Sanctuary by William Faulkner | Characters, Summary, Analysis

 Sanctuary by William Faulkner | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Faulkner introduced Temple Drake, one of his most successful characters of the fictional Yoknapatawpah county in 1931 through his fifth novel titled Sanctuary. He again wrote another novel titled Requiem for a Nun in 1951 that was a sequel to Sanctuary and continued the story of Temple Drake.

William Faulkner said that he wrote this novel to make financial gains and was not internally motivated for its story. He said, “To me, it is a cheap idea, because it was deliberately conceived to make money. ... I took a little time out, and speculated what a person in Mississippi would believe to be current trends, chose what I thought would be the right answer and invented the most horrific tale I could imagine.” However, with time, this novel by Faulkner proved to be one of his best tragic horror stories. It is one such novel in which villainy simply outweighs heroism.

Characters of Sanctuary

Temple Drake is a student at the University of Mississippi. She belongs to a rich family, the daughter of a prestigious judge. She is young, beautiful, voluptuous, and infamous for being a fast girl. A fast girl is a promiscuous girl who doesn’t indiscriminate against her sexual partners. Popeye is a criminal with a dark past. He is connected to the Memphis Underworld. He is physically impotent. He rapes Temple Drake with a corncob and then abducts her and keeps her in a room at a brothel as his sex slave. Lee Goodwin is a bootlegger, employer of Popeye, and Tommy. Lee Goodwin is wrongly accused of murdering Tommy, he is then convicted and lynched as Temple Drake gives wrong and untrue testimony against him. Tommy is a half-wit member of Lee Goodwin’s bootlegging crew. He is murdered by Popeye while trying to protect Temple Drake. Horace Benbow is a lawyer who represents Lee Goodwin's trial for Tommy’s murder. He is intelligent and well-intentioned yet fails to save Goodwin against Temple’s false testimony. He is facing a troubled marriage. Ruby Lamar is Lee Goodwin’s common-law wife, that is, she is not actually married to him but lives with him and bears his children. Nobody liked her in the city for living a sinful life with a criminal like Goodwin. Gowan Stevens is a self-centered alcoholic irresponsible man who takes Temple to the Goodwin House. He runs away abandoning Temple alone to face Popeye. Miss Reba is a brothel owner where Popeye takes and keeps Temple. Red is a petty criminal whom Popeye forces to have sex with Temple as he watches because he is impotent. Later on, he kills Red as he feels that Temple may fall in love with him. Narcissa Sartoris is Horace’s sister, she is vain and self-absorbed but helps her brother. Pensacola is Horace’s estranged wife.

Summary of Sanctuary

In May 1929, Horace Benbow leaves his home in Kinston, Mississippi after a fight with his wife and reaches Jefferson, his hometown in Yoknapatawpah county. He decides to go to his widowed sister Narcissa Sartoris’s house where she lives with her son and mother-in-law aunt Jenny. On the way to his sister’s home, he stops at Old Frenchman Homestead to drink some water. This place is occupied by Lee Goodwin, a notorious bootlegger. Horace encounters Popeye, a criminal associate of Lee, and they stare at each other. Popeye takes him to meet Lee Goodwin and other gang members. Popeye introduces Benbow as "Professor." Benbow meets Ruby Lamar, a twenty-something woman who serves as the cook. Ruby is considered to be Goodwin's wife although it is not a legal arrangement. Horace rests at the plantation and leaves for Jefferson at night as he gets a ride. He reaches Narcissa's home and they argue over him leaving his wife at Kinston. Horace meets Gowan Stevens, a local young man who has been courting Narcissa. Horace leaves his sister’s house and goes to his paternal house that has been vacant since his parents’ death.

Gowan is a rich brat belonging to a wealthy family who just returned from the University of Virginia where he got alcoholic. He has a date with Temple Drake, a student of the University of Mississippi, daughter of a reputed Judge of Jefferson. Temple Drake is infamous as a promiscuous girl. During the date, Temple and Gowan make a plan to go to Starksville the next morning by train. However, after leaving Temple at her home, Gowan engages in drinking and passes off. In the morning, he wakes up late and finds that Temple has already left. He rides by his vehicle and catches Temple at the next station and suggests that they should drive together to Starksville. Temple agrees even though it was against the University rules.

During the travel, Gowan decides to stop at Old Frenchman Place to get some alcohol. When he reaches there, he crashes his car to an old fallen tree that Popeye kept across the drive to avert police in case of a raid. Luckily, Tommy sees them and helps them recover. He takes them to the mansion where they meet Popeye and others. Lee Goodwin was away from the plantation. Temple realizes that something bad is about to happen as she is terrified by Gowan’s strange behavior and these strange people.

Temple meets Ruby, who immediately sees that the young girl does not belong at the plantation or anywhere in her world. Ruby tries to convince Temple to leave the plantation. Temple tries to convince Gowan to leave but she fails as Popeye offers more whiskey to Gowan. After the nightfall, Goodwin returns to the plantation and he gets upset after knowing that Temple and Gowan are staying for the night. He also joins Popeye, Gowan, and Van, another member of his bootlegging gang, and starts drinking. Ruby told Temple not to be with the men in the same room but she didn’t listen and chose to remain with Gowan. Van knowingly provokes Gowan to start an argument. He then moves towards Temple with a sinister plan. Gowan realizes that he needs to protect Temple and intervenes and then Van starts a fight with him and beats him. Temple gets distressed, she is fearful of bootleggers and she is worried that her family reputation will be ruined if people come to know that instead of attending her school, she is spending the night with bootleggers. She is condescending and this angers Popeye.

Gowan is taken to another room and Temple throws him on a bed. Tommy and Ruby try their best to protect Temple. In the morning, Gowan decides to run away abandoning Temple at the plantation. Tommy realizes the situation and tries to protect Temple by hiding her in a corn crib in the barn. When Popeye comes to know that Gowan has left Temple, he devises a sinister plan and starts looking for her. Soon he finds Tommy and Temple in the barn. As Tommy tries to intervene, he shoots him dead. After killing Tommy, Popeye rapes Temple using a corncob as he is impotent. After raping and enjoying her body thoroughly, he puts her in his car and drives away to Memphis, Tennesse, where he has some underworld connections.
At Jefferson, Goodwin is accused and jailed for the murder of Tommy. Horace, being a lawyer takes up the case of Goodwin and soon comes to know that Popeye murdered Tommy and abducted Temple. He tries to help Ruby Lamar and her children but her sister Narcissa refuses to help.

Meanwhile, Popeye keeps Temple in a room at a brothel owned by Miss Reba. Miss Reba is too much impressed by Popeye as she finds Temple a great catch. Popeye continues to torment Temple and he starts bringing Red, another criminal of Memphis to his room at the brothel to have sex with Temple while he watches.

One day, a co-worker of Temple’s father visits the brothel and sees Temple. He informs her father about Temple’s whereabout and Horace also gets the information after paying that man. Horace visits the brothel and meets Temple in absence of Popeye. Temple tells him her ordeal and how she is continually being raped. Horace tells her to help him save Lee Goodin by giving a testimony that Popeye had murdered Tommy. However, Temple has lost her innocence and will to return to the old respected world. When a servant of Miss Reba lets Temple leave, she decides to go to Popeye instead of meeting Horace. Popeye takes her to a house where he is living with Red. Temple tries to have furtive sex with Red but he repels her. Popeye notices that Temple might be in love with red. He decides to send Temple back to the brothel while he kills Red. However, when Miss Reba comes to know that Popeye has murdered Red, she turns against him and throws them out.

In Jefferson, Horace argues in court to save Goodwin. The next day, Temple surprisingly arrives in the court and gives false testimony against Goodwin. She says that Goodwin murdered Tommy and raped her. Horace is devastated as he loses the case and Goodwin is sentenced. The crowd gets mad and Goodwin is lynched and set ablaze by the crowd. The crowd also talks of lynching Benbow, the lawyer who tried to save such a sinister man but Benbow somehow escapes. When he reaches back to his home, he finds his wife Pensacola who visited to see him.

After some days, Popeye is caught for some other crime that he didn’t actually commit. He is sentenced and hanged. Temple returns to his father who takes her to a Sanctuary in Paris, France to recover.

Analysis of Sanctuary

The novel is a realistic horror story in which evil is shown defeating goodness. Temple is a fast girl who is not afraid of making friends with men but she isn’t a corrupt person. When Popeye abandons her, she finds that she is actually enjoying the torture and degradation she is going through. When she gets a chance to leave and save herself, she decides to go back to Popeye. Popeye is impotent and she tries to make a relationship with Red which he declines while he had sex with her in presence of Popeye. A movie by the title The Story of Temple Drake was made in 1933 and in 1961, a movie titled Sanctuary was released which included the story of its sequel Requiem of Nun too.

In 1007, the Russian movie Cargo 200 also had a similar plot as that of Sanctuary.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss other works by William Faulkner. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.