The present is not sharply defined as the boundary between the past and the future. In fact, most episodes refer to the past. Each episode represented by the narrator invokes another one in his memory. It is senseless to look for such kind of focus in Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury. Generally, the action in every classical novel has the focus. The readers know about Benjy’s institutionalism, Quentin’s suicide and the daughter’s theft only from the appendix to the novel (Mainar, p. Old people who count every latest second of their life appreciate time more than young people who scatter about the invaluable minutes of their life.įaulkner’s representation of time is characterized by the inconclusiveness of the chronicle. What is time in a real life? How does it influence our life? Time is perceived by every man in a different way. Time is associated with clocks and calendars which are invented by man. Many people confuse time with chronology. Faulkner aims at the representation of time as a human mind perceives it. The past, the present and the future have fuzzy boundaries. It is not understood as a constant and linear entity by William Faulkner. Faulkner represents time from different points of view.

It is quite complicated for an ordinary reader to comprehend the stream of time in Faulkner’s works. William Faulkner’s treatment and representation of time is considered to be revolutionary in the American literature. Time may heal and time may destroy human fates. Time is one of the main realities of human existence which leads our life.

Faulkner the sound and the fury