Chatelaine

1.) The mistress of a castle 2.) The mistress of an elegant or fashionable household

From the French, //châtelaine//

The word "chatelaine" is used in //Absalom, Absalom!// in a description Jason Compson gives to Quentin about a change in Ellen's personality after she becomes Thomas Sutpin's wife. In typical Faulknerian form, the description is extensive and attempts to chronicle Ellen's shift from a conservative, frugal preacher's daughter to a wealthy socialite, "as though she had succeeded at last in evacuating not only the puritan heritage but reality itself...escaped at last into a world of pure illusion in which, safe from any harm, she moved, lived, from attitude to attitude against her background of __chatelaine__ to the largest, wife to the wealthiest, mother of the most fortunate" (54).

Works Cited

"chatelaine." //dictionary.com//. 21 Nov, 2013. Web.

Faulkner, William. //Absalom, Absalom!: The Corrected Text.// New York: Vintage, 1990. Print.