The Sound and the Fury: April Seventh, 1928 Summary & Analysis

The narrative opens vaguely and confusingly. The narrator is Benjy, a mentally disabled man whose thirty-third birthday is occurring today, the day before Easter. He is with Luster, a teenaged African-American who is a servant to Benjy’s family, the white, aristocratic Compsons of Jefferson, Mississippi.

Luster takes Benjy around the Compson property looking for a quarter Luster has lost. The property is next to a golf course, and Benjy moans and cries whenever golfers call for their “caddie.” Luster mentions that Dilsey, his grandmother, baked Benjy a cake for his birthday. Luster decides to earn back his lost quarter by finding golf balls in the rough and selling them back to golfers. He needs a quarter to go to a minstrel show that is in town that weekend.

Luster and Benjy sneak under a broken part of the fence into the golf course, and Benjy catches his clothes on a nail. This triggers a memory of twenty-six years earlier, two days before Christmas, when Benjy’s sister Caddy helped free him from the same nail. In this memory Mrs. Compson – Benjy’s mother – is arguing with her brother, Uncle Maury.

In the memory Uncle Maury asks Versh, one of Dilsey’s sons and Benjy’s keeper at the time, to take Benjy outside. Mrs. Compson worries that Benjy will get sick from the cold, but she allows it as his presence makes her worry and feel sick. Versh and Benjy go outside and meet Caddy, who Benjy says “smells like trees.”

The story returns to the present, but the memory of Caddy makes Benjy moan again, annoying Luster. He gives Benjy a flower to calm him down, and then Benjy slips back into the memory, where Caddy brings Benjy back inside by the fire to warm up. Mrs. Compson complains about how weak she is, and how Benjy’s disability is a judgment against her. She worries that Benjy will get sick and ruin her Christmas party.

Back in the present Benjy and Luster walk past the Compsons carriage house, which triggers another memory, this one from about fifteen years before. Benjy and his mother are riding in the Compsons’ carriage to go visit the graves of Quentin – Benjy’s brother – and Mr. Compson. T.P., another of Dilsey’s sons, must drive the carriage because Roskus, T.P.’s father and Dilsey’s husband, is paralyzed with rheumatism. Dilsey remarks that Jason should buy a new carriage, as this one is falling apart.

Mrs. Compson asks Jason if he wants to come to the cemetery, but Jason coldly declines and then says that Uncle Maury has been asking for money again. Mrs. Compson says she will be dead soon and then not be such a burden anymore, and then Benjy returns to the present, where Luster is chiding him once again.

Luster takes Benjy through the Compsons’ barn, and Benjy slips into another memory, twenty-six years earlier. He and Caddy are delivering a letter from Uncle Maury to Mrs. Patterson, the next-door neighbor, as the two are having an affair. Within this memory Benjy has another memory of an earlier time he delivered one of these letters by himself. Mrs. Patterson sees him delivering the letter and runs toward him, scaring him. Mr. Patterson also runs for him and intercepts the letter, thus discovering his wife’s affair. Benjy runs down the hill, afraid.

Back in the present, Luster leads Benjy down to the “branch,” the stream that runs through the Compson property. Luster sees some other servants who are washing clothes in the branch, and he asks them about his quarter and the minstrel show that night. Luster is especially intrigued by the fact that a man will be playing the musical saw. He keeps looking for a stray golf ball, and then one of the golfers says “caddie” again, making Benjy moan.

Benjy slips back into another memory, this one of the day his grandmother “Damuddy” was buried. Benjy is only three and the family has not discovered his disability yet. Quentin, Caddy, Jason, and Benjy are all playing together in the branch and being watched by Versh. Versh warns Caddy that she will be whipped for getting her dress wet, so Caddy takes the dress off, but then she gets mud on her underclothes too. Benjy repeats that she smells like trees.

Back in the present, Luster mentions that Benjy thinks that the pasture is still owned by the Compsons, though they had sold it years before. Benjy returns to the memory, in which the children head home from the branch. Caddy and Quentin worry that Jason will tattle to their parents about their wet clothes, and they will get whipped. The children pass Roskus milking a cow in the barn, and then Benjy shifts to another memory, the day of Caddy’s wedding.

In this memory, Benjy and T.P. have gotten drunk off some champagne they found in the basement. T.P. thinks it is just “sasparilla,” but they are both falling down and watching cows run across the yard. Benjy’s narration is even more muddled than normal, and he watches Quentin fighting with T.P. Quentin beats him up, but T.P. can’t stop laughing. Benjy starts crying then, afraid of his confusing drunkenness. Versh appears, scolding them, and he carries Benjy up the hill to the wedding.

Benjy then shifts back to the memory of the day of Damuddy’s death, as Versh carried him up the hill then as well. Versh tells the children that the family has company for dinner, because all the lights are on in the house. The children meet Mr. Compson at the house, and Jason immediately tattles to him about Quentin and Caddy’s wet clothes. Mr. Compson says that the children have to eat in the kitchen and stay quiet, as there is company over for dinner.

Mr. Compson warns the children to “mind Dilsey,” but Caddy insists that they listen to her as well. Dilsey serves dinner to the children, but then Benjy starts crying again. Quentin asks if Mrs. Compson was crying earlier, but Dilsey deflects the question. Quentin presses on, asking about Damuddy’s sickness, and soon Jason is crying too. Caddy teases Jason because he cannot sleep in Damuddy’s bed anymore now that she is sick. After dinner the children walk down to Versh’s cabin.

The smell of Versh’s house brings Benjy into several memories. In 1910, Dilsey sings in the kitchen while Roskus, her husband, says that the Compsons are unlucky. Two years later, Roskus is again talking about the curse of the Compsons, and he says the sign of it is Miss Quentin, Caddy’s illegitimate daughter. Roskus says he knew they were unlucky when they changed Benjy’s name.

Benjy takes a toy from Miss Quentin, who is still very young, and Miss Quentin gets angry and Benjy cries. Frony, Dilsey’s daughter, scolds Benjy. Roskus keeps talking about bad luck, and says another sign of it is that Caddy’s name is not mentioned around the house anymore because of the disgrace of her illegitimate child. Even Miss Quentin is being raised without knowing her mother’s name. Dilsey then puts Luster and Benjy to bed together, side by side.

Benjy briefly returns to the present, where Luster has found a golf ball, but he won’t let Benjy play with it. Benjy then returns to a memory in 1898, when the children were playing with some lightning bugs T.P. had caught in a jar. Caddy is again concerned with everyone “minding her.” Frony mentions a funeral, but Versh says not to let the children hear – Damuddy’s funeral is going on in the house, but the Compsons haven’t told the children their grandmother is dead yet.

Benjy then remembers the death of the Compsons’ horse, Nancy, and he thinks about her bones in the ditch and the buzzards circling overhead. The children worry that the buzzards will “undress” Damuddy too, and Caddy and Jason start to fight. Versh points out that Jason will be rich someday because he always has his hands in his pockets, and this makes Jason cry. Caddy tries to convince them that it is not actually a funeral going on, but a party.

Benjy’s memory of Damuddy’s funeral day becomes briefly interspersed with his drunken memory of Caddy’s wedding in 1910. Back in 1898, Caddy decides to climb a tree to look into the house, as she still thinks there is a party going on instead of a funeral, and that Damuddy is still alive. She makes Versh help her up into the tree, and her three brothers look up and see her dirty underwear from below before she disappears into the branches.

Back on Caddy’s wedding day, Benjy remembers her wedding veil, and T.P. trying to keep him quiet as he drunkenly moans. Caddy hugs him and he is upset that she doesn’t smell like trees anymore. This makes Benjy then think of a memory in 1905, when he was also upset by Caddy’s smell.

In that memory Jason makes fun of Caddy for her “prissy dress,” and says she is trying to be better than everyone else. Benjy is clearly upset by something about Caddy’s attire, so she tries taking off her hat. Mrs. Compson appears and complains that Benjy is disturbing her peace. Then Caddy figures out that it is her perfume upsetting Benjy, so she washes it off, but Benjy still keeps moaning. He thinks repeatedly to himself “Caddy smelled like trees.”

In the same memory Mrs. Compson gets upset with her husband for making fun of Uncle Maury, who is in a quarrel with Mr. Patterson. Mrs. Compson argues that her family is just as well born as Mr. Compson’s, so he shouldn’t mock Maury or begrudge him his money and food. Mr. Compson then fills his decanter of alcohol and leaves. Caddy falls asleep next to Benjy, trying to comfort him.

Benjy returns to the memory of Damuddy’s funeral, when Caddy is up in the tree. Dilsey then comes out of the house and pulls Caddy down, scolding the children for being outside at night. She sends them back to bed, and Caddy reports that there was no party going on in the house, just people sitting around.

Back in the present, Luster warns Benjy not to go by the nearby swing, as Miss Quentin is there with her “beau.” This makes Benjy remember encountering Caddy on the same swing kissing her first boyfriend, a boy named Charlie. When Charlie approaches him Benjy starts to cry loudly, and Caddy tries to send Charlie away. Charlie gets angry that Benjy interrupted them, and he wants a servant to take Benjy away. This only upsets Benjy more.

Caddy finally runs away from Charlie with Benjy and they go up to the house. Caddy knows Benjy is upset with her for kissing Charlie, so she apologizes and promises to never kiss anyone again. Then she washes out her mouth with soap.

Back in 1928, Benjy approaches the swing and interrupts Miss Quentin and her boyfriend, who is wearing a red tie. Miss Quentin gets angry at Luster for letting Benjy follow her, and she says she will make sure Luster gets in trouble with Dilsey. The man in the red tie lights a match for Benjy to play with, but Miss Quentin knocks it away, knowing he will burn himself and then start moaning. She runs back up to the house.

Luster talks to the man with the red tie about the music show, and the man playing the musical saw. Luster then picks up an unused condom off the ground, thinking at first that it might be his lost quarter. The man with the red tie sees it and starts cursing to himself. He asks Luster about it, and Luster says that men come to visit Miss Quentin every night, and she climbs down the tree outside her window to meet them. The man with the red tie is furious and sends Luster and Benjy away.

Benjy and Luster then walk further down the fence, still looking for golf balls, and when they reach the gate Benjy sees some schoolgirls walking past. This reminds him of a day years earlier when he looked out the same gate at other schoolgirls. T.P. tried to pull him away, saying that Caddy has gotten married and left Benjy behind.

Later in the same memory, Benjy slips out the gate and runs after the girls, scaring them. He tries to talk to them about Caddy, but he is unable to speak as always. He catches one of the girls and she screams, and then Mr. Burgess, one of the girls’ fathers, attacks Benjy. That night Mr. Compson scolds Jason for leaving the gate open. Jason suggests that they have Benjy castrated, or else send him to a mental asylum in Jackson.

Back in the present, Luster tries to sell the golf ball he found to a golfer, but the golfer just takes it away from him and refuses to give him a quarter. Then he calls for his caddie, making Benjy moan again. Luster gives Benjy another flower to try and cheer him up. Luster says that when Mrs. Compson dies, Jason will probably send Benjy away to the asylum in Jackson. The frustrated Luster than takes away Benjy’s flower, making him cry.

Luster then takes Benjy back to the house, where Dilsey scolds Luster, thinking he has purposefully made Benjy upset, even though Luster denies it. Benjy sits down in front of the fireplace in the kitchen and calms down. This reminds him of a memory years earlier when he sat by the fire with Caddy, just after his parents changed his name from Maury to Benjamin.

Back in the present, Dilsey gives Benjy his birthday cake and lights all thirty-three candles. She is still scolding Luster, and Luster is still lamenting his lost quarter. Luster and Benjy eat some of the cake, and Benjy briefly remembers an episode where Caddy cried and said she hates everything. He then returns to the earlier memory by the fire, where Caddy and Dilsey discuss Benjy’s new name. Dilsey says it is bad luck to change a name.

In the present again Benjy reaches his hand into the fire, burns himself, and starts wailing. Dilsey wraps up his hand and tries to calm him, but then Mrs. Compson appears, complaining about Benjy’s crying. She thinks that Luster and Dilsey made Benjy upset on purpose to disturb her, and she starts crying with self-pity. Dilsey calms her down patiently and Luster takes Benjy to the library.

The library reminds Benjy of another occasion with Caddy, when they were in the library and Benjy was only five. Caddy tries to pick Benjy up, accidentally calling him “Maury” first, but Mrs. Compson says Benjy is big enough to walk alone. Mrs. Compson has been sick all day, and the rest of the family tries not to upset her. Caddy keeps trying to pick up Benjy, and then she gives him a cushion to play with. Mrs. Compson says Caddy (who she calls Candace) spoils Benjy (who she calls Benjamin) too much. She also says that nicknames (like “Caddy”) are only for “common people.”

In the same memory Mrs. Compson starts crying at her own impotence, and Caddy sends her off to bed. Then Caddy and Jason start to fight because Jason has cut up Benjy’s paper dolls. Jason cries and says it was an accident, though it was clearly malicious, and Caddy threatens him on Benjy’s behalf.

In the present, Benjy keeps making noise in the library, and the adult Jason comes in, angry with Benjy and Luster. He complains that he works all day and then can’t even have peace and quiet at home. Luster asks Jason if he can borrow a quarter to go to the minstrel show, but Jason mockingly refuses him.

Miss Quentin comes in and is still angry with Luster, and then Jason threatens her about hanging around with the man in the red tie. Miss Quentin is clearly not ashamed of her actions, and she argues with Jason. Benjy briefly returns to a memory of Quentin telling his father about a fight he got into at school, when another boy threatened to put a frog in a girl’s desk. Mr. Compson approves of Quentin, but gets angry at Jason for crying over something else.

Benjy then remembers an evening around 1909, when Caddy comes home from a date where she lost her virginity. Benjy senses something is different and he cries loudly, and Caddy is ashamed. She runs up to her room, trying to avoid Benjy (and the rest of the family), but Benjy follows her and they both go into a bathroom and cry.

In the present again, the family sits down to dinner, and Miss Quentin complains that she doesn’t like living here, as Benjy is like “a pig” and Jason is cruel to her. Jason gets angry and Miss Quentin threatens to run away. As their argument escalates, Benjy’s mind jumps back to the past with greater frequency, though his memories are constantly being interrupted by the argument and Dilsey’s attempts to mediate.

In between the arguing, Benjy remembers Versh saying that Mrs. Compson changed Benjy’s name because she was too proud, and Benjy remembers Caddy feeding him, and he remembers Mrs. Compson complaining about being sick. In the present, Miss Quentin curses Jason and leaves the table. Benjy then remembers Mr. Compson getting mad at Jason for chewing paper while Quentin is studying.

Benjy again remembers Caddy smelling like trees, and then back in the present Luster is pleased that Miss Quentin gave him a quarter for the show. Benjy then returns to the past, where the young Jason is wanting to sleep in Damuddy’s bed, but she is too sick. Jason starts to cry. In the present Luster undresses Benjy, and when Benjy sees himself in the mirror he starts to cry. Then they look out the window and see Miss Quentin sneak out of her bedroom window, climb down the tree, and run away.

Benjy then returns to the night Damuddy died and Caddy got her underwear dirty. Jason tattles on her again to Dilsey, and Dilsey undresses the children and puts them to bed. She complains that she doesn’t have time to bathe Caddy before bed. Mr. Compson comes in and Caddy asks him if Mrs. Compson is sick, but he says she isn’t. Caddy then holds Benjy in their bed, and he slowly falls asleep.