| The Sound and the Fury,one of William Faulkner’s most important works,has been systematically studied by scholars both at home and abroad since the mid-20 century.In this novel,Faulkner makes use of different characters to tell the story of one family and to construct events that filter through intricate interpersonal relations within the family.They all help to support the present thesis’ interpretation from the perspective of object-relations theory.The concept of object is introduced by Sigmund Freud.After the establishment of objectrelations theory,psychologists claim that object-relations are at the center of people’s emotional life.They regard the roles of parents as containers,who,at the other end of object-relations,have the containing function to revise or strengthen children’s impulse.The English psychologist William Fairbairn pushes the boundary further,coming up with the idea that the establishment of object-relations is visible throughout people’s life and plays an important role during their growth.This thesis tries to analyze the nature of the tragedy in the Compson family from the perspective of object-relations theory,which regards three characters Benjy,Quentin and Jason as representatives of people who try to establish object-relations in three periods of human life,infancy,adolescence and adulthood.This thesis can be divided into three parts,introduction,body and conclusion,consisting of five chapters.Chapter One gives an introduction to William Faulkner and his novel The Sound and the Fury.It also presents a literature review on the novel and outlines the major concepts from the object-relations theory.From Chapter Two to Chapter Four,the thesis explores the establishment and loss of objectrelations on Benjy,Quentin and Jason.Chapter Two takes Benjy as an example to examine the lack of original object-relations between Benjy and his parents.It points out that a replacement of the first relationship,such as the one Benjy establishes with his sister Caddy,is temporary and destines to fail.As a result,Benjy is trapped permanently in the anxiety of losing his only good object-relation.Chapter Three takes Quentin as an example of a person in his adolescence,during which the containing function of the Compson parents remains a void.Meanwhile,in the relation between Quentin and Caddy,Caddy is regarded as an object combining roles of a mother,a partner and a sister,the complexity of which tears down their relationship.Chapter Four offers a discussion about Jason.Serious problems remain with Jason’s object-relations in the family despite his maturity.Jason’s borderline personality disorder also seriously impairs his social relationship.The study finds that none of the Compson children achieves good object-relations and the family falls apart.Chapter Five is the conclusion of the thesis.The Sound and the Fury thus tells a story in which each member of the Compson family meets his own tragedy when,under the shadow of lack of good object-relations at the very beginning,emotional support becomes an impossibility. |
