Root of Evil

Faulkner’s novel, “The Sound and the Fury”, airs perturbed and convoluted thoughts projecting readers into a narrative labyrinth. Baffled readers continuously hit dead end in the process of finding meaning and interpretation of the text. Rather than running into a Minotaur, the question of meaning confronts them. Faulkner carefully interweaves the well-known seven deadly sins into his novel symbolizing Mrs. Compson as the deadliest of all sins, pride. By creating binaries between Mrs. Compson’s children with the other deadly sins, Faulkner reveals to the audience the significant fall resulting from pride and its offspring: envy, greed, gluttony, wrath, lust, and sloth.

Mrs. Caroline Compson epitomizes the deadliest sin of all, pride. Stanford M. Lyman records Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 ce) defining pride to be “‘the queen of sins,’ which having, ‘fully possessed a conquered heart… surrenders it immediately to seven principle sins… to lay it to waste’” (Lyman 136). Caroline Compson has on many occasions been caught red handed in the crime of pride. Readers’ eyes focus on the text within the first chapter of the novel to examine one of the earliest appearances of Mrs. Compson’s lack of humility. In response to her husband’s humorous remark relating her brother, Maury, to the famous painting “Et in Arcadia ego” Caroline Compson states, “My people are every bit as well born as yours. Just because Maury’s health is bad.” (Faulkner 44). This quote eases readers slowly into Caroline’s mindset, preparing readers to see the capacity of pride Caroline embodies. Caroline is very prideful of her family name regardless of all the follies and vices that come along with it.

The Compson family, once wealthy, is now common, though Mrs. Compson does not want to admit this. The audience can turn over to the scene where Caroline discusses the use of nick names in the family. She exclaims, “Nicknames are vulgar. Only common people use them” (Faulkner 64). This is a...