In The Sound and the Fury Roskus is husband to Dilsey and father to Versh, T.P., and Frony. He drives for the Compsons while also caring for the farm animals, although over the years his rheumatism makes that increasingly hard. He is slightly less loyal than his wife to the white family he works for, complaining that there "aint no luck on this place" (29). Dilsey reproaches him for giving their son Versh "them Memphis notions" - that is, presumably, encouraging Versh to leave Yoknapatawpha (31).
Dilsey is the matriarch of the Gibson family and the source of whatever emotional stability there is in the Compson family. A major character in The Sound and the Fury, she is married to Roskus, the mother of Versh, Frony, and T.P., and the grandmother of Luster. She is a devout Christian, a loyal servant and a very caring human being. As a character she is both related to the "mammy" stereotype and one of Faulkner's most dignified and impressive creations.
In the "Appendix" to The Sound and the Fury that Faulkner published in 1946, the mother of Quentin MacLachan Compson I apparently dies early in his life. He is an "orphan" who is raised by her family in "the Perth highlands" (326).
In the "Appendix" to The Sound and the Fury that Faulkner published in 1946, the family line begins with this man: a printer in Glasgow, Scotland, who is the father of Quentin MacLachan Compson. Apparently he died when his son was still a child (326).
The grandmother whom the Compson children call "Damuddy" in The Sound and the Fury does not appear elsewhere in the fictions. The day of her death, in the summer of 1898, is the earliest scene in Benjy and Quentin's memories. The novel does not explicitly say that she is their maternal grandmother, but Mrs. Compson's reaction to her death and Damuddy's association with Jason - until Damuddy got "sick," for example, Jason apparently slept in her bed with her (26) - suggest she is a Bascomb rather than a Compson.
The "Mrs. Compson" who appears in "Skirmish at Sartoris" as both a short story and a chapter in The Unvanquished is a hard character to identify. Throughout the other four Unvanquished stories that mention "Mrs. Compson" it seems clear that she is married to General (Quentin) 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.
The wife of General Compson first appears in the mid-1930s in at least four of the Unvanquished stories and the novel Absalom, Absalom! In the stories she appears mainly in the pieces of a lady's equipment that she lends Rosa Millard on two occasions: a hat, a shawl and a parasol.
In The Sound and the Fury Caroline Compson is the sister of Maury Bascomb (Uncle Maury), the wife of Jason Compson III, and the mother of Quentin, Candace, Jason and Maury|Benjamin. She is probably also the daughter of the woman called "Damuddy" whose death is the earliest event (and loss) in Benjy and Quentin's memories. A bed-ridden neurotic and a hypochondriac, Caroline seems hopelessly preoccupied with herself. She is obsessed with the social standing of the Bascomb family and largely oblivious to the misery of her own.
It's not easy to know what to call Yoknapatawpha's one female "Quentin" - of two in The Sound and the Fury and of four altogether on the Compson family tree. She's the daughter of Caddy, but even Caddy seems not to know who her father might be (many readers and even quite a few scholars assume it's Dalton Ames, the man who took Caddy's virginity in that novel, but Caddy tells the other Quentin in the novel that before she married she had "too many" lovers, 115). Caddy named her Quentin in honor of her brother, who committed suicide before his niece was born.
Benjy Compson is one of the most original characters in American literature. To Mrs. Compson, who originally named him Maury in honor of her brother, Benjy's severe mental handicap is shameful, and a reason to change his name to Benjamin - apparently on her son Quentin's suggestion, though tellingly he gets the Biblical significance of the name Benjamin wrong.
