Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 141

Humor in William Faulkner

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that ot the porter scene in Macbeth or the clown scenes in Doctor
Faustus. First, the humor of the "Quentin" section deals with
Quentin himself; he is both the object of the comedy and the subject of
the serious matter. In contrast, Macbeth and Faustus are never
laughed at. Clowns, porters and gravediggers are apart from the
serious subjects of tragedy; they may be made funny for emotional
relief, but the comedy does not touch the main characters. Second, in
Elizabethan tragedy, the comic and the serious are usually kept
separate, each has its own compartment. The porter scene in Macbeth
is comic, but all the comedy is kept inside that scene, and the serious
barely Intrudes. Faulkner, unlike Shakespeare, presents the comic
and the tragic contrapuntally; the elements of tragedy and comedy
become much more thoroughly mixed than in Doctor Faustus, Hamlet
or Macbeth.
The mixture of humor and seriousness in the "Quentin" section
is less important than the incongruities presented by the humor itself.
Quentin, for example, is shown tragically as the protector of
womanhood and comically as the defiler of womanhood. Of course,
Quentin is thought of as a defiler only by mistake, but that mistake
contributes to the irresolution of the section by raising questions about
Quentin's perception of the relationship between his sister and
Dalton Ames. If a mistake can be made about Quentin, then what
perceptions can be trusted? If Quentin, of all people, can be thought of
as a possible rapist, then it is possible that Quentin is mistaken in his
perception of Dalton Ames as the defiler of Caddy. This issue is never
resolved.
Instead, after Quentin's rescue by Mrs. Bland and the others,
the humor continues. Although Shreve and Spoade realize how
ridiculous the idea is, to the other characters, especially to Mrs.
Bland, Quentin remains the young man who tried to entice a young
foreign girl into a sordid relationship. The humor, as Spoade and
Shreve realize, lies in the incongruity of the real Quentin and the
imagined Quentin of Mrs. Bland and the girl's brother.
Before he leaves Mrs. Bland, Quentin resumes the protective
role by attacking Gerald and asking if he ever had a sister. ^
The entire section is pervaded by a clear incongruity. Is
Quentin defined by his own perception of himself or by others? Why
should he continue to protect the purity of womanhood when he
intends to die soon? Why should he worry about the purity of