Abstract
The paper examines the presence and form of the human spirit within selected characters in the works of William Faulkner. Faulkner, in his 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, concluded that man is immortal because he has a soul, a spirit; capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance, and that the duty of the writer and the poet is to write about these things. Many previous readers, however, had viewed Faulkner’s writings as dealing primarily with grotesque characters and immoral themes. Characters possessing the human spirit reveal the following characteristics of the life force: surprising energy, competitive joy, peak experiences and resistance to adversity, survival in the face of death, courageous activity in emergency situations, and living out a life-purpose. I have also incorporated the work of John Teske, suggesting a social dimension of the human spirit extending through several generations. A biographical sketch of Faulkner is provided, including literary influences on Faulkner and his use of experimental structure. Characters analyzed are selected arbitrarily to mirror and reflect humanity as a whole in that they contain both human strengths and flaws in varying amounts. This dissertation also discusses the human spirit in terms of its appearance within the four social classes described in Faulkner’s work. The human spirit’s role in relation to nature, war, machines, and life after death is also studied. Thus study assesses Faulkner’s great theme, the human heart in conflict with itself, his valuation of love over rationalism, man’s struggle with good and evil and his need to overcome evil by acknowledgement, struggle, discipline, and effort. Conclusions generated by this study were: (1) from his earliest publications, Faulkner has written about a positive human spirit. This was not a new idea emanating from the Nobel Prize speech. (2) For Faulkner, the presence of the human spirit is a human trait, found to a greater or lesser degree in all individuals. (3) Social class is unrelated to the presence of the human spirit in Faulkner. (4) The life force can be present in good or evil men. The other more developed qualities of the human spirit -- patience, endurance, love, concern with a social legacy – occur only in men making moral choices; and (5) In Faulkner, love must take priority over rationalism in people conveying a strong human spirit.