Paradise Lost and Found

As I read through the pages of The Sound and the Fury in preparation for class discussions, I always look for biblical symbols and motifs. Not only because of my religious views but also the fact that most literary works contain references to the Bible in some way. This common ground provides fuel for the majority of my input in class and, consequently, creates a greater sense of achievement and purpose internally. However, thus far, I had been unsuccessful in extracting any references to the Bible in this novel. Luckily, Mary Dell Fletcher had more insight than myself and was able to devote two pages of interpretation solely to Faulkner’s biblical symbolisms.

This article, titled Edenic Images in The Sound and the Fury, appeared in volume 40 of the South Central Bulletin in the winter of 1980 and published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. It was written by Mary Dell Fletcher who attended Northwestern State University of Louisiana. In it, Fletcher mentions random, unconnected scenes that relate to themes that appear in Paradise Lost by John Milton. The central idea is that literature is constantly seeking Edenic paradise, “a rural scene, a physically beautiful garden filled with sunlight, blue skies, warm winds, babbling brooks, and aromatic flowers.” (Fletcher, 142) But many literary scholars also tend to relate this paradise with the loss of it through the acquirement of knowledge, as taught in the Bible. This historically great work of art tells its readers of a story in which God told Adam and Eve to stay away from the one Tree of Knowledge but Satan was able to deceive Eve, and in turn Adam, to eat the fruit from the tree, resulting in God’s wrath and exile from the Garden of Eden. Fletcher saw the parallelisms to this story in Caddy’s climbing the tree next to the house the night when Damuddy dies even though “your paw told you to stay out that tree.” (Faulkner, 39) In disobeying her father’s orders, Caddy climbs the tree and gains “greater knowledge”; specifically, she learns that her grandmother has died. Fletcher quotes Faulkner’s interviews when he pointed out the importance that “the girl was the only one that was brave enough to climb the tree.” He also notes the importance of the symbolism of the scene where “we watched the muddy bottom of her drawers.” (39) This, according to Fletcher, is in reference to the Biblical teachings in which, as punishment for disobeying His orders, God cursed women with the “unclean blood of the menstrual cycle.”

Benjy also holds similar roles to that of Adam in the Bible. According to Faulkner, he created Benjy as the personification of innocence in the sense of blindness. Benjy is Faulkner’s interpretation of what God intended the human race to be: oblivious to anything outside of their senses, blind to good and evil, and the type of ignorance that is stressed in Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Fletcher also noted on the importance of time in relation to the Bible. Benjy recounts his portion of the novel in no distinct order in reference to time. Similarly, the Bible does not provide an accurate timeline which has created the question within the Christian community of how long the world has been in existence. From this I started thinking about the importance of the second section of the novel retold by Quentin. His obsession with time and clocks and the idea that he is “trapped” in time takes on new meaning, although I am not sure of what that meaning is.

The Compson pasture is also a huge part of this metaphorical relationship between the novel and the Bible. Benjy’s chopped recollections of the pasture are filled with descriptions of flowers, bright grass, trees, and the sun. These descriptions create an image in the reader’s mind similar to the Edenic garden that is the ultimate goal of so many. There seems to be some importance in Benjy’s attachment to the pasture, his constant want to return to it even after his family has sold it and moved away because it reminds him of home and Caddy- paradise lost. Symbolically, the pasture is later sold to pay for Quentin’s tuition at Harvard, paradise is lost in return for the pursuit of higher knowledge. I like to think that Faulkner is trying to make certain implications when Quentin kills himself, thus proving the futility of all the Compsons had given up for his education.

In the end, with the help of my good friend Mary Fletcher, I am able to extrapolate some Biblical importance from this novel once again.

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