An Eco-feminist Study Of The Sound And The Fury

William Faulkner is considered to be the most influential writers of America in the twentieth century. He has created a lot of great works in his lifetime, and The Sound and the Fury, which becomes the focus of study and research among critics, is one of the outstanding representatives. As a famous southern writer, Faulkner’s concentrations not only just rely on the person’s inner world but also divergence into the broad external space. By observing male’s oppression and destruction toward female and nature, Faulkner elaborates ecological and feminine crisis from another angle and has explored the similarities between female and nature with a wise vision which reflects his strong humanistic concern at the same time.Though many critics have issued their comments on The Sound and the Fury, this fiction has seldom been analyzed systematically from the eco-feminist perspective. Based on the previous studies both at home and abroad, this thesis intends to explore the eco-feminist ideas reflected in The Sound and the Fury and tires to give a deeper understanding of the novel. Through the description of the opposed position of women characters, which include Caddy, little Quentin, Dilsey and Mrs. Compson, nature and their rebellious spirit, the main body of the thesis has combined women with nature together and perceived the internal relations between them in the novel. To some extent, Faulkner shows some superior consciousness of eco-feminist ideas. Meanwhile, the thesis has also explored its humanistic concern and social enlightenment behind the eco-feminist ideas.The eco-feminist is applied to explore the novel in the thesis which has given us a relatively new critic method to interpret the classical literary work. Through this progress, it will enrich and deepen our understanding of this novel. Meanwhile, the humanistic concern and artistic charm can also be enhanced greatly through the interpreting progress. All these would give us some kind of positive significances:only male and female achieve a balance status and reestablish man’s respect and trust toward nature, a new harmony relationship can be obtained among man, women and nature in this modern society which shows some deformity features. Meanwhile, the eco-feminist interpretation of the novel can also make us introspect our activities and gain some beneficial.