before bed. Caddy's muddying of her underwear in the stream as a young girl foreshadows her later promiscuity. The promiscuity heralded by Caddy ' dirty pants eve ntually un ravels the three Comps on boys' emotional of mental stability. Whether of not they know it at the time, all three boys are made aware of the curse on the Comps on n ame at this mome nt. It presages and symbolizes the shame that her con duct brings on the Comps on family.When she reaches sexual maturity, Caddy beg ins to behave promiscuously. At the age of fifteen, she kisses a boy. In 1909, Caddy loses her virginity, and later becomes pregnant. She is unable of unwilling to name the father of the child, though it is likely Dalton Ames, a boy from the town. Her experience with Dalton Ames leads her to promiscuity. In 1910, attempting to cover up her indiscretions, Caddy quickly marries Herbert Head, a banker she meets in Indiana. Herbert immediately divorces Caddy when he realizes his wife if pregnant with another man schild. The Compsons drive Caddy out of the family but take in her newborn daughter. In order to support her daughter, Caddy is driven to prostitution. And when she learns that her daughter escapes from the home, she is dow nhearted.II Women' Existence as Cadd' DilemmaAll the readers of The Sound and the Fury know that Caddy was a tragic character in this no vel. Though there was not a separate chapter of Caddy, she was the cen tral character in this no vel; and the cause of the dilemma of Caddy mainly came from two aspects.A. Pressure from the FamilyThis story was about the Comps on family, which was a prominent one in Jeffers on, Mississippi of the South America. Caddy was the on ly daughter of this family. The first section narrated by Caddy youngest brother Benjy, an idiot, who depe nded too much on her; he thought repeatedly that Caddy smells like trees. Most of his memory was cen tered about her. For example, at the beg inning of this secti on, Luster leaded Benjy to a nearby course, hoping to earn back his lost quarter by fetching lost golf balls from the rough. When Benjy heard one of the golfers calling out to his caddie, he moaned because the sound of theord “ caddie ” rem in ded him of his sister. I n his memory, Benjy man aged to ope n a gate and run through it, he wan ted to tell the girls how much he missed Caddy; he caught up with one of them. The girl screamed in terror. The sce ne en ded with an un specified assaila n presumably the father of one of the girls attacked Benjy. That ni ght, Mr. Comps on wan ted to know how Benjy got past the gate. He and Jas on mulled over the idea of hav ing Benjy castrated as a precautio n.All of these things show how pitiful Benjy was! Mean while, this was also the tragedy of Caddy, because from the childhood to the age hood, there was only Caddy cari ng for Benjy. When she divorced, their mother and Jas on did not allow her to go home and meet her daughter, Quentin. But she also cared for Benjy very much; Caddy was afraid that after their father' s death Benjy would be put in the mental hospital inJackson by Jason.Caddy' s eldest brother Quen ti n Comps on, who had a special feeli ng with her, he connected the honor of the family with his life. Before his suicide, He had a memory of his sister, Caddy' swedd ing announ ceme nt: “ Mr. and Mrs. Jas on Richm ondComps on announce the marriage of.(Faulk ner 112) Cgodmarried in April,just two mon ths ago. He went through a series of painful memories, thi nking of her promiscuity and her marriage to Herbert Head. He remembered his mother' s letters about Caddy and Herbert, and Herbert ' s promise to give Jas on a job in his bank. Hethought vaguely about his mother's pride and emptinessamaddy never hadoga real mother and that he himself could never turn to his mother in times of need. And he remembered the time he told his father he had committed incest with Caddy, though he never actually had sexual relations with her, and that his father did not believe him. Besides, his father told him that the only reas on he was upset at Caddy preg nancy was becausehe himself was still a virg in. Mr. Comps on was relatively unconcerned with Caddy' gregnancy because he said that virginity was just a meanin gless con cept inven ted by men.From these memories, we can see clearly that the main thrust of Quentin ' ssection was his struggle against Caddy' promiscuity. Quentin, like Benjy, had a his mind; however, Quen ti n ' osder was based on a traditi on al, idealized Southernstrong sense of order and chaos. Benjy's order wsatteaseoblbexperienee incode of honor and con duct. This code was a legacy of the old South, a highly paternalistic society in which men were expected to act like gentlemen and women like ladies. Quentin believed very strongly in the ideals espoused under this traditional code: family honor; gentlemanly virtue, strength, and decency; and especially feminine purity, modesty, and virginity. Caddy' promiscuity deeply hurt Quentin because he viewed it as dirty and shameful, a blatant violation of the ideal of femininity found in his Southern code. Thinking that suicide was the only way to salvage the family name, Quentin told Caddy that he would kill himself if she did the same. When she was uninterested, Quentin ' next idea was to falsely accept the resp on sibility for fatheri ng Caddya' lis, chitconeie con sidered hono rable andgen tlema nly.Quen ti n ' s struggle to rec on cile Caddy' s acti ons with his own traditi onal Souther nvalue system reflects Faulkner' s broader concern with the clash between the old Southand the modern world. Like a medieval code of chivalry, the old South ' s ideafeare based on a society that has largely disappeared. Just Quen ti n ' s traditi on al, idealized Souther n code of honor and con duct fettered Caddy. And at that time, wome n right' swas improving, but her thought contradicted her family , so Caddy became a promiscuous, degeneratewomen. And becauseof Quentin 'suicide, Caddy became more and more promiscuous.Ano ther cause came from her mother and ano ther brother Jas on. Herbert Head had offered Jas on a job at his bank before Caddy married him, but resci nded that offer when he divorced Caddy. Becausehe knew that Caddy' unborn child was not his. This retractio n left Jas on no choice but to work at the local farm-supply store. However, after Caddy divorced, her mother did not allow Caddy come