Narrative Features In The Sound And The Fury

The Sound and the Fury is a famous novel of William Faulkner. This is a novel which is full of narrative features. In this novel, the past and the present are intertwined, the repetition and the ellipsis appear frequently and the focalization and voice are flexible. They compose the complicated narrative features and convey the author’s confused attitude toward the realistic society.Taking Genette’s narratology theory as the theoretic frame to analyze the narrative features in this novel. The purpose of this thesis is to unravel the deep connotation of this novel under the surface of the narrative features.The first chapter of the present thesis studies the feature of the narrative order which is extremely complicated due to the stream of consciousness. Benjy is driven to the past by the image and sound around him. Quentin is a person who is trapped in the pain and confusion about the passing of time and present, always indulging himself in the past and thus ending up in committing suicide. Jason is concerned little about the past itself but is tormented by the effect caused by the past, particularly Caddy’s loss of virginity. Because everyone has different concerns about the past, none of them can walk out of the shadow of the past. It leads them into the alienation in their personality. In the second chapter of this thesis, the feature of the narrative focalization will be discussed. Different focalizations achieve different artistic effects and provide the readers with a stereo perspective to survey the tragic fate of the Compson family and the deserted spirit of the Southerners which Faulkner tries to reveal in this novel.The feature of narrative repetition is the topic of the third chapter of this thesis. The repetition concerns about the Caddy’s loss of virginity, the physical death of Damuddy and Quentin as well as the spiritual deaths of Caroline and Caddy. The loss of virginity is a representative event, which confines everyone under its shadow so that death either in body or spirit is their destined end.The last chapter of present thesis concentrates on the feature of the narrative voice. The multiple voices reflect the Faulkner’s thinking of the existence condition of the Southerners.As the offspring of the general and governor of the state, they are trapped in the crack of the past and present. In the confusion and pain, they are alienated. In their stubborn and ruthless character, their religious faith becomes pale and poor. In the sound and fury, they are doomed to death. This is the fate of the Southerners and also the suffering of Faulkner, which is clearly and fully disclosed through these four aspects of narrative features in The Sound and the Fury.