A Tale Told By An Idiot

The Sound and the Fury is narrated from four perspectives about the four children's growth and its significance in a changing time, together with the fall of a noble family of the old South. The novel has been read and enjoyed mostly for its experimentation in narration, such as the scrambled time order and the techniques ofstream of consciousness. Commentators also find significance in its combination ofnew narrative style and also traditional narration. Critics generally believe that Benjyis an image of idiot, who suits the very technique of narration.Benjy knows Caddy smells like trees and forgives her, which is a typical sign for his wisdom. From the point of literary tradition of fool, we find that it is Benjy "the idiot" that knows the truth and can interpret the changing world which is ironic to other people. Considering Benjy as a folly image corresponds to the meaning of the title: life "is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."(Shakespeare, Macbeth,V,v, 28-30)The first part analyzes the idiot image of Benjy, ascending back to the origin of fool characters in the history of literature. As an idiot, Benjy is not like other folly images in literary history who laugh and shout loudly but on many occasions, he could stand behind the mundane world revaluing the values of other people; the inner truth of the characters' consciousness can be seen from this special identity, which is similar to the other literature works on fools and idiots.The second part tries to find out the similarity between Benjy and the holy fool through studying the traditional holy fool image in Christianity. Faulkner made use of Benjy's foolishness telling the story under the background of Jesus Christ. The story happened in the month, in which Christ was crucified, and Benjy's section is the Saturday (April 7, 1928) between the Friday of crucifixion and the Sunday of resurrection is by tradition one of the darkest days in the history of Western culture, which promotes the significance of the novel.The third part combines the theme of the novel with Macbeth where the title comes from. Compared with Shakespeare's other works about fools and jesters, it is clear how the novel demonstrates the disintegration of a noble family in a world full of sound and fury through the depiction of an idiot image.The conclusion sums up the main arguments, pointing out that Benjy can be explored as a folly in traditional literature works with fools. Firstly, the idiot who can interpret the conflict of human being in a disintegrating period in the novel is still significant for the understanding and exploration of humans. Secondly, Benjy is not claimed to be a folly in the novel compared with other literature works, but he is filled with more tasks than that an idiot should have, which is creative in Faulkner's writing. Further studies need to examine how the narrative techniques are combined with the folly image.