History Literature / TheSoundAndTheFury

Two [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptations]] have been made. The first, released in 1959, was directed by Martin Ritt and starred Creator/YulBrynner, Joanne Woodward, Creator/MargaretLeighton, Stuart Whitman, Ethel Waters, Françoise Rosay, and Creator/JackWarden. The second, released in 2014, was directed by Creator/JamesFranco, who also starred with Creator/TimBlakeNelson, Jacob Loeb, Creator/JoeyKing, Creator/LorettaDevine, Creator/AhnaOReilly, Scott Haze, Creator/SethRogen, and Creator/DannyMcBride.

* ParentalFavoritism: Mrs. Compson only cares for her vicious son Jason, and pays little attention to any of her other children.
* RashomonStyle: Much of the story is told from the conflicting points of view of three UnrealiableNarrators: Benjy with his severe mental retardation, Quentin with his obsessive neuroses, and Jason with his jaded views towards everyone and everything around him.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Just to be clear: Caddy and Quentin DID NOT have a sexual relationship, although Quentin spends the entirety of his section ranting about how they did. This is a lie that he told to his father. His father realized that Quentin was lying, unfortunately.

* VirginPower: Caddy's virginity is a big honking deal.

* BigBrotherInstinct: All the Compson boys have strong opinions on Caddy. Quentin's definitely falls into this trope. The reason he confesses to incest with her is that, if the two of them committed an act that atrocious, they would at least endure whatever punishment they deserved together.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Just to be clear: Caddy and Quentin DID NOT have a sexual relationship, although Quentin spends the entirety of his section ranting about how they did. This is a lie that he told to his father.

* IncestSubtext: Quentin and Caddy.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Jason and Jason Jr. Also averted with the two Quentins, which is just one of the many, many things which makes Benjy's narrative difficult to follow.

* [[MyGirlIsNotASlut My Sister Is Not A Slut]]: [[spoiler: In order to preserve Caddy's dignity after she becomes pregnant out of wedlock, Quentin confesses to committing incest with her so that their parents won't think she was sleeping around. Yes, in the Compson family, [[SkewedPriorities pre-marital sex is a worse sin than incest]]]].

->''"Out, Out, brief candle!\\

And then is heard no more: it is a tale\\

->''Out, Out, brief candle!\\

Signifying nothing.''

* FanNickname: Girl Quentin, fem!Quentin, Quentin II, Quentin Jr., etc.

** Mr. Compson's wearied cynicism and nihilistic outlook are a counterpoint to Quentin's adherence to abstract concepts such as honor and purity.

* InnocentInaccurate: One of the reasons that Benjy's section is difficult to understand is that he himself cannot understand much that is going on around him (he is mentally retarded). While he frequently narrates flashbacks, he narrates said flashbacks in present tense as if they're happening right now because he has no concept of time.

* UnreliableNarrator: All of the narrators qualify to a greater or lesser extent. The ''most'' reliable (in the sense of partiality) narrator is Benjy, who is also mentally retarded. At the other end of the spectrum, it can be difficult to discern from Quentin's narration what really happened.

Each of its four sections is narrated by a different family member: the first by the mentally disabled Benjy; the second by Quentin, a Harvard student who’s essentially forsaken his family by this point; the third by Jason, an objectively despicable human being who resents his role as family patriarch and emotionally abuses his mother, brother, and niece; and the fourth by Dilsey, the family’s black cook/housekeeper. Her section is also unique in that while the Compson brothers narrate in first person, Dilsey’s section is a more standard third-person omniscient narrative.

The story follows the [[BigScrewedUpFamily extremely dysfunctional]] Compson family of [[DeepSouth Jefferson, Mississippi]] (part of Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, where many of his stories are set). It’s mostly focused on the four Compson siblings: Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Caddy. Each of its four sections is narrated by a different family member: the first by the mentally disabled Benjy; the second by Quentin, a Harvard student who’s essentially forsaken his family by this point; the third by Jason, an objectively despicable human being who resents his role as family patriarch and emotionally abuses his mother, brother, and niece; and the fourth by Dilsey, the family’s black cook/housekeeper. Her section is also unique in that while the Compson brothers narrate in first person, Dilsey’s section is a more standard third-person omniscient narrative.

''The Sound and the Fury'' (1929) is one of Creator/WilliamFaulkner's most famous novels. Because it's by William Faulkner, it is both mildly incomprehensible and heart-wrenchingly tragic (once you manage to figure out what's going on). The book, about the [[BigScrewedUpFamily extremely dysfunctional Compson family]], is set in the DeepSouth during the early 1900s. The main story is about the four Compson siblings: Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Caddy. The book is divided into four sections, each told by a different member of the Compson family. The first section is from the perspective of Benjy, who is mentally disabled and doesn't ''quite'' understand what is going on. The second section is told by Quentin, who by that time has pretty much forsaken his family and is a student at Harvard. Quentin has issues. The third section is told by Jason, and it is the first section that is in any way comprehensible. The last section is a standard third person omniscient narrative focusing on Dilsey, the Compsons' black cook, and the only character who realizes the self-destructive behaviors of the Compsons.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thesoundandthefury.jpeg]]

* BrotherSisterIncest: Just to be clear: Caddy and Quentin DID NOT have a sexual relationship, although Quentin spends the entirety of his section ranting about how they did. This is a lie that he told to his father, who made him believe that [[AManIsNotAVirgin A Man Who Is Not A Virgin Is Worthless]].

* OneMarioLimit: Averted with Jason and Jason Jr. Also averted with the two Quentins, which is just one of the many, many things which makes Benjy's narrative difficult to follow.

* FunetikAksent: The blacks and Italians in the story have very strong phonetic accents. This was standard at the time - compare HuckleberryFinn.

''The Sound and the Fury'' (1929) is one of WilliamFaulkner's most famous novels. Because it's by William Faulkner, it is both mildly incomprehensible and heart-wrenchingly tragic (once you manage to figure out what's going on). The book, about the [[BigScrewedUpFamily extremely dysfunctional Compson family]], is set in the DeepSouth during the early 1900s. The main story is about the four Compson siblings: Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Caddy. The book is divided into four sections, each told by a different member of the Compson family. The first section is from the perspective of Benjy, who is mentally disabled and doesn't ''quite'' understand what is going on. The second section is told by Quentin, who by that time has pretty much forsaken his family and is a student at Harvard. Quentin has issues. The third section is told by Jason, and it is the first section that is in any way comprehensible. The last section is a standard third person omniscient narrative focusing on Dilsey, the Compsons' black cook, and the only character who realizes the self-destructive behaviors of the Compsons.

''The Sound and the Fury'' (1929) is one of WilliamFaulkner's most famous novels, and considered by many to be his MagnumOpus. Because it's by William Faulkner, it is both mildly incomprehensible and heart-wrenchingly tragic (once you manage to figure out what's going on). The book, about the [[BigScrewedUpFamily extremely dysfunctional Compson family]], is set in the DeepSouth during the early 1900s. The main story is about the four Compson siblings: Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Caddy. The book is divided into four sections, each told by a different member of the Compson family. The first section is from the perspective of Benjy, who is mentally disabled and doesn't ''quite'' understand what is going on. The second section is told by Quentin, who by that time has pretty much forsaken his family and is a student at Harvard. Quentin has issues. The third section is told by Jason, and it is the first section that is in any way comprehensible. The last section is a standard third person omniscient narrative focusing on Dilsey, the Compsons' black cook, and the only character who realizes the self-destructive behaviors of the Compsons.

''The Sound and the Fury'' (1929) is one of WilliamFaulkner's most famous novels, and considered by many to be his MagnumOpus. Because it's by William Faulkner, it is both mildly incomprehensible and heart-wrenchingly tragic (once you manage to figure out what's going on). The book, about the [[BigScrewedUpFamily extremely dysfunctional Compson family]], is set in the DeepSouth during the early 1900s. The main story is about the four Compson siblings: Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Caddy. The book is divided into four sections, each told by a different member of the Compson family. The first section is from the perspective of Benjy, who is mentally retarded and doesn't ''quite'' understand what is going on. The second section is told by Quentin, who by that time has pretty much forsaken his family and is a student at Harvard. Quentin has issues. The third section is told by Jason, and it is the first section that is in any way comprehensible. The last section is a standard third person omniscient narrative focusing on Dilsey, the Compsons' black cook, and the only character who realizes the self-destructive behaviors of the Compsons.

* InnocentInaccurate: One of the reasons that Benjy's section is difficult to understand is that he himself cannot understand much that is going on around him (he is mentally retarded). While he frequently narrates flashbacks, but he narrates said flashbacks in present tense as if they're happening right now because he has no concept of time.

* NonPOVProtagonist: Caddy, the main character of the novel, is the only Compson child not to receive a section told from her POV.

* OneMarioLimit: Averted with Jason and Jason Jnr. Also averted with the two Quentins, which is just one of the many, many things which makes Benjy's narrative difficult to follow.

* ParentalFavoritism: Mrs. Compson only cares for her son Jason, and pays little attention to any of her other children.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "The sound and the fury" is [[ShoutOutToShakespeare a quote from]] Theatre/{{Macbeth}}; upon hearing of the suicide of his wife, the title character describes life as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The first part of the book could be seen as "a tale told by an idiot," while the title is more generally symbolic of all the meaningless traditions the Compsons desperately cling to, [[spoiler: which ultimately culminate in their demise]].

* BigBrotherInstinct: All the Compson boys have strong opinions on Caddy. Quentin's definitely falls into this trope. The reason he confesses to incest with her is that, if the two of them committed an act that atrocious, they would at least endure whatever punishment they deserved together.

* {{Jerkass}}: Jason.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "the sound and the fury" is [[ShoutOutToShakespeare a quote from]] Theatre/{{Macbeth}}.
** And the first part could be seen as "a tale told by an idiot."
** [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic It's symbolic of all the meaningless traditions the Compsons desperately cling to]], [[spoiler: which ultimately culminate in their demise]].

* SlidingScaleofIdealismVersusCynicism:

** Quentin, with his ideals, though often misguided, of honor and gentlemanly conduct, is at the idealistic end. Sufficed to say, reality and lofty ideals don't always mix well.

** Faulkner himself is much more on the idealistic side than his characters-- the ending shows that [[spoiler:it is Dilsey and her family who will inherit the earth, because they are held up by some degree of hope]].

* TheNounAndTheNoun

* UnreliableNarrator: Quentin. It can be difficult at times to discern what really happened.
** Arguably, all of the narrators qualify to a greater or lesser extent. The ''most'' reliable (in the sense of partiality) narrator is Benjy, who is also mentally retarded.

* InnocentInaccurate: One of the reasons that Benjy's section is difficult to understand is that he himself cannot understand much that is going on around him (he is mentally retarded).
** To elaborate, Benjy frequently narrates flashbacks, but he narrates said flashbacks in present tense as if they're happening right now because he has no concept of time.