Caroline Compson's Obsession with Appearance ib the Sound and the Fury

In William Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury, Caroline Compson focused directly upon appearances. Mrs. Compson never allowed herself to forget that her family wasn't as good as her husband's. Marrying into a higher class altered her perception of society. She searched for the acquisition of material objects in her life, always afraid of how others looked upon her family. Mrs. Compson cared more for appearances than for reality. Her obsession with sounds and …

…quality drove her children away. She could not accept her children for what they were. She eventually lost all of them: Quentin took his own life; Benjy was forever lost to a mental disability; Caddy disgraced herself sexually and disappeared; Jason became so bitter he could find no way of establishing a family of his own. If her children would have been able to reach out and talk to her, things may have ended differently.