Mrs. Compson(2)

Throughout most of the stories in this novel it seems clear that the character whom Bayard refers to as "Mrs. Compson" is married to General Compson, who is off fighting the Civil War until the final story, "Odor of Verbena," when he makes a brief appearance (245). But in "Skirmish at Sartoris," readers are told that the "only husband [Mrs. Compson] had ever had had been locked up for crazy a long time ago" (193), and that cannot be the General. We assume he must be the General's father, perhaps the Quentin Compson who was a Governor of Mississippi. However, the confusion Faulkner creates here cannot resolved. The only way to provide this institutionalized "husband" with a wife is to add a second "Mrs. Compson" to the story, and that is what this entry does, but it has to be added that the "Mrs. Compson" here (who brings Aunt Louisa's letter out to John Sartoris) seems exactly like the "Mrs. Compson" who appears or is mentioned in four of the other stories in the novel.