Faulkner and Lightman’s Take on Time

Benjamin Compson in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is mentally retarded and has no grasp of time. He drifts through his memories with no understanding of past, present, and future. In fact, Benjy’s concept of time is one that is sensory. When Benjy smells something, for instance,

trees, he is instantly transported to a memory of his sister Caddy because “Caddy smelled like trees” (6). Benjy’s memories or past become his present because he has no way of distinguishing between the two. Dilsey, a servant of the Compson family, speaks of Benjy when he is thirty-three years old and says, “His skin was dead looking and hairless; dropsical too, he moved with a shambling gait like a trained bear. His hair was pale and fine. It had been brushed smoothly down upon his brow like that of children in daguerreotypes. His eyes were clear, of the pale sweet blue of cornflowers, his thick mouth hung open, drooling a little” (Faulkner 274). This description gives Benjy an aura of innocence. It is mentioned that he looks like a child and a trained bear. These images portray Benjy as unknowing and carefree. Alan Lightman describes Benjy’s concept of time perfectly when he explains, “Some few people are born without any sense of time. As a consequence, their sense of place becomes heightened to excruciating degree” (116). Benjy has no sense of time and therefore he does not have a distinct place in it, but rather he moves throughout it to wherever his senses transport him. Faulnker portrays Benjy’s senses as confused, for instance, Benjy says, “I could smell the bright cold” (6). In the novel, Benjy can often smell things that normally are felt or heard. Dilsey even mentions once that Benjy can smell what you are trying to tell him and it is said that Benjy can smell his mother’s sickness. By giving Benjy’s senses uncommon uses, Faulkner creates a character that is much more than he seems. Benjy is perceptive on levels that the other characters do not understand. Benjy thinks to himself, “[…] my hands saw the slipper but I couldn’t see myself, but my hands could see the slipper, and I squatted there, hearing it getting dark” (72). Here Benjy confuses “saw” with felt and “hearing” with seeing, but there is profoundness to his words. Lightman further explains, “[…] the time-deaf are unable to speak what they know. For speech needs a sequence of words, spoken in time” (116). Both Lightman and Faulkner have portrayed Benjy or the time-deaf individual to be one that knows more than those around him. Both authors may be trying to say that time can only be understood individually. Benjy is unable to tell others what he knows and therefore time remains a mystery. Benjy has no obsession with time. He is simplistic, but at the same time, he is complex. This paradox may be what Lightman and Faulkner are trying to use to describe time. According to Benjy’s universe, time is a paradox, simple and complex.

Lightman and Faulkner both wrote books that are collections of different theories of time. Both The Sound an

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