Images in The Sound and the Fury

Bass, Eben. “Meaningful Images in The Sound and the Fury.” Modern Language Notes 76.8 (1961): 728-731.

Bass’s article focuses specifically on a few objects in The Sound and the Fury that hold especially special significance to characters in the story. A particularly interesting symbol which Bass focused on was Caddy’s slipper, which Benjy insists on holding on to throughout the chronologically later parts of the novel. Bass notices that “since Quentin the niece objects to the idiot’s fondling it, dirty as it is, during mealtime, we may judge her dislike for her mother” (Bass 729).

The slipper is essentially presented as a symbol of Caddy’s and eventually Quentin’s downfalls. The slipper is Caddy’s wedding slipper. What else could a “white satin slipper” (Faulkner 332) be for? When Quentin sees the slipper, she associates it with hatred and negative feelings for her mother. Benjy, on the other hand, needs it, for it is one of the few remaining meaningful memories he has of his beloved sister. Caddy is not just a disgrace for Quentin—as it is a symbol of Quentin’s now-dysfunctional childhood with the Compsons—but a symbol of disgrace for the entire Compson family. The especially damning aspect of it is the fact that it is the slipper likely worn by Caddy to her wedding to Herbert—the wedding that preceded a marriage doomed to fail as a result of Caddy’s promiscuity.

We learn that Ms. Compson has officially edicted that the name “Caddy” not be spoken in the Compson household. Benjy, though, needs some way to hang on to memories of his long-gone sister. No one else in the house likes to think about her, but Benjy needs to. Caddy was the only person in his life to really show him true affection. He needs to hold on to the slipper to hold on to his memories of happier times. For the rest of the family, especially Quentin, the constant presence of this slipper in the house is a haunting reminder of Caddy’s fate.

Since Quentin is the reason that Caddy’s marriage didn’t work, the presence of Caddy’s wedding slipper causes tension. Its constant presence and Quentin’s dislike for it foreshadow the parallels between Caddy’s and Quentin’s illicit affairs and eventual downfalls. There is a reason that Faulkner waits until nearer to the end of the novel to unveil that “the slipper that consoles Benjy is reavealed as Caddy’s wedding slipper only when the daughter whose birth wrecked that marriage turns out badly herself” (Bass 729-730).

Bass points out that the slipper, along with other images such as the pear tree on the Compson’s property, and the mirror and the fire in the Compson’s library, serve to “unite whole segments of the novel” (Bass 731). The fact that Faulkner hides and obscures the perspicuity of such images actually lends to their strength. By allowing the reader to subconsciously add meaning to these images him- or herself, the images actually become stronger, as the reader views the objects in a manner far more similar to the way the characters in the story do than if Faulkner were to explain the meanings of the images. (525)