Angelica+Diggs+-+Feminist+Read+of+Sanctuary

Feminist Read of //Sanctuary// by William Faulkner Angelica Diggs

The majority of //Sanctuary// focuses around Temple Drake. Temple is raped, she witnesses murder, is exposed to prostitution, and experiences a disturbing relationship with Popeye. Despite all this tragedy and upheaval of a more “easy” life that she is accustomed to, Temple learns more then anything what it means to be a woman, specifically in relation to men. It is not just her body, but also her mind that is damaged through her rape. We discussed a lot in class about female characters losing their innocence too soon because adulthood is forced on them, or in Temple’s case sexuality and rape is forced on her. The name of where Temple is raped for the first time is the “crib.” This space Temple goes to hide has a name the reader does not necessarily think of as an area in a barn. The word crib, for most people, implies where a child sleeps, a baby’s space. In the “crib” Temple’s ignorance and childlike attitudes are taken from her, she looses any kind of control she believed she had in the crib. In Scott Yarbrough’s article “The Dark Lady: Temple Drake As Femme Fatale” he takes the loss of innocence even further. She is not just loosing innocence, but because this is an act of rape, her female identity becomes at stake. She is experiencing a world so unlike the carefree world she was accustomed to, in a world of protection, a world where the male is the protector. But now Temple experiences the male as the controller. Rape causes Temple to experience female identity full force. Temple’s awareness of reality shifts back and forth, almost making the reader feel as though bits of information are distorted. During a conversation with Horace about the “images” she experiences during her rape we find clues to what Temple really discovers about herself and society, especially about patriarchy: I was thinking about if I just was a boy and then I tried to make myself into one by thinking it...So I’d think about praying to be changed into a boy...Then I’d think maybe I couldn’t tell it and I’d get ready to look...I’d think they were laughing at me because all the time his hand was going inside the top of my knickers and I hadn’t changed into a boy yet. (216-219 Faulkner) Temple “prays” for a biological difference in her body during a moment of rape. A man avoids rape simply because of his sex. As long as Temple is a woman she can be a rape victim and is in this moment because of her sex. Rape triggers Temple’s awareness of how one’s biological sex places power in society. “In Temple’s sheltered world, a boy would be someone considered safe from rape. Her need for power and strength is further shown by her desire for a spiked French chastity belt...she not only wants to be protected but wants to strike back at her assailants” (Yarbrough 3). These images she has during rape expresses not only her detachment from the horrible memory, but also her awareness of a “man’s world.” Yarbrough brings up a good point about wanting to “strike back at her assailant,” because we do see Temple hide a gun under her bed, and we know she intends to use it on Popeye. The problem with Temple’s drive to strike back is that although we know of her drive to, she does not act on it. Temple is too far under Popeye’s control to take any action herself and chooses to submit to his power. Temple wants to transform herself, whether it is into a boy, a forty year old teacher, an old man, or by wearing a chastity belt. All of these images denote visions or objects of power. “She is attempting to gain the control and power resident in the patriarchy by becoming the very image of a patriarch” (Yarbrough 3). Patriarchy is rule by the father, or by man. In America we participate daily in this system subconsciously and perhaps will always do so. Although Temple’s rape destroys her self-image, even more so the world she thought she knew, this rape shows her a power in America she was unknown to. The reader is confronted with these realizations Temple experiences, but Temple’s actions to escape from Popeye’s control becomes more dominant then more thoughts, or even rebellion, against what she discovers. Although we see Temple’s attempts in escape, whether it be by herself or by trying to get the help of others, she regresses back to Popeye, and continues to mentally regress back to him when she lies for him in court, although she is physically no longer with him. Therefore this underlying issue of male power and society is barely addressed much further with Temple’s character. Temple finally is able to leave Popeye, lies in court about what happens, and returns back home to her father and the life she is use to. The course of action must be reflecting Faulkner’s view of patriarchy is some way, perhaps that there is no changing this sex driven power that has corrupted America. Temple’s vision of “the embrace of the season of rain and death” (Faulkner 317) at the end of the novel not only implies the death of her innocence but the death of what she believed to be her female identity and independence. The other women in the novel should not be forgotten as well. Although Temple is the focus, characters such as Ruby, Narcissa, and Miss Reba portray images of female identity and living in a man’s world as well. These female characters may not be dominant because they are not the ones whose lives flip drastically from innocence to a complete corruption and reality shock, but these women all possess different forms of female identity because of their experience in the society of a small town. All of these women do share the commonality of being widows, but the individual stereotypes or actions of these women are what comment even further on patriarchy and society in America. Such female portrayals they touch on are; prostitution, the socially acceptable southern female, and the woman who experiences male brutality.

Works Cited: //Sanctuary// By William Faulkner Yarbrough, Scott. "The Dark Lady: Temple Drake As Femme Fatale." //Southern LiteraryJournal// 31.2 (1999). //EBSCOhost//. Web. 28 Mar.2010. .