• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.300-309
• /
• 2020

Recent studies on William Faulkner's female characters have overcome much of the stereotyped and dichotomous approaches of the past by uncovering their subversive characteristics. Nevertheless, they still present some limitations in regards to analyzing the characters based on individual texts. This paper attempts an inter-textual approach to Narcissa Benbow, the central character of Sanctuary, Sartoris and "There Was a Queen." In Sanctuary, Narcissa, a young widow of a Southern aristocratic family, harshly accuses her brother Horace, a lawyer of taking a murder suspect's wife and her infant child to their old house. She is afraid that their existence could harm the reputation of her family and herself. Eventually, she kicks them out of the house. In contrast, she is described as being friendly and calm in Sartoris. In addition, in "There Was a Queen," Narcissa makes an attempt to get an obscene letter back from an FBI agent in exchange for a sexual favor in order to prevent the letter from being disclosed. This paper takes into account the possibility of seeing these incoherent or even contradictory aspects of her characterization with a consistent view. This confirms that an inter-textual approach is needed to properly understand those round female characters created by Faulkner.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.9 no.8
• /
• pp.233-242
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to compare a supposedly "pot boiler", Sanctuary and Sanctuary: The Original Text and examine the fact that Horace Benbow in The Original Text is a more complicated and many-sided character who has suppressed desire, Oedipus complex, sense of guilt for a long time, until he came to confront Temple-Popeye case. Since literary narration means unconscious procedure, Horace's incestuous love for his step daughter and Oedipal relation reveals Faulkner's own psychology. In this sense, The Original Text serves as a matrix of many of Faulkner's major novels in terms of themes, characters, and the relationship between past and present. Among these novels are The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Flags in the Dust. Faulkner, while writing about his own world creating Yoknapatawpha County, tries to portray characters with artistic value through whom he wanted to express the deep anxiety and turmoil of the 1920s. Starting with Horace Benbow, Quentin Compson, Darl Bundren and young Bayard Sartoris can be doubling through his major works, conveying author's profound despair in the context of modern world.