Stick to the code, the Southern code

In Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the members of the Compson family are constantly worrying about how the appear to society. I believe it is this unrelenting anxiety severely influences the family’s dysfunctional tendencies. Focusing more specifically on Mrs. Compson, Caddy, and Quentin and the belief that they must follow the “Southern code” causes the family to fall apart.
The most obvious character concerned about their social standing in Mrs. Compson. We see this very early in the novel when she is upset about Bengy getting past the gate in he garden. On the surface it seems the front gate is kept closed to keep Bengy from getting out and possibly hurting himself. Yet it could be speculated that the real reason Mrs. Compson is so adamant about keeping Bengy in the garden is so no one will see him. She is ashamed of her challenged son and is worried if people saw him, they would gossip, “I thought Bengy was punishment enough for any sins I have committed” (103). Although the reader still has the right to dislike Mrs. Compson for being embarrassed by Bengy, it is not entirely her own doing. Mrs. Compson was raised in an environment where society was only viewed as two extremes, “I was taught that there is no halfway ground that a woman is either a lady or not” (103). Her worry of what others think stays with her throughout the entire novel, especially when she is raising Miss Quentin. Her illegitimacy causes enough stress to last Mrs. Compson a lifetime, but Miss Quentin’s wild behavior only results in her fretting even more, “But to have the school authorities think that I have no control over her, that I can’t—” (180). Mrs. Compson’s lifelong attempt to fit in with a higher social level only causes emotional and physical health to deteriorate.
Mrs. Compson’s focus on social appropriateness carries over to Caddy and how she handles certain situations. Although Caddy does many things that are considered to be social taboo, she does try to adhere to social standards when her antics become out of control. Her scandalous pregnancy and ignorance of who the father is forces Caddy to give in to something it seems she has been fighting her entire life: the rules of high society. She enters a loveless marriage to a man of awful character because according to society good young ladies don’t get pregnant before marriage. Her ironic fate ultimately ostracizes her from her home and her family.
The other child affected greatly by the norms of the upper social levels was Caddy’s brother Quentin. Quentin’s deep love for Caddy and preoccupation with social morals drive him to depression, intense thoughts of incest, and eventual suicide. Since Caddy has associated herself with an especially nasty social ill, an illegitimate pregnancy, he tries to protect her from horrible gossip he knows will spread like wildfire. When Quentin attempts to confide in Mr. Compson about Caddy’s disregard for social morality, he only learns that his father does not care about their social status either. This affects his depression the way gasoline would a fire. The fear of society thinking poorly of them is the Achilles’ heel of the Compson family and the characters that try the hardest to “fit in” end up suffering the most.

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