In William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, what the readers know about Caddy is learned only through the thoughts of her brothers. Caddy’s position in the story is controversial. She represents both good and bad, love and deceit, longing and disgust. She is the reason why both Benjy and Quentin have felt loved at some point in their life, but at the same time, causes the downfall of both of them. In the first two sections, with Benjy narrating one, and Quentin the other, we see many different aspects of Caddy and her effect on the two brothers and all of the Compson family.
It is evident, from the very beginning of the novel as Benjy waits by the gate for Caddy to come home, that Benjy truly loves Caddy. Caddy is understanding and caring, and does not refer to Benjy as ‘looney’ or retarded as nearly everyone else around him does. Caddy seems to be the only one who gives Benjy the love that he needs, on account that he barely receives any love from his mother or father. Since Benjy only gets older physically, but not mentally, he expects everyone else to not change mentally. He wants Caddy to be a little girl forever, and cherishes her innocence. When Caddy loses her virginity to Dalton Ames, Benjy senses her promiscuity and beings to bawl and scream. For all of Benjy’s life, Caddy has kept him safe and done what he wanted her to, like when she washed off her perfume, or washed her mouth, but she can’t wash off what she did with Dalton. It is at this point that Caddy breaks down Benjy. From the minute Caddy loses her virginity, she and Benjy become detached. Suddenly, the pattern and familiarity that has been Benjy’s life, is shattered. This is unfortunate because Caddy was such a large part of Benjy’s life, and it seemed as though the connection that her and Benjy had was unbreakable.
When Quentin begins to talk about Caddy, the reader gets a different sense of who she is. Quentin shows Caddy as a lost and weak girl, hiding under the cover of a strong and mature woman. She is unsure of why she slept with Dalton, and lies to Quentin about whether or not she has feelings for Dalton. Quentin and Caddy had a relationship similar to that of Benjy and Caddy. Caddy was the one person who truly loved Quentin, and cared for him when their parents didn’t. This caring nature created a bond between Caddy and Quentin that was more than just that of siblings. Quentin was jealous of the men Caddy was around, and felt as though none of the men she ever encountered were good enough for her. He wanted to break the pessimistic views that his father had about virginity and women, and for most of his life had used Caddy as a precedent. When Caddy loses her purity, Quentin loses hope. He can no longer believe that women are not ‘bitches’ or concubines, and because of the fact that he had not yet lost his virginity, he was ashamed and shocked. Caddy’s impurity was the breaking point for Quentin as well. With his loss of hope came his obsession with time. His father had told him once that time cures all, but Quentin had waited long enough, and time hadn’t cured his feelings. The tragedy of the Compson family seems to revolve around Caddy, who was once the rock of a family teetering on the edge of destruction. When she cracked, they all came tumbling down after her. (608)
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Katelyn, you said, "His father had told him once that time cures all, but Quentin had waited long enough, and time hadn’t cured his feelings." True, but my theory, which I'll explain in class Monday, is even worse than that. What Quentin is more afraid of than anything, the thought he cannot bear and which drives him toward death, is that his father might be RIGHT, that time just might cure his pain and thus invalidate it, and to prevent this from happening he decides he has to stop time from doing so.
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