Notes

The last chapter is both the shortest and only chapter written in a third-person voice. The events take place on Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection. Though the chapter is narrated by the authorial omniscient voice, much of the action centers on the difference between Dilsey and Jason. In fact, the opening pages contain a detailed description of the old black cook as she tries to begin the day. Of all the characters, Dilsey is the most Christian. She possesses none of the vicious and troubled characteristics of any of the Compsons, though she has been with them forever. She is consistently a caregiver, a good woman who only wants peace and harmony. She takes Benjy to church. She forgives Caddy and has a large reserve of sympathy and love for Benjy. Jason, on the other hand, is the least Christian. He is unnecessarily rough, cruel. He is vicious. In this omniscient chapter, Dilsey and Jason are the only characters on whom the narrative focuses explicitly.

There is a great satisfaction in the outcome of events as displayed in this chapter. Jason tries to assert his vicious authority once again, but he is thwarted. The last great spirit of the Compson family has risen from the dead and thrown his cruelty back in his face. Jason, as a kind of Satan figure, does not know how to deal with Quentin's victory (or Caddy's symbolic resurrection). His impotence in the face of her defiance nearly kills him in more ways than one.

In short, the Compson family is the embodiment of the South after the war. The values that once held a great family together have somehow gotten lost in the chaos of the post-war, emancipated world. Slowly, the decay of the family spreads, till there is nothing left but the sound and fury of the idiot's cries.

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