Jackson

Jackson was the home of several state institutions for the physically and mentally handicapped in Faulkner's time (and still today). Therefore it had a specific stigma attached to it, as a place for the insane, and came to represent an "other" territory outside the accepted social norm.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what an asylum from Faulkner's time period looked like, sent generously by the Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield, just outside Jackson. These are photos of the hospital shortly after it opened in 1935. Prior to this there was a hospital in Jackson from 1855 to 1935 that was simply called the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, and it is probably this asylum that Faulkner is referring to in TSAF and AILD. Construction began on the current campus in 1926 and MSH began treating patients in Whitfield, about 10 miles outside Jackson, in 1935. With the exception of more paved roads, more cars on the campus, and some differences in landscaping, much of it today looks similar to how it was then.









In TSAF and AILD, the characters of Benjy and Darl (respectively) are sent to Jackson because of behavior that is dangerous enough to those around them that they are deemed mentally unfit for civilized society: Benjy attacks a young girl in a state of confusion and Darl sets fire to a barn housing the decaying corpse of his mother. In these novels the word "Jackson" takes on an ominous and threatening quality reminiscent of "Siberia" in Dostoevsky's work: it is a place for the uncivilized, the mentally ill, and ultimately -- in Shakespearean terms -- the banished. The comparison to Siberia is appropriate in this context, I think, because Jackson represents a place of imprisonment and isolation as punishment for barbarous behavior. The similarities end there, however, for whereas Siberia offers a place of spiritual redemption, Jackson is a kind of limbo for those who are threatening yet misunderstood. Both Benjy and Darl are acutely aware of what is happening around them, Benjy with a one-dimensional hyper-sensitivity and Darl with an almost psychic penetration into his family's inner state. Both characters have an unparalleled understanding of their siblings, yet are tragically misunderstood themselves, and as a result are cast out of the family.

It is interesting to look at the language Faulkner uses in AILD within the context of sending Darl to Jackson, in connection with Benjy, who was castrated and most likely sent to Jackson by the end of the novel:

//And so pa said, "I reckon there aint nothing else to do," and Jewel said,// //"You want to fix him now?"// //"Fix him?" pa said.// //"Catch him and tie him up," Jewel said.// AILD (232-233)

The language itself, with words like "fix," "catch," and "tie" are indicative of castration. The literal castration for Benjy, then, becomes a figurative one for Darl, who has an uncanny insight into his sister condition as well as a sexual dynamic with her that remains hidden as the "sublimation of erotic passion," to use Eric Sundquist's phrase. The punishment of being sent to Jackson is not only geographical, as Romeo is banished from Verona, but sexually paralyzing as well. Darl can no longer engage, no matter how one-sided or deeply internal, in this shared eroticism with his sister, whose legs are "that lever which moves the world." (AILD, 104). In addition, the words "catch" and especially "tie" imply the very thing that both families lack: a bond strong enough to hold them together. Cash, Jewel, and their father speak of Darl as if he is an animal, like a dog who has bitten a stranger and needs to be sent to a shelter. In Benjy's case he is treated like a dog who has to be neutered. It is unsettling how quickly the Bundren family rids itself of Darl as soon as his behavior threatens the corpse of Addie and the horses needed to complete their journey. The tragicomic irony here is that the cremation of Addie would have rendered the entire journey unnecessary, a journey which results in the exploitation and corruption of all of the children.

–Herbert Plummer