Graduate Work

American Modernism
By Scott Hays

Black-Christian Sermon in ‘The Sound and the Fury’
Speaks to the Collapse of the Compson Family

Toward the end of the novel The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, in the fourth section dated April Eighth, 1928, the Compson’s “Negro” housemaid Dilsey and her daughter Frony attend a black-Christian worship service in Jefferson. With them is Benjy, the mentally retarded youngest of the Compson children. Here seems a crucial point in the narrative structure from which the family saga might come to some sort of poignant closure. After all, it’s Easter Sunday, a celebration (in the Christian tradition) of redemption and healing. Yet the sermon by Reverend Shegog, on first reading, comes across as nothing more than a litany of Biblical one-liners with no attempt to “dissolve [the story’s] opaqueness into the reassuring clarity of [an] ideological statement.” Though by deconstructing the sermon’s Biblical references and focusing less on one ideological statement and more on the wellspring of prophetic literature in both the Old and New Testaments, one could easily make the argument that, in fact, Rev. Shegog’s sermon speaks volumes about the collapse of a dysfunctional family.

The Easter Sunday sermon begins with an emphasis on redemption and healing, when the black preacher says to the congregation: “Brethren and sisteren. . . I got the recollection and the blood of the Lamb!” It’s an unimpressive opening, spoken in what some of consider a white man’s voice that gradually shifts to black dialect, more “negroid” : “Breddren en sistuhn! I got de ricklickshun en de blood of de Lamb!” This preacher, Rev. Shegog, quickly finds his voice, the living Word of God, and the congregation sways a little in their seats as the voice takes them “into itself.” This transfiguration clearly suggests the possibility that what we’re about to read, the preacher’s sermon, has some significance either for us as readers in dissolving the novel’s “opaqueness,” and/or for the characters attending the black-Christian worship service in understanding the disintegration of the Compson family.

Many Christians believe the above passage from Revelations reveals how earthly sorrows will one day be over; that there will be absolutely no crying in the presence of God. Since this is the only section of the novel written from an omniscient viewpoint, we must look to Dilsey for signs that Rev. Shegog has reached her in a deep and profound way: “In the midst of the voices and the hands Ben sat, rapt in his sweet blue gaze. Dilsey sat bolt upright beside, crying rigidly and quietly in the . . . blood of the remembered Lamb.” Throughout the novel, Dilsey exhibits little concern for her past, living instead fully in the present and open to whatever may come her way: whether it’s the cruelty of Jason, the ungratefulness of Mrs. Compson, the rejection of Miss Quentin, or the contempt of her friends at the unwelcome white idiot she brings to worship in their church. More than anyone, perhaps, she would like for the sorrow to be behind her.

This is only one of roughly nine (9) Biblical passages in this particular section of the novel. And although not every passage explicitly speaks to the disintegration of the Compson family, the sermon as a whole is rich with religious symbolism. Consider this passage from Rev. Shegog’s sermon: “Wus a rich man: whar he know, O breddren? Wus a po man: whar he now, o sistuhn?” In the Christian tradition, one of the warnings implied here is that earthly blessedness does not necessarily mean God’s ultimate favor; in fact, the reverse may be true. The Compson family was one of several prominent names in Jefferson. Their ancestors help settle and defend the area during the Civil War. But as the passage from Luke suggests, the family’s wealth and status steadily crumble, and in the end each member—with the exception of Benjy—ultimately falls out of God’s favor: Mr. Compson dies of alcoholism, Mrs. Compson becomes bitter and lonely, Quentin commits suicide, Caddy loses her virginity and becomes pregnant, Jason embezzles thousands of dollars from his sister, even Miss Quentin grows up to be an unhappy and promiscuous girl.

Finally, it’s Disley to whom we turn once again when after the service, on her way back to the Compson household, she says to her daughter Frony: “I’ve seed de first en de last. . . I seed de beginning, en now I sees de endin.” Some literary scholars have suggested that the meaning of this particular statement is unclear. I disagree. Dilsey is the only character who witnesses both the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega of the Compson family. Throughout the novel she acts out of love and compassion. It’s her faith—and her willingness to take on the pain and suffering of the Compson family members—that best illustrates Faulkner’s intention for the black-Christian worship service on Easter Sunday. In the end, Dilsey becomes not just a servant of the household, but a suffering servant, like Jesus himself, who believes in the ideals of goodness and self-sacrifice.

Although I agree there exists no “aesthetic completeness” to Rev. Shegog’s sermon, by contrasting the Compson legacy with Dilsey’s life and the Easter worship service, the novel clearly turns to faith, in the Christian tradition, to effect redemption and healing in the midst of sorrow and despair. Dilsey discovers the complexity and richness of the ambiguous present, free from the demons of the past and open to the changes which the future inevitably brings; a life of peace in which sin is forgiven.

WORKS CITED
Bleikasten, Andre. The Ink of Melancholy: Faulkner’s Novels from the Sound and the Fury to Light in August. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1990

Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1994/1929.

Gwynn, Frederick L. and Joseph Blotner, editors. Faulkner in the University. New York, NY: Vintage Books/Random House, 1965; the University Press of Virginia, 1959; reprinted 1977.

Kartiganer, Donald M. and Ann J. Abadie, editors. Faulkner at 100: Retrospect and Prospect. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. 1992.

Matthews, John T. “Text and Context: Teaching The Sound and the Fury after Deconstruction.” Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Ed. Stephen Hahn and Arthur F. Kinney. New York: MLA, 1996. 122-27.

Padgett, John B. The Sound and the Fury: Commentary. William Faulkner on the Web. 11 April 2005. Ed. John B. Padgett. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. Williams, John. “Dilsey, Shegog’s Sermon, and the Meaning of Time.” Center for Faulkner Studies: Southeast Missouri State University.

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