Miss Cahline

One character in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury that is beginning to fascinate me is that of Caroline Compson. Earlier in the Benjy section, she is portrayed as very shallow and obsessed with appearances and social graces. For instance, she refuses to call her children by their nicknames because she claims that only “common people” use nicknames. In fact, it is through her that we first learn that Caddy’s real name is Candace. Furthermore, she has Benjy’s name changed from Maury to Benjy for the sake of maintaining her image. It is unclear whether the name change happened as a result of Maury’s fight which was a huge embarrassment for the family, or if it had any to do with Caroline’s shame over having her mentally-retarded son named after her brother. She shows very little affection for Benjy and even complains that he should not be a burden to her when she has servants to watch after him. It is also stated in the Benjy section that he is to be sent away to the state mental institution when Caroline Compson dies. It is a reasonable assumption that Caroline made this arrangement so it would appear as though she were the only one willing to take care of him during his lifetime and that with her gone, there would be nobody to care for Benjy in the Compson home.
In the Quentin section, it becomes apparent that Caroline favors Jason and Quentin. She speaks of Jason as her “pride and joy”. She even thinks of leaving the family and taking Jason with her so that he could grow-up without the corrupting influence of Caddy or disruption from Benjy. Her preference for Quentin over Benjy is also shown when she sells Benjy’s pasture in order to send Quentin to Harvard. When Benjy’s pasture is turned into a golf course, he suffers severe emotional distress because he keeps hearing his sister’s name even though she is gone.
Caroline begins to like Caddy less and less as she grows older and approaches womanhood. When Caddy loses her virginity and becomes highly promiscuous, Caroline states that she is more like her own side of the family than the Compsons because of her behavior. When Caddy is married off to Herbert, Caroline essentially disowns her in order to avoid disgrace. Caroline, like Caddy, married a man of higher social class. In Caroline, the desire to accordingly impress others manifests itself in a snobbery that no one else in the family possesses. Caroline represents the traditional Southern woman through her attitudes and behavior. She adds to the tragedy of the story because her desire to preserve order and tradition is overcome by the sequence of events that unfolds throughout the novel. (456)