Mrs. Caroline Compson

Character Key: 
Display Name: 
Mrs. Caroline Compson
Sort Name: 
Compson, Mrs. Caroline
AKA: 
Caroline Bascomb Compson
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Female
Class: 
Upper Class
Rank: 
Major
Vitality: 
Alive
Family: 
Compson
Family (new): 
Date of Birth: 
Wednesday, January 1, 1873 to Monday, January 1, 1883
Biography: 

Caroline Compson nee Bascomb is the sister of Maury Bascomb (Uncle Maury), the wife of Jason, and the mother of Quentin, Candace, Jason and Maury|Benjamin. A bed-ridden neurotic and a hypochondriac, Caroline seems hopelessly preoccupied with herself and, despite her children's needs, with social status. She seems obsessed with the standing of the Bascomb family and largely oblivious to the misery of her own. She often speaks of how badly her children have let her down, but readers are likely to be appalled by how badly she fails them. The only child she recognizes as truly hers is Jason; she is ashamed of Benjy, and hostile towards Caddy and Quentin. Given how consistently she is portrayed as an uncaring and incompetent mother, it is easy to appreciate the depth of feeling in Quentin's (repeated) phrase, "if I'd just had a mother so I could say Mother Mother" (172).

Note: 
Caroline Bascomb Compson is the wife of Jason Compson III and the mother of Quentin, Caddy, and Jason Compson III. In The Sound and the Fury, Caroline Bascomb Compson has affection only for her son Jason. She is ashamed of Benjy, and she is ineffectual towards Caddy and Quentin. She laments her status as fallen gentry, and she is inactive except for being self-pitying in the novel.
Financial Status: 
controls substantial wealth
Social Status: 
has influential social contacts (family, business, political)
Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

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