Chapter 1 Summary

The cultural and historical setting of the novel is the post-civil war Deep South.

The main character, which narrates most of the story, is Quentin Compson, a young man who is preparing to leave to study at Harvard. Quentin's future lies in the North, at Harvard University, but the story in which he becomes involved seems to bind him more firmly to his present in the defeated South, which he describes as purgatorial (from Purgatory= a level between Heaven and Hell where sinners wait to be forgiven for their crimes). The first chapter introduces us to an old lady, Miss Rosa Coldfield, who has given Quentin the task of telling her dramatic family history.

At the beginning of the chapter, on a hot September afternoon in 1909, Quentin is seated in the dark and stuffy atmosphere of Rosa Coldfield's office. She begins to tell...