Mr. Compson

The Compson family is one of the most important in the Yoknapatawpha fictions. They are already in the county by the early 19th century, and still a presence there, though a very diminished one, in the 1940s. But the 'Mr. Compson' in this story, the the man referred to as the husband of Mrs. Compson, is an enigmatic figure. In the other Unvanquished stories with a Mrs. Compson and her unnamed husband in them - "Retreat," "Raid," "Unvanquished" and "Vendee" - the pair are the paternal grandparents of the Compson children in The Sound and the Fury. But that husband, better known as "General Compson," lives as a respected part of the Yoknapatawpha community until around 1900. The "husband" in this story, according to Bayard, was "locked up for crazy a long time ago"; Bayard also relates without comment how this man used to amuse himself on the Compson plantation by shooting sweet potatoes off the heads of slave children with a rifle (62). Presumably this man is General Compson's father, a former Governor of the state - references to this character appear in 7 other texts, but his biography remains vague enough to fit this case.