Maury Bascomb

Submitted by sfr on Sat, 2019-04-27 16:48
Character Key Number: 
264
Display Name: 
Maury Bascomb
Sort Name: 
Bascomb, Maury
Parent Character Key: 
Damuddy Bascomb
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

In The Sound and the Fury Maury Bascomb is the brother of Caroline Bascomb Compson. For much of the Compson children's early life he lives in their home and regularly partakes of their father's whiskey; by 1928 he has moved away, but continues regularly to ask his sister for money. Benjy was originally named "Maury" in his honor. He also has an affair with the Compsons' next door neighbor, Mrs. Patterson. When the affair is revealed, Mr. Patterson beats Uncle Maury - or as Benjy puts it, "His eye was sick, and his mouth" (43). He is not mentioned by name in the "Appendix" to the novel that Faulkner wrote in 1945, only as the "only brother" of the Compson children's mother (340): "a handsome flashing swaggering workless bachelor who borrowed money from almost anyone" (340).

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