Vocal But Not Meaningful--Deficiency In Meaning In The Sound And The Fury

This thesis is aimed to conduct a study on the deficiency in meaning in character's language in The Sound and the Fury.William Faulkner in the book has presented different stories of three different brothers,who all have their problems of language.The thesis gains much inspiration from Noel Polk's article "Trying not to Say" on the book.As far as I can see,the book is about people talking without much meaning.The mentally retarded brother Benjy cannot express himself.He narrates as he thinks without any verbal signs,but with a very perceiving eye.Quentin,the poet-like young man,feels impossible to keep his sister,Caddy,away from his mind.The sister is also an imaginary incest lover of his, who later lost her virginity.This bothers Quentin so much that he finally drowns himself.The third brother,Jason,does not have obsessions for a person or anyone else, and he seems to be themost sober minded person in the family.However,his meanness and cruelty would earn him some problems in talking as well.We can see different styles of language(because the brothers are unique in personality),and no matter how strange they are,language does reflect a person's psychology.This thesis aims at discovering the three brothers' problems in language,and through the study of their sections,I attempt to discover the theme of meaninglessness suggested by the title of the book.Moreover,the thesis hope to discover the intention of Faulkner out of the seemingly distinctive styles of language of the brothers and to justify the book is about "sound and fury".The Introduction will introduce viewpoints by scholars in the related fields.In Chapter 1,Quentin's language will be discussed.The images in Quentin's language, although abundant,fail to refer to any meaningful signifieds.Chapter 2 will discuss Jason's language.In this chapter the thesis will go deep into the grammar of Jason's language,in order to prove that his language is nothing but self-referring.Chapter 3 will discuss Benjy's language,who cannot talk but only narrates his thoughts.But only in Benjy's language can potential of meaning be found."Conclusion" sums up the problems in language that the three brothers have, and brings out a further issue other than the deficiency in language:the deficiency of communication.Nevertheless,Benjy's willingness to communicate is also mentioned. So I will reach a conclusion that is more than characters without meanings and further researches over the issue are expected in the field of Faulkner's study.