- stream-of-consciousnessnounChapter 1 →
A narrative technique that presents a character's thoughts, memories, and feelings in a continuous, unfiltered flow, jumping between times and ideas without clear transitions.
- mausoleumnounChapter 2 →
A large, grand tomb or monument built to house the dead; here used figuratively to mean something that preserves what is already dead or lost.
“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire”
- reducto absurdumphraseChapter 2 →
A Latin phrase meaning the reduction of something to its most absurd or extreme conclusion, used here to suggest that human experience collapses into meaninglessness.
“you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience”
- excruciatingadjectiveChapter 2 →
Intensely painful or agonizing, either physically or emotionally; here used to describe how perfectly and painfully fitting something is.
“it's rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it”
- aptadjectiveChapter 2 →
Exactly right or fitting for a particular situation; here meaning that something is grimly appropriate in a way that stings.
“it's rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it”
- fatalisticadjectiveChapter 2 →
Believing that all events are fixed in advance and that humans are powerless to change them, leading to a resigned or hopeless attitude toward life.
- tramplingverbChapter 2 →
Stepping heavily and repeatedly on something, crushing it underfoot; here used to evoke the act of walking through shadows as though physically pressing them down.
“Trampling the shadows, I could smell the honeysuckle on the afternoon air.”
- honeysucklenounChapter 2 →
A climbing vine with sweet-smelling tubular flowers, common in the American South; in this novel it is a recurring scent linked to Caddy and to lost innocence.
“Trampling the shadows, I could smell the honeysuckle on the afternoon air.”
- virginnounChapter 2 →
A person who has never had sexual intercourse; here used as a marker of honor and purity whose loss drives Quentin's obsession with his sister's reputation.
“You're not even a virgin. Do you know that?”
- bitchnounChapter 3 →
A contemptuous term for a woman considered immoral or untrustworthy; Jason uses it as a blanket insult for women he resents, especially Caddy and her daughter.
“Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.”
- interceptsverbChapter 3 →
Stops and seizes something — here money orders — before it reaches its intended recipient, secretly diverting it for one's own use.
- money ordersnounChapter 3 →
Prepaid paper documents used to send a fixed sum of money to someone, functioning like a check but purchased in advance; Caddy sends them north to support her daughter.
- illegitimateadjectiveChapter 3 →
Born to parents who were not married to each other at the time of birth; a term carrying strong social stigma in the early twentieth-century American South.
- pettyadjectiveChapter 3 →
Small-minded and mean in a way that is beneath a person's dignity; concerned with trivial grievances rather than anything of real importance.
- sereneadjectiveChapter 4 →
Calm, peaceful, and undisturbed; here describing Benjy's expression when the familiar order of his world is restored after a moment of panic.
“his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more”
- cornicenounChapter 4 →
A decorative horizontal molding that runs along the top edge of a building's exterior wall, just below the roofline.
“his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more”
- facadenounChapter 4 →
The front face of a building, especially one that is ornamental; here it is part of the passing streetscape that Benjy watches from the moving carriage.
“as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway”
- enduredverbChapter 4 →
Suffered through hardship and kept going without giving up; Faulkner uses this single word to sum up Dilsey's lifelong strength in the face of the family's ruin.
“They endured.”
- matriarchnounChapter 4 →
A woman who holds authority and acts as the central, stabilizing figure of a household or community, often through age, strength, or moral force.
- stokingverbChapter 4 →
Adding fuel to a fire and tending it so it burns strongly; here part of Dilsey's early-morning routine of keeping the household running.
- seedverbChapter 4 →
Dialect past tense of 'saw,' meaning 'I saw' or 'I have seen'; used in Dilsey's speech to reflect the vernacular of Black Southerners in early twentieth-century Mississippi.
“I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin.”
- deChapter 4 →
Dialect spelling of 'the,' used throughout Dilsey's dialogue to represent the pronunciation patterns of her Southern Black vernacular speech.
“I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin.”
- enChapter 4 →
Dialect spelling of 'and,' used in Dilsey's speech to capture the sound of her Southern vernacular pronunciation.
“I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin.”
- quarternounChapter 1 →
A twenty-five-cent American coin; Luster's frantic search for one he has lost drives much of the action in Benjy's section, since he needs it to attend a show.
- estatenounChapter 1 →
A large piece of land with a grand house on it, belonging to a wealthy family; here it refers to the Compson property, which is gradually being sold off as the family declines.
The Sound and the FuryNovel by William Faulkner