Sartoris: Analysis of Major Characters
"Sartoris: Analysis of Major Characters" examines the complex tapestry of relationships and legacies within the Sartoris family, set against the backdrop of post-Civil War Southern society. Central to the narrative is Colonel John Sartoris, a Confederate hero whose actions during the war and subsequent efforts to build a community in Jefferson define the family's honor code. His descendants, particularly his son Bayard and grandson young Bayard, grapple with the weight of this legacy amid societal changes and personal turmoil. The older Bayard, a nostalgic banker, struggles to adapt to modernity, while young Bayard's reckless behavior stems from deep-seated guilt over his twin brother’s death in combat. The analysis also introduces key female characters such as Aunt Jenny and Narcissa Benbow, whose interactions reflect the shifting dynamics of gender and societal expectations. Supporting characters like Mr. McCallum and Byron Snopes further highlight the contrasts between traditional values and the emerging modern world. Through these characters, the exploration reveals themes of honor, guilt, and the struggle for identity in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Sartoris: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: William Faulkner
First published: 1929
Genre: Novel
Locale: Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: Immediately following World War I
Colonel John Sartoris, a Civil War hero, an entrepreneur, and progenitor of the Sartoris family. Colonel Sartoris led a Confederate regiment during the Civil War and returned from the war to found a railroad and become a community leader in Jefferson. He shot and killed two carpetbaggers who were enrolling African Americans to vote, and he was shot and killed in 1876. To his descendants, he represents a code of honor that has become unfashionable in the twentieth century. At the time of the action of the novel, he has been dead for many years, but he remains a vital force in the lives of his descendants.
Bayard Sartoris, the son of Colonel Sartoris, a banker known as old Bayard. He worships the memorabilia of the colonel's wartime exploits and deplores modern inventions such as the automobile. He rides in a fast car with his grandson, young Bayard, only to try to keep him from going too fast, but in the end this leads to a near-accident and old Bayard's fatal heart attack. Nothing he does can stem the tide of modernization.
Bayard Sartoris, known as young Bayard, the grandson of old Bayard. A fighter pilot during World War I, he comes home obsessed with the death in combat of his twin brother, John Sartoris, feeling guilt for not saving John but also for not dying heroically as his twin did. He continually flirts with danger, driving a powerful car at high speeds over crude country roads, riding an unbroken stallion while drunk, and taking other risks even after swearing that he will not. His first wife and child having died, he reluctantly marries Narcissa Benbow and gets her pregnant, but he is no more restrained in his behavior. After old Bayard dies in his car, he flees. He takes sanctuary with the McCallums, a clan of yeoman farmers who were friends of his brother John, but eventually he leaves. Young Bayard tries to live up to the code of bravery and honor typified by the original Bayard, who died in an impossibly romantic raid as a junior officer in J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry, but the postwar world provides no fitting arena for such heroics. He is killed in Dayton, Ohio, in the crash of a rickety airplane he was told was not airworthy.
Virginia Sartoris DuPre, known as Aunt Jenny, a widow from the Carolina branch of the Sartoris family. She rules the domestic side of the Sartoris household. She bosses the black servants with a fatalistic acceptance of their laziness, and her attempts to control old Bayard and young Bayard meet with a similar lack of success. She encourages the match between young Bayard and Narcissa Benbow.
Narcissa Benbow, Horace Benbow's sister, a self-absorbed, twentyish resident of the town of Jefferson. She professes a hatred for men, preferring romantic dreams, but she is fascinated by a series of semiliterate letters she receives from an unknown admirer expressing his love for her. She fears young Bayard but eventually agrees to marry him and bears him a son, born at the time of young Bayard's death, before falling into a grateful widowhood. Jenny suggests that the son be named John, but Narcissa names him Benbow.
Horace Benbow, who served in the war with the Red Cross instead of with the armed forces. He returns to Jefferson after the war. Back in Jefferson, he carries on a desultory affair with a married woman, Belle Mitchell, and pursues a dilettantish interest in glass blowing. His major accomplishment is a glass vase that he addresses as Narcissa and that he worships as a surrogate for his sister. Horace is the representative of the false aestheticism that the author despised.
Mr. McCallum, the progenitor of a clan of sons and grandsons who live the life of simple yeomen who have never been slaveowners. They distill moonshine whiskey, hunt foxes, and raise subsistence crops. They offer refuge to young Bayard and represent a more solid and earth-related set of values than do the more aristocratic Sartorises.
Simon, a black coachman and butler of the Sartorises. He tries to uphold the values of the family while his own descendants, after experiencing a kind of equality during the war, go bad. After one hair-raising ride in young Bayard's car, he refuses to go near the vehicle again.
Byron Snopes, a bookkeeper in Bayard Sartoris' bank and member of the rapacious Snopes clan, which has begun to take over the town of Jefferson and most of Yoknapatawpha County. Byron is a Peeping Tom who writes the admiring and vaguely suggestive letters to Narcissa Benbow. Like most of the Snopes clan, he represents the degradation of the modern world.