Chapter 8 Summary

The chapter follows Quentin and Shreve's efforts to explain the story. Quentin knows, through his grandfather's connection to Sutpen, that the plantation owner in the West Indies tricked Sutpen into marrying his daughter (Bon's mother) by saying she was Spanish.

Shreve and Quentin invent a character in order to explain the actions of Bon, and to add detail to the relationship between Bon and Henry. They imagine a lawyer, who handled the settlement with which Sutpen has paid off his first wife. The lawyer has been lying to Bon's embittered mother in order to prolong his contract. He hoped to manipulate the parties into a situation from which he can profit. He has been keeping a log of Sutpen's new life, of his wife and children, and of the potential value of a new settlement. The Lawyer arranged for Bon to attend the...