The Sound and the Fury in Reading the Classics

Oct 21, 2024 Misha rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, 20th-century, family-and-other-animals, literary-fiction, purchased-2012, politics-social, psychology-mental-health, purchased-2021

I love the title of the book taken from Macbeth. The following lines from Macbeth really are the crux of Faulkner's characters' fates.
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

This is the tale of the fall and fall of the former aristocratic family of Compsons as we follow the (mis)fortunes of four of its members.

I saw my first Monet (beyond the screen I love the title of the book taken from Macbeth. The following lines from Macbeth really are the crux of Faulkner's characters' fates.
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

This is the tale of the fall and fall of the former aristocratic family of Compsons as we follow the (mis)fortunes of four of its members.

I saw my first Monet (beyond the screen) at Belvedere Museum, Vienna in 2013. His 'Garden in Giverny' in particular caught my attention. From a certain angle, especially from a little afar, it appeared to be a jarring collision of colours, formless and impossible to penetrate. As I approached the painting, the formlessness gained a form, the colours were actually woods opening into a clearing leading upto what looked like a house. The Sound and The Fury reads like this painting. The first two chapters are almost structureless, stream of conscious flurry of emotions, memories and sensations, often non-linear. Often causing such a torrent of feelings, especially disgust and anger and shock. Even when impenetrable, I think it's the only way these chapters could have been written because they portray the characters' terrible, terrifying interiority as also the poisonous exteriors, the toxic relationship dynamics within the family. Just like Monet's painting, as you approach the last two chapters, the writing assumes structure and linearity, and you gain full knowledge of the terrible truth of this family.

A lot of the story is about the hubris of such families in assuming the unchangeability of society. There is exploration of racism, dysfunctionality, misogyny in ways that are frankly nauseating. Somehow the lack of empathy I felt for any of the protagonists is one of the book's most fascinating aspects - it's a study of a tragedy that is deserved. And it's a true look at colonialism/ imperialism in a micro form.

I wonder how readers whose families/ancestors were enslaved or grew up under Colonial rule would react differently from other readers. As someone living in a country where the effects of colonialism are still felt in the laws, education, societal structures, religious divisions etc., I think I saw this book more as a portrait of a flawed society more than the tragedy of a family. The family's dynamics with their black servants and the overarching view of brown/black people as something less than humans - I really felt these at a personal level. And Faulkner plays it out so subtly, yet powerfully. His text is brimming with it even when these 'minorities' are not the core characters.

The Sound and The Fury is absolute chaos and mess, inspiring that same chaos within the reader. It's a crash of every awful feeling. I think that's the beauty of this modern classic. ...more

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