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