Abstract:William Faulkner, who is known as one of the greatest modern writers of the 20th century in American literature, is also the most influential one. He produces a large volume of great literary works in his lifetime; The Sound and the Fury is one of his masterpieces, telling the story of the Compsons who live in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. It mainly describes the decline of the Compson family and its members’ tragedy, narrated from different perspectives of different family members.

This paper mainly studies Caddy’s change of image. Caddy can be said to be the focus of the whole novel. Although Caddy never appears in front of the readers with a separate chapter, but all the characters in the novel are related to her closely. It is a traditional rule that there is definitely an indulgent child from the old-fashioned families. As a foreign critic once said, too much responsibility leads to irresponsibility. Caddy rushes out from the closet of the “Southern woman”, and is forced to turn into a frivolous vamp from the perspective of Jason. Caddy, an angel, eventually has to become a “vamp”, ending up with a tragedy. At the same time, the thesis makes an analysis of the causes for Caddy’s change in image: irresponsible parents, rebellion failure and the southern patriarchy. The significance of this paper is to start from studies of the image of Caddy, to illustrate how Caddy’s image is ruined and distorted in life, so as to explore the profound influence of various factors in the daily life on people’s fates.

Keywords:  Caddy  image  causes  The Sound and the Fury

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 William Faulkner-1

1.2 The Sound and the Fury-1

1.3 Literature Review-2

1.4 Thesis Structure-3

Chapter Two Change of Caddy’s Image-4

2.1 The Image of Caddy—Angel-4

2.1.1 The Symbolic Mother of Benjy-4

2.1.2 The Biologic Mother of Miss Quentin-4

2.2 The Image of Caddy—“Vamp”-5

2.3 Tragedy of Caddy-6

Chapter Three Causes for Caddy’s Changes-7

3.1 Irresponsible Parents-7

3.1.1 Distorted Maternal Love-7

3.1.2 Incompetent Father-7

3.2 Failure in Rebellion-8

3.3 The Southern Patriarchy-9

Chapter Four Conclusion-11

References-12