Virginity

The theme of virginity, or more specifically, the loss of virginity, is rampantly portrayed through female characters by William Faulkner in his novels, //The Sound and the Fury// and //As I Lay Dying.// He shows the fall from grace of Caddy Compson and Dewey Dell Bundren as they lose their virginity and thereby, worth and value in the eyes of men and society.
 * Virginity **

**Traditional Southern Notions of Virginity** In the 1930s, during the time of William Faulkner’s writing, it was a common concept and practice, especially in the South, of placing value on a female according to if she kept her virginity. The South, with its dominating Christian patriarchal culture, placed emphasis on sex out of wedlock being one of the great evils and females who had sex out of wedlock were immediately branded as whores. Respectable white women of God were expected not to have sexual desires and were to stand as asexual symbols of purity. In his novels, Faulkner attempts to contend this concept. While “ Southern lore has it that the belle is a privileged white girl…fragile, dewy, flirtatious but sexually innocent, bright but not deep,” Faulkner’s female characters are much more complex, and he gives voice to the issues surrounding the upheld ideal of virginity.[1]

**Countering Notions of Virginity** The radical notion that the ideal of virginity is an unrealistic illusion of society was one that was first being voiced in the beginning of the 20th century, along with the politicization for the legalization of birth control. Mina Loy, a female writer who intended to be “the most original woman of her generation” wrote the __Feminist Manifesto__ in the 1910s, in which she speaks about the need for the destruction of virginity. She calls out for women to “sacrifice their virtue,” virtue being virginity and a sense of “physical purity.” She claims that the female sex “as protection against the man made bogey of virtue – which is the principle instrument of her subjection, would be the __unconditional__ surgical __destruction__ __of__ __virginity__.”[2] The promise of virginity and it being the net worth of a female’s existence is the premise that the idea, “marriage as legal prostitution” is built upon. Loy and other radical feminists of the time believed the destruction in the cultural ideal of virginity will lead to the destruction of perverse sexism. Through Caddie Compson and Dewey Dell Bundren, Faulkner represents how the illusive virtue of virginity leads to the demise of these women, and how the concept of virginity is a deceptive and cunning way of taking control and power of human bodies.

In //The Sound and the Fury//, Caddie Compson becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and consequently brings shame upon the Compson family as she has publicly displayed, via the growing bump in her stomach, her sinful loss of virginity. In effect, Quentin Compson, the oldest brother, becomes immensely burdened by and obsessed with the idea of restoring the family name. In his narrative we see Quentin’s obsession with purity, he dislikes roses because they are colored and not pure white, “not virgins like dogwood, milkweed.” Furthermore, Quentin grapples directly with the concept of virginity and how the burden is put on females. He recalls a conversation with his father: “in the South, you are ashamed to be a virgin. Boys. Men. They lie about it. Because it means less to women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women.” The narrative reveals the unfair disposition of placing so much worth on the virginity of women while men like Jason, who regularly has sex with a prostitute out of wedlock, get away with their reputation and guilt untainted.  In //As I Lay Dying//, the female character, Dewey Dell is portrayed as the traditional Southern young woman who is literally “dewy and not deep.” She is careless about her loss of virginity and leaves it up to frivolous fate. Through her attempts to rid of the baby in town, Faulkner reveals the modernity of contraceptives and how traditionally, no such thing existed and the loss of your virginity very much determined your bleak fate for the rest of your life.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Virginity in //The Sound and the Fury// **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Virginity in //As I Lay Dying// **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Light in August //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">opens up with a young girl – who seems jaded yet hopeful, experienced yet innocent. The girl after being orphaned by her parents comes to the countryside to live with her much older brother. Here, she is given the responsibility of taking care of all six of her brother and sister in law’s children. In her life where she has been denoted the role of a mother figure, she learns to relish in her youth by sneaking out the window at night to meet with a boy. Soon enough, she loses her virginity to him and becomes pregnant. When this change is noticed by her brother, he immediately calls her a “whore” and Lena reveals the idea that once a man has taken a girl’s virginity, he owes her financial stability. She repeats to the brother, “though the man had departed six months ago, he’s going to send for me. He said he would send for me.” (LIA, 6)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Virginity in //Light in August// **

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[1] Charles Reagan Wilson & William Ferris, __Roles of Women__ in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, The University of North Carolina Press (1989). <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[2] Mina Loy, ­__Feminist Manifesto__ in //The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy// (1914).