William Faulkner’s novel Absalom, Absalom! is often proclaimed to be one of his
best writings no matter how hard and difficult the first glance seems to be. After I had finished Faulkner’s “masterwork” (Dimino 181), I decided at once
to choose it for my term paper.
For me, the novel is not a difficult one: It is demanding and gives you, as a reader, the opportunity to activate all of your background information and ideas concerning a story about the South. Of course, it is not a kind of book you can ‘look through’ at one day on your vacation, but it is hugely eventful that you could read it again and again without loosing interest. The more often you spend some time with Absalom, Absalom!, the more you will find out about the plot’s hints and ideas.
This term paper concentrates on Thomas Sutpen’s three white women, namely Rosa Coldfield, Ellen Coldfield Sutpen and Judith Sutpen. To be examined are their roles in the novel, their relationship to Sutpen and their femininity or gender respectively. The interpretation of Rosa will be the largest one, because she gives the reader as a narrator more information than the other females.
After a short overview of Absalom, Absalom!, I begin every analysis of the single white female characters with a short introduction of their biography and status, before I describe more detailed aspects and facets of their functions in the story.
Because the novel itself is full of useful passages that have to be interpreted and questioned, I have decided to limit the secondary literature for this term paper in order to stay close to the book as much as possible. My research in the internet did not turn out to be useful for this term paper.
What perhaps might be true in Absalom, Absalom!
One absolute important aspect which should be kept in mind during entire the
novel is the fact that nothing actually is a fact. When you think you are done with
Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, you suddenly realize that every detail of the plot
has to be questioned and rethought.
In Absalom, Absalom!, the reader comes across three or rather four
narrators:
Starting with Rosa Coldfield, Faulkner introduces furthermore Mr. Compson who
passes over his father’s stories about his friend Thomas Sutpen in
Yoknapatawpha County and the roommates at the Harvard dormitory, Quentin
Compson and Shrevlin McCannon.
As it would not be enough, two totally different
settings move the detailed hints about the plot even more apart from each other.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 What perhaps might be true in Absalom, Absalom!
3 Sutpen’s White Women
3.1 Rosa Coldfield
3.1.1 Question of Objectivity
3.1.2 Alienation
3.1.3 ‘Un-Feminine’
3.2 Ellen Coldfield
3.2.1 Ellen as Sutpen’s Status Symbol
3.3 Judith Sutpen
3.3.1 Strong Fiancée without Engagement
4 Conclusion
Research Objective and Scope
This term paper explores the roles, gender representations, and relationships of Thomas Sutpen's three white women—Rosa Coldfield, Ellen Coldfield Sutpen, and Judith Sutpen—within William Faulkner’s novel "Absalom, Absalom!". The study investigates how these characters function within the Southern context of the 19th century and analyzes their narrative significance and autonomy.
- Literary analysis of Rosa, Ellen, and Judith Sutpen.
- Examination of gender roles and societal constraints in the American South.
- Evaluation of narrative subjectivity and reliability in the novel.
- Interpretation of the women's agency in relation to Thomas Sutpen.
- Analysis of character development against historical and personal tragedies.
Excerpt from the Book
3.1.1 Question of Objectivity
Rosa Coldfield’s reports about the Sutpen saga are on the one hand very emotional and enjoyable to read, but reflect on the other hand her own subjective opinion about Thomas Sutpen, who is the center of her narration. She is the only contemporary witness who has known Sutpen first-hand, nevertheless her communication with Quentin Compson consists of some guesses, because she was too young to remember the early part of the story. “So that even I, a child still too young to know more than that […]” (Faulkner 14).
Rosa is traumatized by the past and sees in Sutpen the only reason for her poverty and her destroyed family which she survived.
I saw what had happened to Ellen, my sister […] I saw the price which she had paid for that house and that pride […] I saw Judith’s marriage forbidden without rhyme or reason or shadow of excuse; I saw Ellen die with only me, a child, to turn to and ask to protect her remaining child; I saw Henry repudiate his home and birthright and then return and practically fling the bloody corpse of his sister’s sweetheart at the hem of her wedding gown […] (Faulkner 12).
In all parts of her narrations, Rosa Coldfield creates the character of Thomas Sutpen according to her own will and intentions. She tries to convince Quentin that her brother-in-law was a ‘demon’ and the ‘devil’ his children suffered from (cf. Everett 2). Her storytelling seems to be somewhere between truth and mythical illusion. She awakes Sutpen’s ‘ghost’ to life again and characterizes him as a violent egoist who lived like a devil in paradise and leaved as well as returned to his plantation whenever he wanted to like a phantom. His life on Sutpen’s Hundred was a come-and-go. “That this Faustus, this demon, the Beelzebub fled hiding […] this Faustus who appeared suddenly one Sunday […] so that the demon should return from the war five years later” (Faulkner 145-46).
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: This chapter introduces Faulkner’s novel and defines the paper's focus on Thomas Sutpen’s three white women, setting the methodology for their character analysis.
2 What perhaps might be true in Absalom, Absalom!: This section explores the inherent instability of truth and the role of unreliable narrators within the structure of the novel.
3 Sutpen’s White Women: This central chapter provides detailed character studies of the three primary white female figures in the text.
3.1 Rosa Coldfield: This section analyzes Rosa’s traumatic past, her subjective narrative style, and her alienation, culminating in her struggle with traditional femininity.
3.2 Ellen Coldfield: This chapter examines Ellen’s marriage as a calculated social strategy for Thomas Sutpen, positioning her primarily as a status symbol.
3.3 Judith Sutpen: This section investigates Judith’s development, her relationship with Charles Bon, and her emergence as a figure of significant inner strength and resilience.
4 Conclusion: This chapter synthesizes the findings, arguing that all three women, in their distinct ways, acted in contrast to the rigid gender roles of the 19th-century South.
Keywords
William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, Rosa Coldfield, Ellen Coldfield, Judith Sutpen, Thomas Sutpen, Gender Roles, Southern Literature, Narrative Reliability, Subjectivity, Alienation, Plantation life, Feminist literary criticism.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper examines the roles and experiences of the three primary white female characters—Rosa Coldfield, Ellen Coldfield Sutpen, and Judith Sutpen—in William Faulkner’s novel "Absalom, Absalom!".
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The study focuses on gender roles in the 19th-century American South, the impact of Thomas Sutpen’s ambition on his family, and the narrative complexity of the novel.
What is the main objective of the analysis?
The goal is to explore how these female characters navigate their fates and defy or conform to societal expectations, while also evaluating their reliability as narrators of the Sutpen saga.
Which scientific method is applied?
The paper utilizes a literary analysis approach, interpreting primary text passages from the novel and contextualizing them within existing secondary literature.
What does the main body address?
The main body is structured into detailed character studies, examining the life history, psychological state, and functional role of Rosa, Ellen, and Judith within the narrative framework.
Which keywords characterize this work?
Key terms include William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, gender roles, Southern literature, narrative reliability, and character analysis.
How is Rosa Coldfield's narrative reliability challenged in the book?
The paper suggests that Rosa's account is heavily colored by her personal trauma, bitterness, and subjective interpretation, making her an unreliable narrator compared to other characters.
How is Ellen Coldfield's marriage portrayed?
Ellen is depicted not as a spouse in a love match, but as a strategic asset used by Thomas Sutpen to gain social respectability and status in Yoknapatawpha County.
What makes Judith Sutpen a unique character?
Judith is presented as an unusually strong character for her time, demonstrating immense resilience by managing the plantation on her own and exhibiting a fighting spirit despite her limited voice in the novel.
- Quote paper
- Julia Klewin (Author), 2007, Sutpen's white women in W. Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/86110
