CompsonsInRET

"Mrs. Compson" is mentioned or appears in four of the seven Unvanquished stories, starting with "Retreat," the second one Faulkner wrote. Her role is minor, but even as the plantation aristocracy is being destroyed by the Civil War, she maintains the family's class status in Faulkner's world, by virtue of the fact that it is Mrs. Compson to whom Rosa Millard, mother-in-law of Colonel Sartoris, turns for favors. "Mrs. Compson" represents the caste ideal of 'lady' consistently throughout these stories, but it's less clear which "Mrs. Compson" Faulkner is thinking of in each of them. In this tale, as in two of the three others, it's almost certain that she is the wife of the General who, like Rosa's son-in-law, is off fighting the Yankees.