“WONDER. GO ON AND WONDER”: QUENTIN’S TRAGEDY FROM THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE by Huang Min 黄 敏 A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate School of Language, Communication, and Culture Kwansei Gakuin University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy March 2013 Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation “Wonder. Go on and wonder”: Quentin’s Tragedy from the Sociological Perspective by Huang Min Members of Evaluation Committee Major Advisor: Associate Advisor: Associate Advisor: Associate Advisor: i ABSTRACT “Wonder. Go on and wonder”: Quentin’s Tragedy from the Sociological Perspective by Huang Min A major hero in the works of William Faulkner, Quentin Compson used to be one of the most frequently commented characters. Regarding his death, there are a variety of critical opinions. Yet very few critical works have devoted to a thorough study of Quentin’s tragedy. The result is that voices on this issue are presented within the different concerns of critics and tend to overstress one aspect of the problem. The diversified opinions contribute much to the unsettled argument and the complexity of Quentin’s death itself. For want of a better argument, the critical world has paid considerably less attention to Quentin’s suicide over the last 30 years. My dissertation has tried to approach Quentin’s tragedy in a more systematic and consistent way by the adaptation of a sociological perspective, which has seen the accumulation of well-defined studies on ii the problem of suicide since Sociologist Durkheim’s monumental book Suicides published well over a century ago. It is from this discipline of social science that the present paper gains a theoretical framework for laying down the fundamental questions regarding Quentin’s death, in an attempt to objectively define and examine the development of his character and suicidal mentality. First of all, the sociological theories locate man in society and view his choice of suicide in the context of his relationships to individuals and social forces around him. Durkheim concluded that “suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of the social groups of which the individual forms a part” (210). Based on this premise, the present paper proposes that Quentin's suicide must be explained by referring to multiple causes that reduce Quentin’s degree of integration as a social man and expose him to higher suicide tendency. Secondly, my discussion of Quentin’s tragedy has attempted to account for two questions raised by the French sociologist Jean Baechler: because and in-order-to. Baechler argued that an adequate answer to a man’s suicide cannot be accomplished without an exploration of the circumstances of suicide as well as the meaning of the action (53). As for the breaking down of circumstances surrounding a man’s suicide, sociological studies have tested and discovered a causal relationship iii between suicidal tendency and factors such as ways of life, family disorganization, sibling position, child-rearing techniques (Taylor, Sociology of Suicide 128). These findings offer me the methodological framework into which I will organize the topics and develop the argument chapter-by-chapter. Based on the sociological findings, I have planned for the present work to fall into five chapters. The concern with the broader social variables will be developed in the first two chapters. The concept of social isolation or alienation is at the core of Chapter One as I try to examine the growth of Quentin Compson through the comparison of him with one other character, Rosa Coldfield, in their native Southern community. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how Quentin has integrated, or rather, isolated himself from his southern community so as to prepare him for his final choice. Rosa and Quentin, despite their differences in age, sex and community status, actually share some essential similarities, like their preoccupations about love, family and Southern history. Quentin’s encounter with Rosa in Absalom, Absalom! is significant in that it serves both as the passing on of cultural, communal knowledge, and as an example of communication on a deeper level that addresses existential problems between a Southern society and its individuals. Rosa’s iv perception of her life as an unremitting struggle to fit in with the prescribed roles that the Southern community demands of a woman foreshadows Quentin’s frustrated attempts to cope with his immediate environment. The chapter thus argues that Quentin’s failure to recognize bondage and ruin in Rosa’s interpretation of Sutpen’s story and of her life points forward to his failure to explore meanings within his own community, which is the first of a series of preoccupations Quentin has on his mind and remains unresolved throughout his life. Chapter Two will be looking at the problem of race, another cultural variable at the deeper consciousness of Quentin and surfaces time and again in the stories of The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom!. A few characters and symbols will be explored to account for the multiple factors at work in Quentin’s racial awareness. For example, a comparison is given to Quentin and his brother Jason to prove the essential agreement in their attitudes towards Negroes. In the course of probing into the problem of Quentin’s awareness of the racial issue, Chapter Two proposes the idea that Quentin comes closer to the average man in the South who is strongly influenced by racial stereotypes, and meanwhile, remains ambivalent in his attitude about the inherit injustices on the racial issue. That Quentin is caught between these two forces prepares him for the agonizing traumas that he feels about his own existence. v Chapter Three takes a look at the family Quentin grows up in and finds the environment a disorganized one in sociological terms. The lack of parental guidance and emotional support is devastating to a sensitive youth who retreats to family for meaning of existence. Quentin’s father, Mr. Compson, is unable to offer him moral support and further devastates Quentin’s sense of parental recognition for what he is capable of. Quentin’s mother, Mrs. Compson, on the other hand, is felt by Quentin to treat him only in terms of her personal obsessions. As time passes, Quentin is aware that he is losing even that small part of sympathy from his mother. The realization of his parents’ failure plays great havoc with Quentin’s life and pushes him into worse turmoil about where he belongs. Following the discussion on how Quentin perceives the influence of his parents, there will be one chapter examining Quentin’s relationship with his sister Caddy, the last remaining relationship which seems to preoccupy Quentin’s consciousness. I would maintain that neither the code of honor nor the incest fantasy reflects Quentin’s central problem with Caddy. Rather, it is Caddy’s ability to understand, love and sympathize with Quentin that draws her brother to her. Quentin’s urge to hold onto this levering point in life is most evident in his choice of suicide time. Neither Caddy’s loss of virginity nor Quentin’s shameful defeat at the hands of Dalton Ames spurs his desire to take his own life. Quentin vi does so only after Caddy is married away, a fact that cuts short the possibility of sustaining the last human bond for Quentin. Chapter Five tries to approach the problem of Quentin’s tragedy from another angle, by comparing his circumstances with other Faulknerian heroes of similar backgrounds. Tracing the growth of young men in Faulkner’s later works, the last chapter demonstrates that Faulkner’s descriptions of the young protagonists ranging from Quentin to Ike, Chick and lastly Lucius revealed a more positive attitude in terms of their relations with the surrounding circumstances. At the same time, Faulkner showed little change in his perception of the young heroes that they are inevitably the products of their societies. In this group of characters, it is interesting to see that none of them die. The later heroes as a group confirm the sociological discovery that some benevolent influence from community or family members will help one better integrate into society and reduce the risk of suicide. In Go Down, Moses, Ike McCaslin’s severance from family sins is the result of Sam Father’s leading him into the larger community of wilderness. Chick Mallison in Intruder in the Dust, assisted by a few sympathetic friends, is able to transcend racially stereotypical bias and save a black man’s life. Lastly, Lucius Priest proves himself a responsible young man even in unfavorable circumstances, thanks to the good influence from his family, his black vii companion Ned, and the women in the brothel such as Miss Reba and Corrie. Therefore, towards the end of his career, Faulkner's novels such as Intruder in the Dust or The Reivers suggest a positive correlation between a hero's ability to survive and the ability of those around him to endure and exercise constructive influence. Through probing into the struggles and central preoccupations of the later Faulknerian boy heroes who better anchor themselves in reality, the present research tries to strengthen the conclusion that Quentin’s tragedy is the consequence of his gradual alienation from his environment. No individual cause has been sufficient on its own to explain the reason for Quentin’s suicide. Hence his death must be explained in view of multiple social forces at work around him in the post-bellum South, which probably can account for the diverse and