Caddy’s Spatial Transitions In Faulkner’s The Sound And The Fury

The Sound and the Fury is William Faulkner’s prestigious work which is marked by its elaborate presentation of time and stream of consciousness. Due to this, the time dimension presented obviously in the novel has been studied by scholars from many aspects, but the equally ingenious spatial narration presented in the novel also comes into the picture with the rising of spatial research. Therefore, this thesis picks Caddy’s space transitions and their symbolic meanings as the main line of the study to explore the triple space in the novel:geographical space, social space and psychological space. In the process of interpreting the triple space of the novel, this thesis finds out that space in The Sound and the Fury is endowed with multiple significance by developing from the physical sense to the psychological sense and by which it helps to expose the profound reason of Faulkner’s exquisite design and his pain for seeing the decline of American South after the Civil War and Americans who are lost in spiritual wasteland in the early 20th century.This thesis develops as follows:First, Caddy spends her childhood in the Compson house. As the geographical space, the Compson house operates as the living place where provides Caddy with a shelter as well as a prison which confines her freedom. Caddy grows up as a kind and affectionate maiden who longs for freedom with her father, Dilsey and Benjy’s love. However, things changed as she grows up into a girl with independent thinking. She is chained by the Southern lady code represented by her mother and develops a desire for the outside world. Thereafter, the Compson house gradually turns into a prison where she wants to escape, from which her space transitions aimed at spiritual and physical liberation begin.Second, Caddy spends her youth in the Jefferson town. Jefferson town is a typical southern town created by Faulkner in his Yoknapatawpha saga. Being the social space, it is the embodiment of morality which is both open and close and makes Caddy wander between paradise and hell. It is a mistake for Caddy to regard the Jefferson town as a paradise where she can get rid of her mother’s controls and abandon herself to love affairs and sexual indulgence. On the contrary, Jefferson town at that time is a heterotopia space with the invasion of capitalism and is the last place where Caddy’s behavior can be accepted for it is the supporter of southern tradition. Losing virginity and having premarital pregnancy, Caddy is compelled to evade from this conservative hell.Third, Caddy spends her adulthood in other parts beyond the South. Caddy finally steps out from American South. She wanders alone in American North and Europe, which endows her with physical freedom and material abundance on the one hand, but leads to her loss into psychological fetter on the other hand. Caddy enjoys her life as a new woman in the urban space. Nevertheless, as an outsider, she cannot find security in the disintegrated space and reduce herself to a mistress. This lonely life and her nostalgia for her family prompt her falling into psychological cage, and thus terminate her space transitions.Geographical space, social space and psychological space are interconnected with each other. Caddy’s three spatial transitions actually bring her nothing but depriving all she has, which signifies that mankind cannot break the chain of space for space itself is an enclosed box. Caddy is nothing but an epitome of mankind who always indulge in extravagant life and cannot sublimate their spirit through space transitions, and this also reflect the real state of American’s pursuit of spiritual indulgence and material comforts in the early 20th century and Faulkner’s pity for seeing this social phenomenon.