P. 28, Scene 20 (1912) There was a fire in it . . .
In dating this scene as occurring on the day that Mr. Compson died, in 1912 (Stuart and Backus date this scene as Quentin's death in 1910), we have the small clue that T. P. is squatting before the fire. In June (the month of Quentin's death), there would be no fire. However, in April in Mississippi (the month of Mr. Compson's death), there is often a cold spell and a fire is needed in the early morning. In fact, Faulkner has used this idea of Easter being cold in all four sections of the novel, giving us the key for dating this section.
This scene and the next several scenes are the most complicated and confused in the entire section. They all deal with the subject of death evoked in Benjy's mind by the remembrance of Damuddy's death in 1898. Thus we have Quentin's, Mr. Compson's, and Roskus' deaths juxtaposed with one another, with little indication of which death is the subject of the scene. These scenes are also illustrations of instances when Faulkner did not use italics to indicate a change in the scene. His failure to do so implies something about the abstract nature of death in Benjy's mind. The concept of death involves comprehension of abstract principles, and Benjy is incapable of such reasoning. Therefore, Faulkner juxtaposes scenes of death one upon another without indicating which death is being remembered in order to replicate the impossibility of Benjy's distinguishing between one death and another.
