As William Faulkner said in an interview, The Sound and the Fury is a four-times-told tale. Faulkner presents the Compson family through the eyes of Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Dilsey respectively. I think Quentin’s section conveys the central meaning of the novel. Quentin’s order is based on a traditional, idealized Southern code of honor and conduct, and he has a conscious subjective voice and tends toward abstract thought. On the day he commits suicide, his major concerns are with time and Caddy’s loss of virginity. And he remembers his father’s views that virginity is an invention of men and it means less to women, and all human experience is absurd and therefore Caddy’s sin and Quentin’s grief are both absurd. If this is so, then all of Quentin’s values are meaningless. Quentin can find no answers for some of his father’s negative and cynical views about life. His view leads Quentin to a dark, deep despair. Quentin tries to defend Caddy’s virginity to the last and restore order to his life but his futile attempts result in failure. He sees that suicide is the only means to stop time and escape from the absurdities of life. In ending his last day, he thinks of death and water images related to cleansing his childhood. To him, death by water is a final purgation to isolate Caddy and him from the loud world. I conclude that Quentin’s drama is that of “a poor player” and his soliloquy articulates the mood of despair in “Life’s but a walking shadow” from Macbeth.