I italicized all the sexual references in this passage that Quentin and Caddy exchange with each other*
“it wont take but a second Ill try not to hurt
all right
will you close your eyes
no like this you’ll have to push it hardertouch your hand to it
but she didn’t move her eyes were wide open looking past
my head at the sky
caddy do you remember how Dilsey fussed at you because your drawers were muddy
don’t cry
im not crying caddy
push it are you going to
do you want me to
yeah push it
touch your hand to it
don’t cry poor Quentin
but I couldn’t stop she held my head against her damp hard breast I could hear her heart going firm and slow now not hammering and the water gurgling among the willows in the dark and waves of honeysuckle coming up the air my arm and shoulder were twisted under me
what is it what you doing
her muscles gathered I sat up
its my knife I dropped it”
I chose to do my close reading on a small piece of the part when Quentin holds a knife to Caddy’s throat. Previous to the specific part I picked out, Quentin and Caddy were discussing her virginity and about all the different/poor decisions she has made with boys. Quentin then whips out a knife and holds it to Caddy’s throat and threatens to kill her along with himself. Instead of freaking out and crying, Caddy just calmly sits there, teasing and mocking her brother in a way to cut her throat, she uses a bit of reverse psychology, telling him to push it and slit her throat. There’s more then just the “murder attempt” going on this scene. Although he is holding a knife to Caddy’s throat, there are many sexual references as well. Leading the reader to believe that Quentin really just wants to have sex with his sister Caddy. Quentin also brings up the time when Dilsey yelled at her for having her underpants dirty. Which I found kind of strange because why would any brother bring that up to his sister? Caddy also tells Quentin not to cry as he is attempting to slit her throat and he shoots back with that he isn’t crying, yet Caddy keeps telling him not to cry. Finally, after a while of Quentin holding the knife to Caddy’s throat, he ends up dropping the knife.
This specific passage to me is one of the more important scenes throughout the novel and stands out the most in many ways. First, I noticed that in each line there are references to Quentin wanting to have sex with his sister, “will you close your eyes, it wont but a second, ill try not to hurt, touch your hand to it , do you want me to, push it hard, she held my head against her damp hard breast.” These couple of lines keep repeating through out the passage and hint at the fact that Quentin has a strange longing connection to his sister. He is in love with her and it all comes down to the fact that he wants to have sex with her..not slit her throat. I also noticed that within this passage there are no periods, commas, or anything else. Its all words and statements running into each other, at points, you as a reader get confused with who is actually talking. I also noticed that no letters are capitalized except for Caddy, Quentin, “I” and Dilsey. Which I thought to be weird, because the book started out with correct punctuation and in this chapter it slowly disappears. Even the names I just stated loose their capitalization as the chapter continues. Other lines that I thought to be interesting were when Quentin says “but she didn’t move her eyes were wide open looking past.” and “caddy do you remember how Dilsey fussed at you because your drawers were muddy” Through out holding a knife to his sisters throat he often stops to observe her emotions and facial expressions. He also out of nowhere brings up her muddy draws that Dilsey once yelled at her for and he mentions this in between their little argument about whether he is crying or not. Through out this passage, there are many moments of tension of whether Quentin is going to slit Caddy’s throat or have sex with her. However, in the end, he ends up dropping the knife and Caddy gets up.
In my opinion, this is just another weird/disgusting scene out of this novel. The reader is sitting there wondering, is Quentin going to kill or rape his sister and then kill himself? How could a brother let his love for his sister go anything beyond a normal brother-sister love for one another. In this scene in particular the reader actually sees how he wants to have sex with his sister just by the statements he made that I italicized. Its just disgusting to me and then to find out later in the novel that Quentin kills himself. That just symbolizes the fact that he was unhappy, with either not having Caddy in the end or it finally hitting him how sick it was to do what he did.
