Absalom Absalom A Narrative Perscective Essay Research

Absalom Absalom A Narrative Perscective Essay, Research Paper

Metropolitan State College of Denver

Absalom, Absalom!; An Innovative Narrative Technique

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Eng. 413. Major Authors: William Faulkner

Shawn Montano

Friday, December 06, 1996

Guilt should be viewed through the eyes of more than one

person, southern or otherwise. William Faulkner filters the

story, Absalom, Absalom!, through several minds providing the

reader with a dilution of its representation. Miss Rosa,

frustrated, lonely, mad, is unable to answer her own questions

concerning Sutpen.s motivation. Mr. Compson sees much of the

evil and the illusion of romanticism of the evil that turned

Southern ladies into ghosts. Charles Bon and Henry Sutpen are

evaluated for their motives through Quentin Compson and Shreve

McCannon. Quentin attempt to evade his awareness, Shreve the

outsider (with Quentin.s help) reconstructs the story and

understands the meaning of Thomas Sutpen.s life. In the novel

Absalom, Absalom!, a multiple consciousness technique is used to

reassess the process of historical reconstruction by the

narrators.

Chapter one is the scene in which Miss Rosa tells Quentin

about the early days in Sutpen.s life. It.s here that Rosa

explains to Quentin why she wanted to visit old mansion on this

day. She is the one narrator that is unable to view Sutpen

objectively. The first chapter serves as merely an introduction

to the history of Sutpen based on what Miss Rosa heard as a child

and her brief personal experiences.

The narration of Absalom, Absalom!, can be considered a

coded activity. Faulkner creates the complex narration beginning

at chapter 2. It ironic that one of Faulkner.s greatest novels

is one in which the author only appears as the teller of the

story in one brief section; The details of the hero.s arrival,

Thomas Sutpen, into Jefferson in chapter 2. Although Faulkner

sets the scene up in each section (The omniscient narrator), most

of the novel is delivered through a continual flow of talk via

the narrators.

Quentin appears to think the material for the first half of

the chapter 2. The narrator, throughout the novel, works as a

historian. The narrators seem to act like a model for readers.

The narrator actually teaches the reader how to participate in

the historical recollection of Absalom Absalom! The narrator

also introduces the reader to things to come. The complexity of

the novel involves more than just reading the novel. The reader

must become an objective learner as to the history of Mr. Sutpen.

Mr. Compson.s section of chapter two (43-58) contains words

like .perhaps. and .doubtless.. For example: Compson speculates

that Mr. Coldfield.s motivation for a small wedding was .perhaps.

parsimony or .perhaps. due to the community.s attitude toward his

prospective son-in-law (50). The aunt.s .doubtless.: did not

forgive Sutpen for not having a past and looked at the public

wedding .probably. as a way of securing her niece.s future as a

wife (52). Faulkner uses these qualifiers to heighten the

speculative nature of the narrative, so that Compson.s engagement

in the metahistorical process, rather that Sutpen.s history,

becomes the primary focus (Connelly 3).

As Mr. Compson continues his presentation of the Sutpen

history, Compson begins to explain Sutpen on two very different

planes of significance. Sutpen, through the narration of Mr.

Compson, becomes the tragic hero and a pragmatist (Duncan 96).

After this, Compson switches his approach to one of more personal

involvement. The beginning of chapter 4, Faulkner displays this

with the use of phrases like .I believe. or .I imagine. Mr.

Compson begins to use a more humane approach to the telling of

the story. Mr. Compson demands Henry .must have know what his

father said was true and could not deny it. (91). Compson make

assumptions based on his own conclusions at this time. The words

.believe. and .imagine. again reveal for the reader that he/she

must make some of their own speculations in order to ascertain

some of Sutpen.s historical facts.

Mr. Compson is creating his own reconstruction of Sutpen.s

history. Again, Faulkner uses words like .believes. and

.doubtless. to make us understand Compson.s explanation of the

past. The reader is now compelled to believe the narrator.

Compson insists at the end of this passage that .Henry must have

been the one who seduced Judith. (99). It appears that this

passage is extremely important to Compson.s account. Rather than

just collecting the facts and then recording them, the reader now

begins to realize the all history is subject to interpretation.

With the reader beginning to question the historical

reconstruction of Sutpen.s life, Miss Ros

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