Women's Roles in Faulkner

In The Sound and the Fury it is the women who are the focus of the novel. It is they who keep things together and drive the story- if you can extract one. Dilsey, the matriarch of the servant family who attend the central white family. Her family has been with the Compsons forever. It is she who raised every child the Compson family produced, while Mrs. Compson lay forever ill in bed. She brings order to the chaos that is the Compson household. When Dilsey arrives at work on Easter morning, she immediately begins to set the house in order. She notices the clock, which strikes five times, and she knows that it's eight o'clock. She is also the only person in the novel who recognizes the inevitable doom that befalls the Compson family — "I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin."

Caddy is the central character, all of the characters speak of her and remember her. Her actions, getting pregnant and getting married off, only to be thrown out by her new husband, affect everyone. She and Dilsey are the only ones who understand Benjy's needs (Benjy is the first speaker in the story, mentally handicapped). But she is not spoken of in the family after her sins are discovered and Dilsey becomes the family's sole peacekeeper.

Elnora, in "There Once was a Queen," is strong like these women. She is introduced as being alone in a house "unmanned" (728), and though many men are named, none exist anymore for her but a young boy. The men in the story all have the same names, thus blurring them into a masculine soup and making them less important in the movement of the story. The reader has to work to even figure out which one is being spoken of! Even the "quiet" belongs to the "womenfolk" (727). She, like Dilsey, is tied to the family of whites, because she is related to them. She is a very strong character, who talks as if she needs no one, and seems to hold her family upon her shoulders alone. "I don't need no help" (728), she boldly assures herself. She and her offspring are the ones who keep the family together. Virginia is also introduced as a strong female character, being ninety in age, and having come to Mississippi with only the clothes on her back. Both characters are described as "erect" figures.

The women drive the story, and if they didn't, who would? There are no men, save the boy and the Yankee. The boy is young and plays a minor part, and the Yankee man admits his inferiority to Virginia. Elnora is wise, like Dilsey. She sees through the "quality" act of Narcissa to the "trash" that even she cannot see. Narcissa is only worried about herself (ironic name eh?). No one sees the other characters like Elnora does. She knows something is wrong with Narcissa earlier than anyone else. She somehow knows that Virginia is dying. It is through her that the reader gains the most knowledge and it is she who comes out of the story as the strong character who does not fade, as Narcissa and Virginia do. We begin the story with her and it is she who has the final words (much like Dilsey, who narrates the final portion of The Sound and the Fury).