Discuss the role and character of Benjy in The Sound
and the Fury.
Benjy is the youngest
child of the Compson family. He is a born idiot or imbecile incapable of
speaking or expressing his needs in words. The novel opens with a monologue by
Benjy, the monologue being supposed to have been made on 17th April,
1921, on his thirty- fourth birthday. His monologue is a mixture of his
memories of the past and his experiences on that particular day. This
monologue, based on Benjy’s sense-impressions, throws a good deal of light on
his own nature and on the natures and temperaments of the various other
characters in the novel.
The cardinal fact of
Benjy’s life is his attachment to Caddy who is the only member of the Compson
family to show him a genuine and deep affection. Benjy receives only a casual
attention from Miss Quentin also. Dilsey, the negro servant, is the only other
person in the household to feel a genuine sympathy for Benjy and to attend to
all his needs. Dilsey frequently scolds Luster for not properly looking after
Benjy. It is from Benjy’s incoherent recollections that we learn of Caddy’s
rebelliousness in her very childhood. It is from Benjy’s monologue that we
learn about Caddy’s having climbed up a tree to look at what was going on in
the compound of the house. It was on that occasion that the other children had
watched the muddy bottom of Caddy’s drawers, and Caddy’s muddy drawers are one
of the governing images of the novel. Benjy’s love for Caddy is all-absorbing.
Her presence is Benjy’s joy, and her absence is his grief. Ofcourse, this
attachment is due to the fact that Caddy keeps mothering him all the time. It
would not be right to say that his interest in Caddy is of an incestuous
nature.
Benjy seems to have an
instinctive sense of right and wrong. When, for instance, he sees Caddy being
kissed by a boy friend of hers, he protests by pulling at her dress. Caddy has
then to send away her boy friend and she assures Benjy that she will never repeat
her actions. Similarly, when Caddy is holding a bottle of perfume, Benjy’s
adverse reaction compels Caddy to pass on that bottle to Dilsey. Throughout the
period of their childhood, Benjy has the feeling that Caddy smells like trees.
Caddy’s smelling like trees is indicative of her natural freshness and purity.
