Post 7: Caddy, Nameless and Fated

While the novel The Sound and the Fury is about the life and impact of Caddy, she rarely appears in the story. Each of her three brothers has a chapter which they narrate, and there is a third chapter told from an omniscient point of view, but Caddy herself is never graced with a chapter of her own. Adding to her namelessness is the fact that her mother, Mrs. Compson, forbids the rest of the family to mention Caddy's name once Caddy has gotten married and then had her daughter, Miss Quentin.

The lack of a chapter narrated by Caddy shows her powerlessness and inability to change her fate, so to speak. Faulkner called her "beautiful and tragic" because her strengths are what are turned into vices and weaknesses that cause her downfall. Her inability to speak for herself, or control her own life, is shown in the lack of chapter narrated by her. The chapters of her brothers show how they shaped her life. While the chapters directly show how she affects her brothers' lives, the actions of her brothers' lives shape hers too. Even though she has such a strong connection, although different, with all three brothers, she is unable to stop her own demise and that of her family.

Caddy hurries her own demise by attempting to slow it. She feels the breakdown of her own family when she is young and so she tries to get away from her family by gaining independence. However, in the time period, women had very few ways to become independent of their families. Caddy chooses to become promiscuous so that she can gain some freedom from her family. However, by doing this, she loses her virginity which is the downfall of Quentin, her marriage disentrigrates which loses Jason his job, and she is forced to leave the family which leaves Benjy alone and without a truly caring figure in his life. In trying to do good and attain some freedom for herself, she brings destruction closer to both herself and her family.

Caddy's lack of voice in The Sound and the Fury shows her inability to control her own life. She is a truly tragic figure because nothing she does changes how her life will end. All of her actions are for nothing, and no matter how hard she tries to break free of the chains of her society and her family, she is bound more tightly and brings destruction upon herself.

"It is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing."
-Macbeth