Quentin:The Demonstration Of Macbeth’s Motto Of Life-An Intertextual Critique Of The Sound And The Fury

This thesis attempts to interpret The Sound and the Fury from intertextualperspective. The narration by Quentin is virtually an overall deduction of this lifephilosophy delivered by Macbeth,“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/Thatstruts and frets his hour upon the stage/And then is heard no more. It is a tale/Told byan idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing.”(Shakespeare,2005：98)Through the analysis of the text to explore the real meaning of life, this essay aims tobring some encouragement to the lost modern people.The first part is the introduction which states the aim, the structure of the thesisand the reflection it brings to us. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to Faulkner’slife and his literary contributions with emphasis on his writing techniques and thephilosophic inspiration brought to readers. Chapter Two summarizes the contents ofFaulkner’s masterpiece The Sound and the Fury and the various reviews on it.Chapter Three elaborates the theory of intertextuality and the intertexuality found inFaulkner’s works. Chapter Four focuses on the close analysis of the intertextualrelation between The Sound and the Fury and Macbeth. The last part draws theconclusion of the thesis. The whole life of Macbeth is a tragic road of self-realization,so it is with the fate of Quentin who chooses suicide to finish the flow of time. Finally,there is the philosophic reflection on the meaning of life at the end of the thesis.