Existential Tragedy Of The Family

In 1929, William Faulkner instantly became a renowned author after the publication of his masterpiece The Sound and the Fury. The novel is a tragedy about the significance of human being's existence. The protagonists lose the essence of life because of ignoring the significance of existence. The thesis applies Sartre's ontology of freedom, Heidegger's death phenomena, and Fromm and Marx's alienation as the surest proof to explicate quintessence of tragedy, in order to explore the tragic interior worlds of the Compsons' existence. The thesis is divided into five parts by applying the three theories.The first part presents a short introduction to southerners' existential predicaments after the American Civil War, and the interplay between Faulkner's philosophical ideas and existentialism.The second part tries to pinpoint that tragedy reveals human existential predicaments. Anguish arises from the contradiction between ideals and impossible reality, which begets conflicts in individuals' plight; the inevitability of conflicts and irresistibility of misfortunes give rise to tragedy. Three correlated existential tragedies form the core of the Compsons' plight: spiritual tragedy, social tragedy, and ontological tragedy. Fromm's social alienation is exhibited in the Compsons' tragedy, that is, social alienation and alienation of traditional concept. Narcissism, Oedipus complex, masochism and sadism represent spiritual tragedy.In part three, the thesis will center on the relationship of freedom, responsibility and situation with ontological choice to interpret the Compsons' tragedy. It elaborates on the reasons of the tragic ending, pointing out that escaping responsibility and bad choice are the causes of the Compsons' tragedy."Being-in-itself and"Being-for-itself"are the interdependent combination as for Sartrean ontology. Under the threat of freedom and responsibility, the Compsons fall into self-deceptive state of mind dominated by psychology of escape. They forfeits"Being-for-itself and exists on the level of"Being-in-itself, which is the mode of Being of object with no sense of free consciousness and responsibility. In bad faith, they conceal the truth and cannot get out of the nothingness. In concrete relations with the Other, the Compsons ferment attitudes of indifference, desire, hate and sadism against attitudes of love and masochism. They present tragic existential state of"hell is the other people"distinctively. Absolute freedom and irresistible misfortunes fall upon the heroine in a situation. Her bad choice brews her tragic plight.In part four, tragedy concerns death, and being grants authentic"Being-Towards-Death"significance. The thesis maps out the actual course of Being-Towards-Death as is exhibited in the Compsons' tragedy: that is,"conscience"and"anxiety"awaken Dasein from the falling and thrownness;"to be its Being","resolution","potentiality-for-Being","anticipation"are in interplay with Dasein's authentic"Being-Towards-Death". The tragic protagonists experience death in"anticipation". Death is present to Dasein from the beginning to the end, and then death awareness reveals itself automatically. Thus their tragedies are revealed. Heidegger draws a line between his primordial temporality and physical time. In primordial temporality,"future","having been"and"Present"are temporalizing in unity. The author of the thesis tries to expound on the tragic hero's death at some strength: 1. in temporality of anxiety, admittedly, the protagonist's temporal modalities of the"future"and the"Present"temporalize in the"having been". The thesis highlights the fact that the protagonist holds on to the possibility of death, so he possesses the"future"in temporality. 2. The protagonist negates the mode of the"Present"in designs of returning to"repeatability"of thrownness and to the mode of"having been". Ontological temporality reveals the protagonist instills meanings to the tradition he firmly pursues. Ultimately, the protagonist's suicide belongs to the tragedy of transcendence, which is transcending the boundary of death spiritually. He actualizes the pursuit of love and eternity. Suicide offers his retreat into spiritual primeval paradise in"having been".Part five is a conclusion, which underlines the central theme and significance of this tragedy. In addition to this, the author of the thesis stretches out the potentials for further study on this subject.