Sound and the Fury
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The title of The Sound and the Fury derives from a soliloquy by the title character in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, in Act V, Scene V, following the death of his wife, and as he begins to realize his dire situation, Macbeth speaks this soliloquy:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
The soliloquy is full of his boredom towards life and the despair in the mental world. However, from the power of the soliloquy, we can still sense that he had a splendid past and a great career. Therefore, there is a kind of feelings mixed sympathy as well as hatred. So do the Compsons, who are the major characters in the novel. They represent the southern aristocrats and planters who had the proud past and the glorious history. But now this is only a walking shadow, and is heard no more. Their fate is just the same as Macbeths. As a native southern white man, it is apparent that Faulkner loves south as well as hates it...