The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner, takes place April of the year nineteen twenty-eight, in rural Mississippi. The story, however, consists of many flashbacks to prior dates. The story's main plot revolves around one family, the Compsons. Jason Compson is the father of the family. He and his neurotic wife Caroline have four children: the spontaneous nymphomaniac Candice, also called Caddy, the obsessive compulsive Quentin, who loves only two things death and Caddy, the un-charismatic Jason, who assumes control of the family after his fathers death, and the mentally challenged Benji, who also loves Caddy, but in a different way. The Compsons also have a black servant named Dilsey, who is the backbone of the family.
As part of the story Caddy gets married and moves away from the Compson family. Soon after, she has an illegitimate child that she names Quentin. Caddy convinces Mrs. Compson to allow her daughter to come live with the family. Mrs. Compson agrees, as long as Caddy promises to stay away. .
Pope Gregory the Great, in the late sixth century created a list of what is called the seven deadly sins. These are: pride, envy, wrath, lust, sloth, gluttony, and greed. .
In The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner uses Jason, the son, to illustrate a perpetrator of the seven deadly sins. .
At many points throughout the novel Jason Compson is concerned about losing the respect of his peers and people in his community, in other words, his pride being damaged. At one point in the novel, during Jason's monologue, Jason and the female Quentin had gotten into an argument, about Quentin skipping school. After the two of them exchanged words, Jason threatened Quentin by saying, "I don't care what you do myself,"" but "I've got a position in this town, and I'm not going to have any member of my family going on like a nigger wench- (Faulkner 189) . Even though Jason considered Quentin a part of his family, which is highly unusual in the first place, he was less concerned about her well being and more concerned about his ego being damaged within the community.
