Sanctuary: Horace Benbow's conciousness
... novel Horace has moved into what Lacan calls the symbolic stage, in which his feelings for his sister force him to deal with the Oedipal complex, or incest taboo. In theory, the use and power of language usually quenches this desire. According to Madan Sarup, "Lacan feels that the apprenticeship of language is an alienation for the psyche."5 From his parents the child hears the "no" that does not allow him to continue having sexual fantasies for his mother. In turn, Horace hears the "no" of his consciousness when his recognition of his incestuous feelings toward Narcissa and Little Belle causes him to vomit. Horace begins to realize his feelings after he encounters the imaginary stage, in which he struggles between duality and identification. Lacan suggests that the individual in this stage, usually infancy, tries to connect outside experiences with an inner idea of self, usually before acquiring speech. The imaginary stage, or the mirror stage, occurs when the infant separates himself from others around him and so disassociates his mirror reflection from others. Using this theory, we can say that Horace identifies Popeye as a mirror, reflecting and acting out his own desires. Finally, Horace's psyche struggles in Lacan's real stage when it confronts and identifies with the various sounds in the novel. This real stage includes the previous two stages, except that in addition, according to Lacan, there can be no language or verbalization of desire. Instead, sounds represent these emotions and desires: Temple's primal wailing moans and the "furious roar of the shucks" (p. 333). These sounds verbalize and announce for Horace what he cannot verbalize with language. Therefore, he exists in a dream-like world dominated by the magnified sounds and noises that scream of his libidinal desires. The sounds of breathing and walking are prevalent and unavoidable in Sanctuary. Many characters have a distinctive manner of breathing and walking that identifies them and their connection to sex. For example, Reba, the owner of the Memphis whorehouse, has trouble breathing and therefore makes loud, gasping sounds. Her heavy breathing connects her to her heavy involvement with sex, since she does operate a whorehouse. Tommy whistles through his teeth when he breathes, and Ruby curses Temple in "whispers" and "sighs" (p. 235). It would seem that those who breathe the loudest have the strongest connection with and power over the libidinal drive, while those who do not have no power over their own sexual identity. The same analysis identifies the sexual connection in the way certain characters walk. The sounds of Tommy's shuffling feet are similar to his faint whisper of breath. Temple hears pounding footsteps both on the outside of the corncrib and in the whorehouse. Benbow hears the footsteps and the breathing sounds when he visits both places. The sounds of these footsteps contribute to Horace's and Temple's panic and fear. Popeye stomps his feet when he walks, and Reba lumbers loudly up the steps of her whorehouse. In the case of these two characters, the magnitude of the sounds of their walking designates them as beings of sexual power. The loud noises from their bodies correspond to the prominent roles they play in the sexual aspect of this novel. These sounds ring loudly in Horace's ears, and in his consciousness because they recall the picture of Temple's rape on the mattress made of corn shucks. When Temple sits on the mattress, it emits a "faint dry whisper of shucks" (p. 227). But when Horace visualizes his own desires, and the actual thrusting action that takes place during Temple's rape, he hears the "faint, furious uproar of the shucks" (p. 333). The sound of the shuck mattress is a whisper like faint breath, but it can also be a loud, stomping "furious" sound. This rhythmical, pounding sound presents the most vivid picture of Temple's rape, and therefore Benbow associates the rape with the loud beating sound. Faulkner uses these sounds to allow the reader to hear the knocking in Benbow's consciousness that alerts him to his own sexual desire. He becomes aware of his desire for Little Belle, but wishes to repress and forget it. The pounding and whispery noises work on his mind, recalling for him the nasty rape of Temple. The methodical and sexual movements these sounds recreate speak of a sexual drive that is almost uncontrollable. These sounds work much like the sounds in Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart," in which the guilty protagonist hears the beating of a dead man's heart so loudly in his own head that he confesses to murdering the man. In the beginning of Poe's story, the protagonist hears the heart only faintly, like a whisper, but in the end, the pounding becomes so fierce that the narrator admits his guilt. Similarly, Benbow hears these noises and realizes that Popeye's desire for Temple mirrors his own desire for Little Belle. The rhythmical noises that represent the sexual act contrast with another set of recurring sounds. These sounds are high-pitched noises, like those that come from the train whistles, bells, and bird songs. These highpitched noises correspond to the high wailing sound that both Temple and Popeye make when confronted by the prospect of sex. Temple makes hers in a panic; Popeye's is made in the manner of orgasm. These wailings represent a libidinal vocalization of a primal urge; ultimately they represent Benbow's id desires. When first confronted by Popeye, Temple produces an "eeeeeeeee' sound (p. 248), a sound that she continues to make when she is with Popeye. Several times in the car to Memphis, and at the bar where Popeye shoots Red, Temple opens her mouth dumbly and wails a quivery and eerie, desolate sound. The noises remind the reader of Benjy's in The Sound and the Fury. A libidinal desire dominates both Temple and Benjy, and it takes over their other senses. Both characters have their uncontrollable wail gratified: Benjy holds a cushion, and Temple drinks large quantities of liquor. Also, Popeye whinnies over the copulating couple of Red and Temple in a high-pitched and barbaric vocalization of sex, power, and libidinal drive. Horace always notices high-pitched noises that recall to the reader's ear, and to his, these sexual calls: train whistles (Little Belle's new beau works on trains), lone birds singing in the swamps, the bells at the whorehouse, and the screams at the fire. The scene in which the jail and Goodwin burn in the fire creates a climax of sounds that brings all these concepts together. Horace's consciousness booms with the sound of the fire, the sound of gasoline, the screams and explosion of a man carrying a gasoline tank, and a multitude of accusatory voices threatening to throw him into the fire. But the focus of this scene, the fire itself, makes no sound to Horace's ears. As he watches an innocent man burn alive, he closes out the sound of the fire that "swirl [s] upward unabated, as though it were...