Character Analysis: Father

Although much attention has been given to Mrs. Compson— or as she would prefer, Mrs. Bascombe— I find one of the most intriguing characters in Faulkner’s novel to be Father (Mr. Compson). He carries the burden of an aristocratic lineage, something that his wife is all too happy to harp to him about incessantly. While we see the actual downfall of the family through the eyes of its younger members, Faulkner never clearly shows the impact it has on Father, despite the fact that he is the patriarch and oldest member. A fatalist by nature, Father remarks that man’s every breath is a “fresh cast with dice already loaded against him” (p. 177). He is also a Southern gentleman whose “honorable” beliefs rub off on young, impressionable Quentin; throughout the tale, his upper-class status appears to be more of a curse than a blessing. In the novel, he most closely identifies with Quentin, his favorite son and potential Harvard undergraduate. The reader can see that this relationship is an integral part of the storyline; his closeness with Quentin leads to extreme depression and an early grave after Quentin’s death, and it created a distant relationship between him and Jason. In my opinion, Father’s treatment of his sons leads to the horrible events that result in the downfall of the family and is therefore one of the key characters of the story.
When troubled Quentin goes to his father for advice about Caddy between pages 176 and 178, he is seeking guidance that, in all honesty, could probably never be found. However, his father’s use of the word “temporary” to describe the love Quentin feels for his sister upsets Quentin to no end. Quentin identifies himself through this love, and to hear his father talk of it as “temporary” crumbles whatever self-respect or identity that Quentin had at all. Furthermore, Father’s lack of caring towards Caddy’s “situation” completely contradicts the Southern gentleman ideals that Quentin holds so dear to his heart, ideals that his father brought him up with. As if to further underline the importance of this conversation to Quentin, it is this painful conversation that he is thinking about before he goes to commit suicide. The repudiation of both Quentin’s personal identity and his beliefs at the same time leads to Quentin believing that he has nothing left to live for.
Perhaps most representative of Jason’s relationship with Father is the scene in which Father has Caddy, Benjy, and Quentin on his lap, while Mother has Jason on her’s. Mother insists that Jason is truly a Bascombe: “thank God you are not a Compson except in name” (196). Throughout the novel, she insists that the only reason Jason is normal is because he does not have to deal with the burden of “blue” blood. Unfortunately, the reader can see that Jason is quite a disturbed individual; he lies to his mother, steals from his sister, and intimidates his niece, all while self-righteously complaining. It is apparent that going from the lack of attention he received during his childhood to the pinpoint-intense attention he is receiving now has changed him for the worse.
Father drinks himself to death after Quentin’s suicide; he cannot help but blame himself for the permanent solution to the “temporary” problem. His lack of desire to keep on living further highlights the low value he places on his other son, Jason. While outwardly contemptuous, it is clear that Jason longs for the attention he never received from his father; he must pay a prostitute in order to get it. Thus, it is Father who defines the outcome of the family; after favoring Quentin his entire life and then losing him through a lack of understanding, Father finds that he has nothing left to live for. The Compson family is sucked into the vacuum his death creates; without him, the Compsons have becomes the Bascombes. (660)