A Fallen Sutpen and a Fallen World: The Concept of the Fall in Absalom, Absalom!

Thomas Sutpen's descent from the mountains in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936), a fall from the mountain paradise to the evils of slaveholding society, has long been considered comparable to the biblical Fall of Man. Surprisingly, however, the social, moral, and political overtones of Sutpen's Fall have been critically overlooked to a certain extent. This article explores Sutpen's descent from the mountains as well as the innocence that informs his design in order to showcase the full extent of Faulkner's metaphor of the Fall. I contend that the examination of Sutpen's Fall from a moral and sociological standpoint establishes an ideologically profound context in which the ethical and socioeconomic implications of Thomas Sutpen's story can be thoroughly investigated. Specifically, the article identifies Sutpen's commitment to his self-interest at the expense of others as his major transgression. For this reason, it maintains that the implications of Sutpen's story transcend the literary boundaries of the novel's nineteenth century timeframe and also comment insightfully on the moral and socioeconomic situation of the Great Depression, the devastating period within which Absalom, Absalom! was authored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]