Individual Vs. Community: The Cause Of The Individual Tragedy In William Faulkner's Novel The Sound And The Fury

This thesis explores how, in William Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury, the community exerts overpowering pressure upon the individual, and in reverse, how the individual internally responds under such pressure. It is suggested in this thesis that the conflicts between the individual and the community may lead to the individual tragedy.This thesis will employ S. E. Asch's theory of social psychology and Freud's theory of individual psychology to study the relationship between the individual and the community in The Sound and the Fury. It is my intention to suggest that though this novel is accused of being too personal, it can be properly interpreted in the context of social psychology. In this light, we can see how the community contributes to the individual tragedy.This thesis focuses on the textual analysis of the novel from two perspectives: one is social psychology, and the other is individual psychology.Chapter One presents a short introduction to William Faulkner, his novel The Sound and the Fury, and his Southern community.Chapter Two offers a brief survey of previous relevant Faulkner studies and the theories that will be applied to the analysis of the text.Chapter Three provides an insightful study of the influences of the community upon the individual in The Sound and the Fury. I will, in this chapter, deliberate on the various institutions and forces of the community, whether actual or imagined, to analyze the influences of the community upon the individual, which contribute to the individual tragedy.Chapter Four discusses the psychological response of the individual to the community. In The Sound and the Fury, no matter what measures they adopt to escape the influences of the community, they can only have temporary, palliative comforts. They can hardly evade their final destruction.Chapter Five is a conclusion, which serves not only as a summary of this thesis but also underlines the significance of this study. In addition to this, I will sketch out the potentials for further study on this subject.