The Enduring Dilsey

The final chapter of The Sound and the Fury brings closure to the novel by marking the end of the once prominent Compson family through the eyes of the unbiased narrator Dilsey. Dilsey, as the only character to remember the past but not let it consume her, serves as a reliable narrator for unlike the other characters, she does not base her past or future on Caddy. And similarly, unlike the hypochondriac Miss Caroline, the mentally disabled Benjy, the suicidal Quintin, the drunkard Father, and deranged Jason, Dilsey endures as the sole character to remain undiseased as she embraces her duties pertaining to the wellbeing of the Compson family. Dilsey serves as a perspective outside of the true Compson family. And even amid the complaining Mrs. Compson, the bellowing Benjy, and the threatenings of Jason, Dilsey brings some order to the household but comforting Benjy. Yet despite her greatest efforts, Dilsey’s drive to hold the Compsons together fails and inevitably leads to her deterioration as described when it pained her to walk up the stairs. Only through Dilsey’s perspective, could the novel be finished for she has been there from the beginning: “I’ve seed de first en da last.” Dilsey’s placement at the end of the novel only serves to heighten Faulkner’s chronology of time because she serves as one of the few remaining characters to tell the fall of the Compson family. (233)