Obedience And Resistance:Foucauldian Power Relations In The Sound And The Fury

Studies on characters in The Sound and the Fury are numerous and its female characters attract critics’ increasing attention with the emerging and flourishing of feminism.Among these women,Mrs.Compson is severely criticized for her irresponsibility as a mother who is self-pitying,selfish,and cold-hearted.She is indifferent to all her children except Jason and she is extravagantly critical of Caddy because Mrs.Compson clings to the Old Southern traditions.She internalizes Southern patriarchal values,prides herself on being a lady,and tries to discipline Caddy by examining her behaviors from a male-dominated perspective.Studies on C addy,however,tend to go extremes:she is either castigated as a "fallen woman," or praised as a "rebellious warrior" because of her controversial behaviors.In The Sound and the Fury,Caddy seems to exist in others’ narrations but she is actually the key to measuring the power relations in the Compson family,which is manifested in her interaction with other members,not least her mother.Socially and textually based,this thesis explores The Sound and the Fury from the perspective of Foucault’s power theory.Specifically,the well-functioning mechanism of panopticon behind Mrs.Compson’s internalization of disciplinary patriarchies is one of my focuses because Mrs.Compson herself is a victim of disciplinary power,but she also becomes the one exercising power over Caddy and others.When she was young,Mrs.Copmson received much education on virginity and ladyhood,underlying discourses through which power can work.She internalizes them by surveillance and then wields power over Caddy who instinctively resists being disciplined.Caddy does not care to live her life as per patriarchal principles but follows her rebellious nature.Although her attempts fail,Caddy enables us to see possibilities for women to live their life deviating from social and patriarchal expectations.