A tale of sight and smell signifying death : Benjy Compson revisited

Abstract

This essay refutes the long-standing idea that Benjy Compson in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is merely an idiot. Instead of focusing on the issue of his language or his concept of time, an analysis of his surveillance techniques reveals Benjy’s various strategies as he exercises his power. The application of Michel Foucault's theories concerning the powers of the disciplinarian gaze forces a change in the terminology with which criticism has labeled Benjy. By the end of the essay, a re-conceptualization of Benjy’s character occurs through a simple change of words: passive to active. This change opens up new doors of understanding and suggests that Benjy is a highly manipulative agent of surveillance, instead of the traditional view that he is a simple, bellowing man-child

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