What happens to Quentin Compson in the sound and the Fury?
The passage in The Sound and the Fury's entry gives more information about the character. After moving north to study at Harvard College, he eventually commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles River . Quentin Compson is also the name of his niece, the illegitimate daughter of his sister Candace (Caddy).
Who is Quentin Compson?
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Quentin Compson is a fictional character created by William Faulkner. He is an intelligent, neurotic, and introspective son of the Compson Family. He is featured in the classic novels The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! as well as the short stories, " That Evening Sun " and " A Justice ".
What happened to Quentin Compson in the Outsiders?
After moving north to study at Harvard College, he eventually commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles River . Quentin Compson is also the name of his niece, the illegitimate daughter of his sister Candace (Caddy).
How does Quentin feel when he turns to Mr Compson for guidance?
Turning to Mr. Compson for guidance, Quentin feels even worse when he learns that his father does not care about the Southern code or the shame Caddy’s conduct has brought on the family.
When did Quentin Compson die?
June 2, 1910'64, his wife, Jean, and their friend Tom Sugimoto in a private ceremony on June 2, 1965, the 55th anniversary of Compson's literary death. It read: “Quentin Compson III/ June 2, 1910/ Drowned in the fading of honeysuckle.” In 1978 construction crews accidentally knocked it off, and a replacement was installed in 1983.
How does Mr Compson die in The Sound and the Fury?
Quentin Compson A sensitive and intelligent boy, Quentin is preoccupied with his love for his sister Caddy and his notion of the Compson family's honor. He commits suicide by drowning himself just before the end of his first year at Harvard.
What is Quentin tormented by?
Unlike Benjy, who is oblivious to time, Quentin is so obsessed and haunted by it that he sees suicide as his only escape. Clearly, the main thrust of Quentin's section is his struggle with Caddy's promiscuity. Quentin is horrified by Caddy's conduct, and he is obsessed by the stain it has left on the family's honor.
How did Quentin commit suicide?
Quentin, the oldest of the Compson children, is like Shakespeare's Hamlet. He gets bogged down in the act of contemplation; he thinks too long upon a subject and cannot bring any of his acts to completion. He ends his life by drowning himself in the river.
How many children do Jason and Caroline Compson have?
Caroline Compson is the wife of Mr. Jason Lycurgus Compson III. She is the mother of the four Compson children, Quentin, Candace, Jason IV, and Benjamin.
What happens to Caddy Compson?
Caddy gets married and leaves. Soon after she has her baby, however, Herbert realizes that he's not the father. He leaves Caddy. Caddy sends her daughter, Quentin, to Jefferson to be raised by her mother.
Did Quentin commit incest with Caddy?
Let's be very clear here: Quentin has not done anything with Caddy. No sex. No incest. In fact, he's a virgin (as his roommate Shreve will make painfully clear later on).
Why is Quentin so obsessed with time?
Quentin's father gave him his watch in the hopes that it would make him occasionally forget about time, but the watch only increases Quentin's obsession.
What is Quentin's responsibility in The Sound and the Fury?
The eldest of the Compson children, Quentin feels an inordinate burden of responsibility to live up to the family’s past greatness and prestige. He is a very intelligent and sensitive young man, but is paralyzed by his obsession with Caddy and his preoccupation with a very traditional Southern code of conduct and morality.
What does Quentin feel when he learns his father does not care about the Southern code?
Turning to Mr. Compson for guidance, Quentin feels even worse when he learns that his father does not care about the Southern code or the shame Caddy’s conduct has brought on the family. When Quentin finds that his sister and father have disregarded the code that gives order and meaning to his life, he is driven to despondency ...
What are some of the ideas that Quentin has?
Quentin is full of vague ideas, such as the suicide pact with Caddy or the desire for revenge against Dalton Ames, but his ideas are always unspecific and inevitably end up either rejected by others or carried out ineffectively.
What is Quentin's Southern code?
Quentin’s Southern code also prevents him from being a man of action. The code preoccupies Quentin with blind devotion to abstract concepts that he is never able to act upon assertively or effectively.
What does Quentin tell Shreve and Spoade to do?
Quentin tells Shreve and Spoade to go on without him, and they take a trolley back... (full context) Quentin thinks about his family and his parents’ pride in their bloodlines, and he thinks about... (full context) A bell sounds again, and Quentin puts on his vest and puts his watch into Shreve’s desk drawer.
Does Quentin protect Caddy?
Quentin is intelligent and sensitive, but he is never able to protect (or influence) Caddy or act on his ideas – like his suicide pact with Caddy or his attempt to attack Dalton Ames – except in his suicide.
Quentin Compson Quotes in That Evening Sun
The That Evening Sun quotes below are all either spoken by Quentin Compson or refer to Quentin Compson . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
Quentin Compson Character Timeline in That Evening Sun
The timeline below shows where the character Quentin Compson appears in That Evening Sun. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
What does Quentin think of Caddy's mother?
Quentin later thinks that if Caddy could have said Mother, could have had a true mother to whom she could turn, Caddy would not have committed the sin that disturbs him so much.
What is Mr. Compson's cynical comment?
All of these cynical remarks that Mr. Compson makes are in support of Caddy's sins, but Quentin still objects. His dilemma is that while rejecting his father's point of view, he cannot argue effectively against his father's views.
What is Quentin's view on Mr. Compson?
He can find no answer for some of his father's negative comments about life. Mr. Compson's view that virginity and purity are negative states and therefore contrary to nature causes Quentin to experience a dark sense of tragedy.
What does Caddy call her?
Caddy called her a "dirty girl.". The implication here is that even though Caddy is promiscuous, she is also jealous of any girl who is attracted to Quentin in the same way that Quentin is jealous of the men who are attracted to Caddy.
What is the Quentin section?
The Quentin Section - June 2, 1910. This entire section is told from within Quentin's mind on the day that he commits suicide. Like Benjy, Quentin constantly returns to memories of scenes from the past. Quentin is at Harvard, but his mind, like Benjy's, roams in memory around the Compson place.
What is Quentin's concern with time and with his father's cynical view of life
Quentin's concern with time and with his father's cynical view of life will become clearer as the section progresses. Though Mr. Compson is not particularly upset when he discovers Caddy's pregnancy, Quentin is horrified. He cannot understand Compson's pragmatic view that virginity is an "invention" of men and of very little concern to women.
What does Quentin's memory convince him?
These memories convince Quentin that his values have little chance in the nihilistic worlds of his parents. In remembering his talk with Herbert Head (pp. 107-11), Quentin's strong sense of honor and his high integrity do not apply only to Caddy and her sins.
Why is Caddy important to Quentin?
See, Caddy was the most important person in Quentin’s life. He came to understand relationships and women and sexuality through her.
What happens when Caddy doesn't accept his saving?
When Caddy doesn’t accept his "saving," it’s Quentin who falls apart. Faulkner plays with the ways that Quentin first theorizes and then lives the stopping of time; by the end of his section, Quentin’s mind is shuttling between his present and a past that seems just as relevant as anything he’s currently living.
Who is the last person to harm a woman?
Of course, as we all know by now, Quentin’ s the last person in the world to ever do anything to harm a woman. He’s gotten beat up many, many times for defending women’s honor. In fact, as a boy, all he has to say is "she," and his father knows exactly why he came home with a black eye.
