Weeks 7 & 8: The Dilsey Section and the Book as a Whole

[Suzann]

Aiden wrote: "I think the muddy drawers are universally seen as a symbol of Caddy’s later promiscuity and the disasters that follow to finish off the Compsons. The two symbols of that scene are the muddy drawers and Damuddy’s wake, which is what Caddy is looking at (sex and death)..."

Thanks, Aiden. There's also washing the muddy drawers in the water. Do you think water is significant to the image? Why are sex and death associated? Just trying to explore this a little more.

[David]

Suzann wrote: "There's also washing the muddy drawers in the water. Do you think water is significant to the image?"

Could there be some congruency between muddy drawers being washed in water, and Quentin's muddied life being washed in water, so to speak?

[Aiden]

Suzann wrote: "There's also washing the muddy drawers in the water. Do you think water is significant to the image? Why are sex and death associated?"

I don’t recall the drawers being washed. I believe you’re referring to Caddy getting them wet in the creek, which is how they get muddy to begin with. Water is definitely a significant image on the same sex and death themes in other parts like when Caddy tries to wash her promiscuity away in the creek and Quentin suggests incest or suicide because of his fatalism. Water is generally seen as cleansing, sometimes alluding to baptism.

Sex and death also were two primary themes of Freud’s psychoanalytical writings, which were influential on Faulkner, with his Oedipal/Electra complexes and his conception of the Death Drive, but I haven’t studied Freud enough to comment intelligently on the detail.

Sex and death are two primary themes of TSATF with its constant allusions to Easter with its death and resurrection (sex leading to literal and metaphorical rebirth). To me, death is the “out with the old” and sex is “in with the new,” which can also be seen as the march of progress.

[Aiden]

David wrote: "Could there be some congruency between muddy drawers being washed in water, and Quentin's muddied life being washed in water, so to speak?"

I would definitely draw parallels between the earliest scene (chronologically) of the children playing in the branch, where Quentin worries about Caddy getting dirty and lacking modesty, and his later suicide by drowning.

In a way, I see this as death and rebirth as well. Quentin dies before Caddy gives birth and she honors her brother and gives his name new life by conferring it on her daughter.

[David]

I had no idea this novel was so complex and rewarding, despite being a bit of downer. A big thank you to Tamara for leading us through it and everyone's comments in the discussions that helped me make sense of it.

[Suzann]

Tamara wrote: Shakespeare utilizes two types of "fools" in his plays. Some are the wisest characters in the..."

Came across this reference to fools in T. S. Eliot's Wasteland and Prufrock poem, of which, I believe, Faulkner was well aware: "The Fool here refers to the character as well as to the tarot card with that character on it. Eliot's fascination with tarot is displayed both here and in his masterpiece "The Waste Land" and is an attempt to access archetypal iconography with psychological underpinnings. In tarot, the Fool is a card with unlimited potential, but great naivete, and is prone to squandering his opportunities, much as Prufrock squanders his chances at real human connection." This description of the fool could be applied to all the Compsons. To me, giving a character of diminished capacity, the literal idiot or fool, such a prominent voice, points to the figurative foolishness of the characters blessed with full mental capacity, but the proclivity to squander that opportunity.

[Suzann]

Yes, I second David's thanks to Tamara for leading and to contributors for the lively discussion!