Quentin Compson III

Although Quentin Compson III appears most prominently in The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, his entry in the "Appendix" still holds surprises for those already familiar with his character. Faulkner articulates here more fully that Quentin loves "not his sister's body but some concept of Compson honor" that is tied to her virginity (331). In claiming that he and she had committed incest, Quentin hopes to get himself and his sister cast "into hell, where he could guard her forever and keep her forevermore intact amid the eternal fire" (331). Even as readers respond to this characterization of Quentin as desirous of control over, rather than protection of, his sister, Faulkner pivots, noting that Quentin "loved death above all" (331). The "Appendix" revises the date of Quentin's suicide, pushing it back until after he completes his freshman year at Harvard, in order to "get the full value" of the tuition for which his family had sacrificed the last of their land (331); Faulkner continues to unite the men of the family through the square of land on which was built the Compson home.