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The University Op Oklahoma "THE UNIVERSITY OP OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE WORLD VIEW OP WILLIAM PAULENER A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY PRANK MITCHELL HOADLEY Norman, Oklahoma ___________1955-__________ THE WORLD VIEW OP WILLIAM FAULKNER APPROVED BY THESIS COMMITTEE TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION Chapter SOLDIERS’ PAY II. MOSQUITOES III. THE SOUND AND THE FURY IV. SARTORIS AS I LAY DYING VI. SANCTUARY VII. LIGHT IN AUGUST 12] VIII PYLON 143 IX. ABSALOM, ABSALOM.’ 156 X. THE UNVANQUISHED 176 XI. THE WILD PALMS . XII. THE HAMLET Kill. GO DOWN, MOSES . XIV. INTRUDER IN THE DUST Knight’s Gambit 272 XV. REQUIEM FOR A NUN 276 XVI. A FABLE 284 ONCLUSION ill ■ THE WORLD’VIEW^'OP WILLIAM PAULIINER' INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to examine the changing world view in the fiction of William Faulkner. In consider­ ing all of his fiction it is apparent that he moves chrono­ logically from extreme pessimism to a limited optimism. It iSj of course, impossible to take his seventeen novels and fit each one neatly into a well-ordered development. How­ ever, because the novels evince a movement (from pessimism to optimism) between these two extreme world views, they will be presented chronologically. Furthermore, the change from pessimism to optimism does not develop according to any particular pattern. For instance, the setting of many of the novels is Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, while other^ are located in different regions. Some novels concentrate on the racial problem, some on m a n ’s relationship to the land, and others on man's relationship to man, and to God. It is impossible to consider Faulkner’s world view without considering his humor because the two are so inex­ tricably linked together. It was the original intent of th'e study to consider the humor as a structural principle iiji Faulkner's fiction. However, in the development of this • topic it was learned that humor could not be considered aparli from the world view. In a sense, then, this study has di- rec te d the.,, wrlten,._______________________________________________ XV V ïnnïT8'"ëa^iy period the humor is bitterly ironic . As he moves toward a more optimistic world view, the humor takes on softer hues; it .becomes more humane. From the gro­ tesque and bitterly ironic, there is a gradual shift to a regional folk humor. The satiric tone becomes gentler and is colored by compassion. Before one can fully appreciate Faulkner’s writings and before he can grasp the implications inherent in his changing world view, he must become acquainted with the Faulknerian myth, as presented in his fiction. It is with the introduction of the myth (in The Sound and the Fury) that provincialism takes on added dimensions of universality The reader is soon aware that Faulkner is not merely treating a county in Mississippi, but that he is using this particular setting as a symbol of the whole South--with, indeed, univer­ sal implications. The South of the post Civil War is laboring under the curse of slavery and the greedy ownership of the land. The curse is operative primarily in the case of the planter- aristocratic class--the Sartorises and the Compsons. They, of course, were the owners of the land and the slaves. But the poor whites and the Negroes are also affected, not only because they too live in the blighted land, but because they are the victims of the planter-aristocrats. An atmosphere of doom and damnation hovers around the descendants of the pre--wa r-,.. a la.va-owning c las_s_e_s_. In__Sarjiorls..^__the author even Vi states that W è r è ^ T s ^ sound of doom in the very name Sartoris. A clue to the nature of this curse lies in Faulkner’ treatment of time. The present can never be realized except in terms of the past. The curse laid on post-Civil Mar generations is Inextricably linked to the sins of their ancestors. Thus the curse functions both on a racial and an individual level. li/hen Joseph Warren Beach speaks of the social significance in Faulkner’s work he has in mind the fatal link between past and present. "What I refer to is the sense one has that individual souls in the South today are shadowed by evils inherited from a pre-war social system and ideology.The role of the Negro, in terms of the curse, becomes understandable once the reader is aware of the fusion of the past and present. The Negro serves as a constant reminder to the Southern white of the guilt of the old South. Humor also functions as a structural principle in Faulkner’s notion of fatality. Henri Bergson states as a central concept in his book on humor: Life presents itself to us as evolution in time and complexity in space. Regarded as time, it is the continuous evolution of a being ever growing older; it never goes backwards, and never repeats anything. Considered in space, it exhibits certain coexisting elements so closely interdependent, so exclusively made for one another, that not one of them could. 1Joseph Warren Beach, American Fiction: 1920-1940 (-New York,— , p.^— — ----------------------------------- VIX imëV belong to tvjo different organisms; each living being is a closed system of phenomena, incapable of interfering with other systems. A con- 'tinual change of aspect, the irreversibility of the order of phenomena, the perfectly self-contained series: such then, are the outward characteristics-- whether real or apparent is of little moment--which distinguish the living from the purely mechanical.^ In other words, any deviation from the life flow--that which is mechanical but should be alive--produces humor- Many of Faulkner's early characters act in this manner. They act, as Faulkner has stated in various ways in much of his fictioiji as pawns moved about by the Player. This is enacted on a small scale in The Hamlet in the scene where Ratliff makes the sardonic comment to the townspeople that nothing in the world can keep them from buying Flam's wild ponies. And in much of Faulkner's work there is an awareness on the part of the actors that their course is predetermined.^ Only in his later fiction do a few of his characters become free agents and assume the responsibility that goes with freedom of the will. If one considers Faulkner's fiction in its totality., the macrocosm inherent in the microcosm, not always evident in the individual novel, is readily apparent. Considered thus in the framework of the myth Yoknapatawpha county is a sinnbol of the South. The cosmic manipulation of man in Yoknapatawpha county has universal implications. One need ^Kenri Bergson, Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, trans. Cloudesley Brereton and Fred Rothwell (London,.. 19] 1 _pu_.j8l8-.______ L viii only compare the novels outside the Yoknapatawpha series to those in the series to see the parallel world views. Because of spacial limitations it has not been possible to treat the short stories, many of which are excellent and shed light on the subject, except Incidentally Also the study of the novels has been limited to those pointff. which contribute to the formation of Faulkner's world view. CHAPTER I Soldiers* Pay With the publication of his first novel Faulkner jenters the ranks of the lost generation writers. Soldiers' jPay (1926) is bitterly ironic. The irony is suggested by thé I ! title: the pay the soldiers receive for offering their life for their country is to return to a country where there is nc place for them, where society frowns on them because they have lost touch with "reality." ! There is a double irony apparent in the story, which | 1 pives a final bitter twist to the theme of futility. The | ■returned veterans realize the shallow character of the so- I 3iety to which they have returned; they view it through cyni­ cal, disillusioned eyes. This is a society with which they can establish no identity. Yet, at least sub-consciously, :hey would like to find their niche, take their place in the society which they heartily condemn. Joe Gilligan and Cadet Lowe are returning from the war. On the train they encounter a wounded lieutenant, Donald Mahon, who is also returning home. They take it upon themselves to see that he reaches his destination without mishap, -They are Joined by a young woman, Margaret Powers, 1 jwhosè sympathies are aroused at the si^t of the bewildered jand dazed lieutenant (he has received a severe head wound). I Margaret and Joe deliver Donald to his father, who has been led to believe his son was dead. The reverend has I |to bear his son’s death twice, because he soon learns from a jspeclallst that his son will shortly lose his sight, and then jhls life* The old man believes that If Donald marry his | {fiance, Cecily Saunders, he may be restored to health. i 1 I Cecily, a shallow young thing. Is horrified at the thought of j : marrying a walking corpse. Margaret Powers, therefore, ! ! I marries him, much to the bitter disappointment of Joe | Gilligan, who Is In love with her, I But Januarlus Jones, a cynical, satyrlsh young man. Is pleased with the turn of events because he Is out to ' i seduce Cecily* However, falling In this quarter, he turns i i Is attentions to the reverend’s servlng-glrl, Emily, Donald’s boyhood sweetheart, with more success. I At the end of the novel Donald dies, Cecily runs away and marries, Margaret leaves, and Joe stays on at the parson­ age to console the disheartened and disillusioned reverend.
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