The Turmoil of Quentin Compson Throughout the works of William Faulkner, much can be learned about the South during and after the Civil War. His themes can be accurately portrayed and are often recurring through many of his characters, including Quentin Compson. He was seen in many of Faulkner’s writings as one of the main characters, including the popular novels The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, and some other short stories. Quentin was the oldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Compson from Jefferson, Mississippi. He was an overall very confused and neurotic person. Many of Faulkner’s most common themes can be found as the cause of Quentin’s confusion and hardship throughout his life, which is what ultimately caused him to end his life. The…show more content… In The Sound and the Fury, Mr. Compson gave Quentin a family watch so when using it he could “forget it [time] now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it” (Faulkner, p. 76). Faulkner is using irony in this because throughout Quentin’s entire life he is obsessed with time. He is constantly thinking about or looking at the time during his point of view in The Sound and the Fury. His obsession with the time, especially the past, hinders him from living in the present to a point. Essentially, his causes him to have a misconstrued self-concept of himself,…show more content… He even asks several people if they have a sister or not. In The Sound and the Fury, he even punches a man after saying he did not have one and then referred to them in a derogatory term (Faulkner, p. 160). Quentin is very distraught over promiscuity and is trying to preserve the traditional values of morality and honor that the traditional South worked so hard to make a priority in their lives. This is the cause of his obsession with keeping Caddy’s virginity and his overprotective manner. “Quentin first gave himself the impossible task of preserving Caddy’s virginity as if his own purity were at stake” (Williamson, p. 398). After his sister announces that she is pregnant with an illegitimate child, he even tells their father that they committed incest in hopes of trying to protect her (Faulkner, p. 77). Soon after Quentin’s discovery that Caddy is no longer a virgin, his obsession changes from Caddy to the entire female population (Williamson, p.