The theme of time is deeply rooted in its structure and characters. Faulkner discovered that time exceeded the objective. Time and subjectivity fuse together the known past with the unknown future to create a moment of the present. This idea led to Faulkner’s complex deployment of flashbacks within the flow of consciousness and his reliance of the repetition of these flashbacks (Walker 493-495). Faulkner not only incorporates time in structure and characters, but he also incorporates his own view of time. His view of time, shown through Dilsey’s character, becomes the major, overall theme of the novel, that time and the different perceptions of time allows man to form his own concept of truth, whether that truth is right or wrong is for man
…show more content…
that make up real-life thought. Faulkner was influenced to use this technique in his novel by an Irish novelist, James Joyce, who developed stream-of-consciousness in his novel, Ulysses. This technique involves the absence of punctuation and capitalization, repetition, and changes in type, such as switching to italics (“Themes”). Faulkner best incorporates this technique in the sections of Benjy, mentally handicapped, and Quentin, depressed. While Benjy and Luster crawl under a broken fence at the golf course, he becomes snagged on the nail in which Luster must unhook him. Luster 's comment to Benjy about him always being snagged brings to mind a memory of Benjy 's where he and Caddy were once crawling through a broken fence and he got snagged and she unhooked him. This change from present to a flashback is signaled by a change in type of italics, thus imploring the technique of stream-of-consciousness (Faulkner 4). In Quentin’s section because death is nearing, his mind begins to scramble around. His thoughts begin to become fragmental, running over various moments of his past, a past which haunts his present. Here he reflects between memories of Caddy 's loss of virginity, then suddenly changes mid-sentence to a memory of his boyhood and then back to the present, then back once again to his boyhood memories, and so on; the constant changing of his memories remains until the end of his section. This change of thought is revealed through the change of type. The closer death approaches, the less grammatically correct his section becomes, further indicating the use of the stream-of-consciousness technique (Faulkner
that make up real-life thought. Faulkner was influenced to use this technique in his novel by an Irish novelist, James Joyce, who developed stream-of-consciousness in his novel, Ulysses. This technique involves the absence of punctuation and capitalization, repetition, and changes in type, such as switching to italics (“Themes”). Faulkner best incorporates this technique in the sections of Benjy, mentally handicapped, and Quentin, depressed. While Benjy and Luster crawl under a broken fence at the golf course, he becomes snagged on the nail in which Luster must unhook him. Luster 's comment to Benjy about him always being snagged brings to mind a memory of Benjy 's where he and Caddy were once crawling through a broken fence and he got snagged and she unhooked him. This change from present to a flashback is signaled by a change in type of italics, thus imploring the technique of stream-of-consciousness (Faulkner 4). In Quentin’s section because death is nearing, his mind begins to scramble around. His thoughts begin to become fragmental, running over various moments of his past, a past which haunts his present. Here he reflects between memories of Caddy 's loss of virginity, then suddenly changes mid-sentence to a memory of his boyhood and then back to the present, then back once again to his boyhood memories, and so on; the constant changing of his memories remains until the end of his section. This change of thought is revealed through the change of type. The closer death approaches, the less grammatically correct his section becomes, further indicating the use of the stream-of-consciousness technique (Faulkner