Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Help Wanted!

Okay so I'm sticking with my idea about comparing and contrasting Benjy to Frankenstein's monster. I have a list of similarities and differences but I need help putting them in some sort of order.
Same:

  • Both are considered/labeled "monsters" or something that is not a social norm and therefore scares society. 
  • Both lose their "creator." monster obviously loses Dr. Frankenstein and Benjy loses Caddy who he sees as a mother/creator figure (as seen by the parallelism Faulkner makes between the scene where Benjy is pawing at Caddy and Jason is pawing at his mother).
  • Both try to make sense of the world the best way that they can, but can't without help. The monster sort of figures out the human race by the end, but still can't survive in it by himself. Benjy never really makes sense of the world (both of these points could  possibly represent the attitude of society at the time period 
  • There is a simple solution to help these two characters but other people don't see it. (For Frankenstein the solution is that the doctor can either kill his creation or love it, and for The Sound and the Fury the family can send Benjy away to an asylum)
  • Both novels are Gothic
  • Society doesn't give these characters a chance to prove their worth; they only expect negative things from them
  • At some point both characters made inarticulate noises as a means of communicating
  • While Frankenstein's monster learns how to "act" human and somewhat make sense of the world he knows he will never fit in with it. Benjy never does fit in  (pg 320 when Jason hits Benjy, who represents the old way of trying to find structure within your own little world and not deviate from the path, Jason essentially slaps society in the face trying to wake them up to the reality that the way they have been living doesn't work.)
Differences:

  • Frankenstein's monster was created through science, while Benjy, according to his mother, was created the way he is through religious purposes; God was punishing his mother for her sins
Is it accurate to say that Faulkner might have been influenced by Frankenstein and that both authors are trying to tell society that the way of life they have been living is wrong? Does it sound like I have somewhat of an idea of what I'm talking about?

Also, on a side note, could the relationship between Caddy and Benjy be a little bit like Oedipus Rex? We are all in agreement that he sees Caddy as a mother figure now if we also agree about Benjy doing something sexual with her then it would be somewhat of an Oedipus  complex and then at the end Faulkner throws in the whole "it was horror; shock; agony eyeless, tongueless..." I mean both stories ended with this image. This is just a thought.

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