THE DOWNFALL OF THE SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY IN WILLIAM FAULKNER’S THE SOUND AND THE FURY

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the downfall of the Southern aristocracy in the novel, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. The main characters in the novel are descendants of a patriarchal southern family, the Compsons, who were once aristocratic and rich in the South. These people do not live the life of luxury they were living in the past baroquely, however, they confront and witness their own downfall instead. The reasons for the downfall of the southern aristocracy lie mostly in their great dependence on the past. Because aristocrats lost their old values which cement the society and family together, they were not able to cope with the realities that modernity brought. The decline is also deteriorated by the conflicts between The Old South and New South. As a result, the Compson children fail to live in accordance with the Southern moral code. The Sound and the Fury gives a detailed story of decline of the Compson family in the eyes of three Compson children, idiot Benjy, materialistic Jason and neurotic Quentin. Their decadence, disintegration and deterioration show the end of a long-lasting notion, the Southern aristocracy.