Throughout my reading of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, I was finding myself to be quite confused about the character Caddy. It is apparent in her relationships with her family, especially Bengy and Quentin, that she is full of love and compassion. Caddy appears to never want to cause them any pain and when she does, she deeply repents it. The cause of my confusion then is, as she gets older, her actions seem to become more and more emotionally harmful, both to her and to her family. If she cares about them so much, why is she making these awful decisions? Caddy’s promiscuity, marriage to a cheat, and illegitimate child all has a negative affect on the Compson family. The love and compassion she feels toward her family and, more specifically, towards Bengy and Quentin, are not in sync with her choices. I believe Caddy is the kind of character who does not think about how their actions affect others. She is selfish, but not in the typical sense. Caddy does not put her self above others, nor does she think her needs are more important. In reality, she always tries to please Bengy, removing her perfume (41) or washing off her lipstick (48) because she knows those things upset him. Yet, due to her own self-involvement Caddy cannot see that, like in most families, her emotions are contagious. When a child is upset, the parents become upset because their child is hurting. The emotions disseminate like dye in water. When Caddy is younger and is attempting to climb the tree (39) she does not take into consideration that if she got caught, Jason and Versh could potentially get into trouble as well for not keeping her out of the tree. Another example is when she finds out she is pregnant. Caddy’s pregnancy causes Quentin to cry incest, all to protect his little sister. This is not saying Caddy deliberately got pregnant, but is alluding to her loose relationships with multiple men, “ I don’t know too many” (115). She does not recognize the affect her scandalous behavior could have on her family. Caddy is like a domino, her actions affecting the bigger picture and everyone in it.
The problem is, if Caddy were to taken everyone into consideration before she made her decisions, she would be being unfair to herself. If she were to never kiss a boy or wear perfume again because it made Bengy upset, she would be denying herself many aspects of growing up. Early in the novel it is obvious that Caddy is no shrinking violet and does not want to spend her life thinking of different ways she can please people. Caddy represents and lose-lose situation. She too self-involved to see her actions hurting her family, but if she were to attempt to prevent her decisions from having a negative affect on anybody, her life would have been lived for others and not for herself. It is almost impossible to find some kind of middle ground in this situation. A person is either a little too selfish or a little too complacent.
(522)
1 comment:
Natalie, a thoughtful and perceptive post on the character of Caddy. You said, "If she cares about them so much, why is she making these awful decisions?" I think that's a great question, in fact one of the key questions in this section of the novel. The only thing I can think of that makes any sense to me is that while she may care about them, she has somehow ceased to care about or see any value in herself. AS you point out, it's a lose-lose situation as far as she's concerned, and it's hard to make good decisions when every direction seems as pointless as any other.
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