Quentin's+Watch

//I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire: it’s rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s. I give it to you not that you may remember time but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it// ( TSAF 76).

Quentin Compson's watch is an undeniably important object in //The Sound and the Fury// that functions as a very multifaceted, complex symbol in Quentin's section. The watch ties Quentin to the past, serves as a reminder of not only his father but his whole Compson heritage, and traps Quentin in the world of the social.

The watch itself, as most watches designed for men at the time, is a pocket watch. Wearing a wristwatch, at the time of the 1910 setting of Quentin’s chapter and at the time of the watch's creation two generations earlier, was primarily viewed as a feminine practice equivalent to wearing a skirt and did not find its way into the realm of male fashion until after World War 1, where their practicality on the frontline began to outweigh the connotations of femininity associated with the product.

The watch has been handed down from Quentin’s grandfather, General Jason Lycurgus Compson II, to Quentin’s father, Jason Richmond Lycurgus Compson III, to and then Quentin himself, functioning as a symbol of the Compson family lineage. As it is a several generation heirloom of the family, it naturally connects Quentin to the Compson men who came before him, and the semi-destruction of the watch can be seen as a failed attempt to distance himself from his family, the southern world and the memories associated with them which plague him throughout his chapter, but his ultimate inability to do so entirely. The watch itself is the physical manifestation of Quentin’s memories of the Compsons and his biological connection to them; even spatially removed from them in Massachusetts, the watch reminds Quentin of the haunting thoughts of his family.

Much of the direct dialogue concerning the watch, and through the watch, time, comes from Quentin's father, Jason Compson Senior who gives the watch to Quentin so that he might not become obsessed with time and the telling of it, a practice which he declares to be “ a product of mind-function” (TSAF 77). Throughout the chapter, Quentin often reflects on his father’s words on the philosophy of time and timepieces; Jason Compson Senior believes that, “clocks slay time” and that time only comes to life when clocks do not function (TSAF 85). For his father, the watch is an arbitrary device that breaks down time into arbitrary units and the constant desire to know the time is simply a routine and regulatory function such as sweating or excrement. Ironically, the watch serves the exact opposite function for Quentin as its incessant ticking provokes more painful introspection, memories, and acts as general reminder of the existence and passage of time. Near the beginning of his chapter in //The Sound and the Fury//, Quentin taps glass of the watch on the corner of his dresser and twists the hands off (pg 80), which, although it “destroys the normal function of the watch as a time-measuring instrument”, does not stop the watch’s internal movements or end its ticking (Radloff 53). At perhaps the most basic level, the watch, and this failed attempt to destroy it, symbolizes Quentin’s own desire to free himself from the time that constantly oppresses him, a feat which he believes that his suicide will accomplish. Also, as it no longer tells specific time, each tick on Quentin’s watch essentially counts down the moments of his last day of living. The continuous ticking of the watch, along with the passage of the sun, his shadow, and other time telling entities in the chapter, serves as a Memento Mori, a reminder that time is still passing even though the watch no longer has hands and that the time is leading to Quentin’s eventual death.

A watch also can symbolically represent a connection to the world of the social. The watch is a “common public measure of a social world” which reckons dates and regulates significant relations to others and is a reminder of the world he is in (Radloff 53). By stripping the watch of its hands, Quentin strips it of its relevance and relation to the present world and symbolically breaks off all the involvements to which he is held in his social life. It frees him of the responsibility to attend both class, and, most importantly, the looming wedding of Caddy.

Works Cited

Brozek, John E. "The History and Evolution of the Wristwatch." International Watch Magazine Jan. 2004: Web.

Padgett, John B. "C." Faulkner Glossary. Web.

Radloff, Bernhard. "Time and Timepieces: A Note on Quentin's Chapter in The Sound and The Fury." English Language Notes (1986): 51-57. Print.