The overview of William Faulkner‟s scholarship shows certain

obvious limitations in concern to his treatment to his fictional female

characters. Critics have concentrated on the male characters the outmost.

The first limitation is that the critics have not paid the needed attention to

his treatment of the female characters in their totality. Critics have taken

up Faulkner‟s characterization but their concentration is more on the

male figures only. If at all they discuss women characters, they are seen

as figure only. If at all they discuss women characters, they are seen as

subordinate figures to their male counterparts. The second limitation is

that the bulk of Faulkner scholarship treats Faulkner‟s individual works,

in these studies also the concentration is mainly on the themes and

techniques, and the discussion on female characters is again scanty. Quite

a few studies concentrate deeply on his individual works and explain

Faulkner‟s larger themes but they, too, are specifically male oriented.

The next limitation is that a large number of articles, appearing in

various decades, also, cover individual aspects of Faulkner‟s themes and

characters, and give only partial treatment to his women characters. The

fourth limitation is that even while discussing Faulkner as moralist the

concentration is more on the male figure than the female figures. The last

limitation of Faulkner scholarship is that mostly it concentrates on his

craftsmanship; a large number of studies on Faulkner assess his stylistics

and technique. Tracing technical aspects, thematic patterns, and stylistic

devices used by him critics establish Faulkner scholarship, but are

oblivion to the central thrust of women characters. Thus Faulkner

scholarship treats women characters, either as secondary characters, or, at

the most, in relation to their male counterparts only. They have been

treated less as individuals than as common commodities; the critics have

been casual in their approach towards women characters and taken them

for granted.

This nonchalant view may lead us to conclude that women in

Faulkner are „a silent sex‟. For that a complete survey has been done as

mentioned in “Introduction” of the study to trace scope on full length

study in context to Faulkner‟s women characters.

At times, the survey let to conclude that Faulkner himself is not

projecting as pleasant pictures of women in his novels as he does in the

case of male figures. In fact, Faulkner was accused of being hostile to

women. At times, Faulkner may strike us as a misogynist.

These points led to give a kind of impulse to start working on the

women characters in Faulkner. His imaginary fictional world –

Yoknapatawpha- explains the intertexuality, so sometimes the same

women character in different types of roles in his novels, or shows

amelioration and redemption in his other text. Keeping all these points in

consideration as his indispensable women characters fascinate to study

in-depth and I could got the form under the heading Faulkner’s Treatment

of Women. It is a humble attempt; I do not claim it to the last word on the

issue.

-Dr. Vibha Manoj sharma