THE POLITICS OF VIOLENCE IN WILLIAM FAULKNER’S SANCTUARY

Violence is an essential element in William Faulkner’s fictional world. Faulkner uses violence as an analytical perspective that connects his characters to their environment and it is categorized into many types; interpersonal, physical, sexual, racial...etc. The aim of the present paper is to chart the role of violence within the perspective of the gender identity and its politics in Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary. In this paper, the characters are the focus of violence and their being is targeted whether in a sexual way or any other means. Sanctuary in this paper is examined from the gender perspective, shedding light on the breaches that targeted the identity mainly represented in the protagonist Temple Drake. The paper explored the suffering of the society through the acts of rape, killing, dehumanization and the ramifications of these acts in this work.


Introduction
Violence is the most imperialistic tool that is sometimes used to tear off and at other times used to govern, but in both cases it is renounced and rejected in all societies. Violence is really a worldly problem that encircles most communities from a very long time in the past and up to the present time. It is partly an innate instinct that exists from the beginning of humanity when Adam's son, Cain, killed his brother Abel. But, also humanity and nature are considered as good players in inflicting violence and exhibiting it in this environment.
Sexual violence is one of the types of violence which is not free from physical violence but concomitant to it, whenever it happens. This type may take many forms, like rape, harassment, abuse, incest, molestation and even castration. Sexual violence is defined as "an attempt to coerce, threaten, or force the commission of sexual acts against an individual's will" (Renzetti & Edleson 2002, p. 18). Sexual violence and sexual abuse are not different, hence, the latter which is sometimes named molestation is referred to as the forcing of undesired sexual behaviour by one person upon another, when that force falls short of being as sexual assault.
Women suffer from such acts of sexual violence and especially rape in the American community. It is a calamity that befalls at women wherever and whenever they are unsecured. Many writers, politicians and theorists denied and renounced such acts in societies because of the catastrophic consequences that follow the act and these consequences are different from society to society and one religion to another.

The Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia defines rape as;
Unlawful sexual activity, usually sexual intercourse, carried out forcibly or under threat of injury and against the will of the victim. Though traditionally limited to attacks on women by men, the definition of rape has been broadened to cover same-sex attacks and attacks against those who, because of mental illness, intoxication, or other reasons, are incapable of valid consent (rape).
Hence, rape is always referred to as a sexual assault and sometimes interpreted as an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with another person without the latter's consent.
Sexual violence is not limited to rape, but it includes other types like castration and incest. Simply, castration means removing one's genitals for a certain reason like a punishment for some atrocities or crimes while incest refers to any sexual intercourse between relatives, like brother and sister or even cousins. Sexual violence varies to include many types and forms but the reference here is inclusive only to the types pertinent to the study.

American South, a Scene of Violence
The American south was contaminated hugely by the Civil War (1861-1865) which gave rise to many epidemics in the American southern community in the Ante-bellum and Post-bellum periods. The Civil War, says Joseph Glatthaar, broke out in 1861-1865 between the northern states known as 'the union' and the southern states ' the confederacy' which led to the defeat of the south (2001, pp. 2-20). Some of the most terrible scenes of the American south were the scenes of cruelty, near starvation, rape and even incest. These acts were played out in the south and all the people, particularly the blacks, have suffered miserably. Williamson mentions that "the records of Tippah and Lafayette counties often carried charges of incest" (1993, p. 387). The female gender suffered a lot and especially the black (Negress). Rape, for example, was considered as a defining characteristic of the time and widely spread in the south. All these are reflected in the fictions of most southern writers like Faulkner, Kate Chopin, Flannery O'Conner, Eudora Welty and others. The southern society was a patriarchal society in which women must be submissive and quiet obedient. Rape was considered as the gravest matter that scared all black and even white women in the south. The enslaved woman in particular, had to comply with all her master's wishes, leaving behind her honour and being to be exploited. Harriet Jacobs, a writer, tells a story of a fugitive slave girl raped by her master, saying that the girl: At age fourteen had fallen prey to her mistress's new husband. When the girl's mother tried to intervene, he had her jailed and threatened to sell her unless her daughter yielded to his advances (Cobb 2005, p. 29).
The rape scenes are embodied in the southern fiction in order to expose the southern culture with its strict gender ideology and women who adhered to it as well. Sexual exploitation also targeted white women in the southern society. Beside the racist hysteria that led southerners to assault black females, the white females have their share of this attack too. Many reported events of rape, intimidation, and brutalization of white women are mentioned in the history of the south. The south was a notoriously violent place but most of that violence was directed by the whites against the blacks.

Sanctuary, a Novel of Violence
Sanctuary (SAN) develops more socially and culturally oriented forms of violence, mostly sexual like rape, homosexuality, castration, incest and other non-sexual, but sexually motivated acts as murder and abuse. SAN is Faulkner's sixth novel, written before As I Lay Dying but published later in (1931) because of Faulkner's many readings and revising of the original text. Faulkner describes the novel saying "it is a cheap idea, because it was deliberately conceived to make money" (Faulkner and Meriwether 1966, p. 176). This cheap idea made a revolution in Faulkner's career because of its shocking themes. It met a great commercial success but a very harsh criticism at the beginning of its publication. SAN is a Yoknapatawpha (Faulkner's fictional city) novel because most of the events take place in Jefferson, the capital of Yoknapatawpha. The criterion to classify a novel as a Yoknapatawpha one or not, is the setting of the novel. If it is set in Jefferson, Memphis and other Yoknapatawpha towns, then it can be described as a Yoknapatawpha novel.
SAN challenges the rules of the time with its daring portrayal of themes. Faulkner's reputation became at stake with publishing SAN because of the obscene sexuality it unravels and the way it is treated. It hinges at incidents of rape that is why the critic Diane Robert claims that "Sanctuary is about [the] rape" (Sielk 2009, p. 87) of a young girl which develops many other acts of violence as castration, homosexuality, murder and incest.
Because of Faulkner's wide reading of William Shakespeare, some critics assume that he dwells heavily on Shakespearean drama in deriving his titles. Michael Millgate claims that there are "many points of similarity between the novel and Shakespeare's play [Measure for Measure]: the same counterpointing of tragedy and comedy, the same presentation of 'low' world which constantly ravels the 'high' world by which it is morally condemned" (1966, pp. 119-120). The similarity extends to the settings which include brothel, prison and court. Millgate adds that, Locios' role in the play parallels that of Senator Clarence Snope and mistress Overdone to Miss Reba (1966, p. 12

Rape as a Destructive Means in Sanctuary
SAN is a novel of sexual violence, notably rape that shapes the entire structure of the novel. All other violent acts are either consequences to, or motives for this rape. The main characters Popeye and Temple Drake are the two posts on which the novel hinges. Like all other novels of Faulkner, this novel has a villain, Popeye who is a "sadist, a rapist, and impotent voyeur" (Bloom 2008, p. 89 The toxic male violence which SAN seeks targets the damaged part of this battle, so, to speak of gender identity who is Temple. Temple Drake, "long-legged, thin-armed, with high small buttocks […] a small childish figure no longer quite a child not yet quite a woman" (SAN 73) is the school girl living in Jackson. Her father is Judge Drake whom she continually mentions as the "Judge Drake of Jackson" (SAN 44). She has four brothers. Temple is a "little doll-faces slut" (SAN 49) as Ruby describes her. She is a blonde long-legged girl of seventeen years old. Her naivety extends to her care for food, school, and the ball game she intends to watch, "I'm hungry. I haven't eaten all day, thinking of the school, the lighted windows" all these thoughts come across her mind while she is blocked in the Old Frenchman's place when her rape approaches. Ruby Lamar, the other woman character, the common-law wife of Lee Goodwin, describes her saying "I know your sort […] you'll slip out at night with kids, but just let a man come alone" (SAN 47).
Temple becomes a target in this novel that is why there is a critical consensus over the pervasiveness of gender violence and the assertiveness of the patriarchal role in this novel. The critic, Diane Roberts claims that violence in SAN is a gender issue (Binggeli 2009, p.105) that is a violence which is sexual, adopted by one gender, male, targeting another, female. This male initiation into the nature of evil, says Cleanth Brooks, is experienced in its most shattering and disillusioning form and this is why SAN is Faulkner's bitterest novel (1963, p. 13). Temple's being targeted is what the novel is about. Her rape initiates violence with many types, not only sexual. But, like Faulkner's presentation of other violent acts and in most of his novels, rape is not defined literally and publicly, rather, it is presented in an implicit way, but the ramifications of this act are starkly shown in a way that reveals violence clearly. The vicious rape of Temple, with a corncob, is not revealed until the last pages of the novel in the trial scene, until then, the reader realizes the nature of the act of rape that Temple was exposed to in the beginning. It became a Faulkner's style to hide the real act and show the consequences. In this case: Sanctuary underlines that rape cannot be named, just as the line between innocence and evil cannot be located. Moreover, by metonymically linking rape into incestuous desire, the novel interrogates the relation of nature and culture, savagery and civilization. While both incest and rape remain nameless throughout the text, rape becomes Faulkner's master trope of transgression. And rape's very resistance to representation inspires the reader to imagine the deleted transgressive acts. (Sielk 2009, p.87) This story of rape is uncovered through more than one perspective, Horace Benbow who reveals the act, then Temple who gives her own impression to Horace and Miss Reba when asked to make her testimony in the court and finally the trial scene which reveals the viciousness and violence of Temple's rape.
Preliminary steps for Temple's rape began with her encounter with Gowan Stevens. He is the Virginia university student who is proud to learn how to behave and drink like a gentleman. He has a car and encounters Temple whom he admires. Gowan with a group drinking in a club runs out of liquor so he decides to find a place where good liquor is sold. After encountering Temple and reading her name inscribed on the lavatory wall, Gowan becomes drunk and intends to rape her "'Girl name [. Here, Gowan insults her and shows his dissatisfaction with her considering him as a naive rube. He convinces her of going with him and giving her ride to Starkville because she cannot afford a ticket in the train as she has only two dollars. Gowan drives her and decides to make a stop in his way to buy some liquor from Lee Goodwin, to which Temple opposes. He tries to convince her of stopping: "it won't take a minute to run up to Goodwin's and get a bottle. It won't take ten minutes. I said I'd get you to Starkville before the train does, and I will. Don't you believe me?" (SAN P.32) On their way, Temple sees a tree blocking the road at the time Gowan was driving fast going "straight ahead, drove into the tree […] the car struck, bounded back, then drove into the tree again and turned on to its side" (SAN 33). All of a sudden, appears Tommy and Popeye who lead Gowan and Temple to the Frenchman's Bend where the suffering begins. Temple and Gowan, says the critic Olga Vickery, generate the violence which overwhelms them (1964, p.106) and this violence is provoked and spread as far as they reached the Frenchman's place.
When Temple first reaches this place, she becomes a sexual target at this first moment and she does not hesitate in showing her fear "she passed Tommy and clutched Gowan's arm. Gowan, I'm scared" (SAN P.40). Popoeye's cruel intention is obvious toward Temple since she reached their place and he confirms this with his comment to Gowan addressing Temple "make your whore lay off me, jack" (SAN P.1). Popeye considers her a whore, like all other women he knows and shows his plans to rape her. Ruby Lamar, the common-law wife of Lee Goodwin, instructs Temple to leave the place and shows her in advance the expected consequences of her existence in such a place and among such people. Temple fails to leave the place because there is no way of transportation and the time is late.
In her discussion with Ruby, Temple shows her concern about the danger of being among such people and whether she will be safe there. She asks Ruby "things like that [rape] don't happen. Do they" (SAN 46). Her fears are shown and she regrets coming there blaming Gowan ""It was Gowan. I begged him. We had already missed the ball game, but I begged him if he'd just get me to Starkville before the special started back," (SAN P.40) that is, she regrets being there because she is scared and she will miss the ball game in Starkville.
The first violent act in this novel is mentioned in the Ruby-Temple conversation when Ruby witnessed the murder of her lover Frank. Ruby's father shot Frank dead in front of his daughter's eyes. Temple's first molestation is incurred by Van, one of the persons in the Frenchman's place. Van forces Temple to sit "right on my lap here, Van said" to which Goodwin retorts "let her go" (SAN 53). Later, Van attempts to convince her to go out for a walk with him and when his fight with Gowan, who tries to protect Temple, lead them to where Temple lies, Van rips her coat open and encourages Popeye to rape her.
The simple minded Tommy objects to his companions' behaviours and comments "why don't you fellers quit pesterin' that gal" (SAN 55) and attempts to comfort Temple ironically concerning her forthcoming rape by repeating "hit [rape] won't hurt you none, All you got to do is lay down" (SAN 80). At this time, Tommy has appointed himself as a self-guard for Temple and tries to protect her and also shows his refusal to what is happening to her. Temple asks him to be close to the door of the crib where she spends the night and Tommy assures her "I'll fix hit [it] so caint nobody git to you. I'll be right hyer" (SAN 80) assuring her that she will be safe under his protection. But, Tommy is nothing in comparison with Popeye the tough gangster who plans to rape Temple and will execute his plan over Tommy's body.
After feeling unsecure in the Frenchman's place, Temple is ushered by Ruby to the crib in which she spends the night. Her undesirable existence crystallizes ideas of rape in Popeye's mind, so he plans to fulfil his desire no matter what it takes. He goes to the crib where Tommy guards Temple's room and violently shoots Tommy upon the latter's resistance for not letting him hurt Temple. Now, the crib is empty and without any protection for Temple and nobody exists except the blind and deaf Pap, Goodwin's father. Here Popeye comes to rape Temple and this incident is narrated by the omniscient third person narrator in which Popeye is depicted as he approaches Temple: He turned and looked at her. He waggled the pistol slightly and put it back in his coat, then he walked toward her. Moving, he made no sound at all; the released door yawned and clapped against the jamb, but it made no sound either; it was as though sound and silence had become inverted. She could hear silence in a thick rustling as he moved toward her through it[…] she began to say Something is going to happen to me. She was saying it to the old man with the yellow clots for eyes. "Something is happening to me!" [Italics in original] she screamed at him, sitting in his chair in the sunlight, his hands crossed on the top of the stick. "I told you it was!" she screamed, voiding the words like hot silent bubbles into the bright silence about them until he turned his head and the two phlegm-clots above her where she lay tossing and thrashing on the rough, sunny boards. "I told you! I told you all the time!". (SAN 82) This extract shows the awaited violence embodied by Popeye. When he entered the crib he waved his pistol which he considers as a symbol of his potency, because he is biologically impotent so he wants to make this up with other things like the pistol, the car, cigarettes…etc. He waved his pistol to send Temple a message of warning to keep quiet and behave as he wishes. The absence of sounds and noise "reinforce[s] the scene nightmare quality" (Arnold 99) and strengthens the horrific mood of the time she spends while the rape act takes place. While the execution of the act of rape, she screams "something is happening to me" as if she is calling for help and calling whom? -The deaf and blind Pap? Pap's presence here is useless because he can do nothing and Temple is uselessly addressing him because he can neither see nor hear what happens around. His existence is only symbolical. He symbolizes the official authorities who are powerless and weak to protect the people around and this is what Faulkner criticizes. He is likened to Judge Drake, Temple's father, who is weak and powerless to assume his role of taking full responsibility in protecting his daughter. Quite the reverse, he just like Pap, who fails, and therefore, symbolizing the failure of the authoritative system in Jackson.
This rape incident is violent and tormenting as it shows clearly the suffering of Temple. But what more violent and harsh are the consequences and the ramifications of this act. Before narrating Temple's state after her rape, Faulkner gives a break returning to Tommy's murder and the consequent events, injecting other violent acts. If not sexual, they are consequences of a sexual act. Tommy is murdered by Popeye but the whole blame is thrown on Goodwin who is the only man at the crime scene, for Popeye takes Temple and heads to Memphis. There is a long interval of events that separate Temple's rape from the consequences resulted from the rape. That is, Faulkner informs the readers of Temple's suffering and her whereabouts, five chapters later.
Lee Goodwin is locked up in jail because of the supposed murder of Tommy and he stays there for not telling the truth about the real criminal 'Popeye,' afraid that the latter may kill him even when he lies in prison. Horace Benbow, the lawyer, shoulders the responsibility of prosecuting on Goodwin's behalf and tries his best to prove his innocence, but Goodwin refuses to declare the truth of Popeye's double crime which others know nothing about. This refusal keeps him imprisoned and leads him to death later. One of the injected scenes of stark violence is revealed while Goodwin lies in prison. The omniscient author declares that: There was a negro murderer in the jail, who had killed his wife; slashed her throat with a razor so that, her whole head tossing further and further backward from the bloody regurgitation of her bubbling throat, she ran out the cabin door and for six or seven steps up the quiet moonlit lane. He would lean in the window in the evening and sing.
(SAN 91) The critic Sabine Seilk, comments on the scene saying "nowhere in the text is violence as unconcealed and straightforward as in this decapitation scene; nowhere else is murder a mere peccadillo" (2009, p.103). In spite of the fact that this gratuitous scene seems unrelated to the events of the novel, it is an important one. Technically speaking, this scene is called a parallel scene which echoes the real substitution of the novel's incidents to a degree in evoking violence. Also, it adds a lot to the violent world of the novel by making violence a shared experience. The nature of this scene, the tool of killing 'razor', the slaying act, the image of blood sprinkling while she still walks are all images of terrible violence. This scene carries a message in its inward thoughts that proves the low stature of women in such a patriarchal society and highly shows the presentation of gender identity which, as such Doreen Fowler highlights that this scene suggests that woman is culturally and socially rather than biologically, subordinated and controlled (1986, p.419).
In the meantime, Faulkner moves back in his narration to Temple and Popeye after explaining Goodwin's case and his destiny. Popeye and Temple constitute the centre of violence in the novel and "the volatile relationship between [them]", says the critic Ted Atkins, "is the locus of violence in Sanctuary culminating in the novel's infamous episode" (126) that is the rape of Temple.
Many gruesome scenes are revealed in the aftermath of Temple's rape which stresses the suffering of Temple and the horror of the deed. After killing Tommy and raping her, Popeye decides to leave the Old Frenchman's place and heads to a whorehouse in Memphis ran by Miss Reba, where Temple's many other rapes occur. In the way to this town, Temple suffers the violence of the rape and its results.
When Temple reaches Miss Reba's brothel and settles there, she is exposed to another sexual attack by Popeye who shows his carelessness and indifference to her suffering, bleeding and miserable state. Her resistance to his acts are traumatically clear because "when he put his hand on her she began to whimper no,' no,' " (SAN 127).
Temple thinks of many ways to protect herself from Popeye's violent attacks but all that she thinks about are fantasies and imaginations. She thinks of metamorphosis idea that could change her gender from female to male in order to secure her protection because her gender is targeted. Temple thinks or fantasizes of being a boy "I was looking at my legs and I'd try to make like I was a boy" (SAN 172) so as to stop this violation.
The difference between male and female gender is the problem that Temple thinks about. She thinks that women are persecuted and that is why she thinks if she becomes male, this persecution will not go any further. This sexual difference is what breeds violence. The critic Linda Dunleavy claims that SAN insists that a socially enacted sexual difference produces and perpetuates violence against women (1996, p.171). That is, a difference between male and female which makes the female an easy target as what happens in Temple's case and her justified fantasies about turning into a boy once, and to a man in another time.
Temple's other fantasy of protecting herself is having an iron belt which kings used to have in medieval times to secure their wives' chastity while they are away from home. Temple dreams of getting this belt to stop Popeye's numerous attacks. She narrates: Then I thought about fastening myself up some way. There was a girl went abroad one summer that told me about a kind of iron belt in a museum a king or something used to lock the queen up in when he had to go away, and I thought if I just had that (SAN 173).
None of these thoughts work and she will be exposed to Popeye's rape once again. This time, Temple's first person narration reveals the rape act which she suffers to Horace Benbow. Because of his shouldering Goodwin's issue and prosecution for his sake, Benbow sets out collecting proofs that prove Goodwin's innocence. What he should do first, is finding Temple who carries the original correct story of Tommy's murder. After many searching attempts, he realizes that Temple exists in a whorehouse in Memphis and manages to convince Miss Reba of talking to Temple. He first meets her and knows the fact of her rape as she narrates: Temple returns after this incident to her world of fantasies and imagines herself, to be a man to gain protection thinking that her being the "other gender" is what makes her a target. Then she narrates "I ought to be a man. So I was an old man, with a long white beard, and then the little black man got littler and littler and I was saying now. You see now. I'm a man now" (SAN 175).
This act of rape that Temple went through is narrated to Horace Benbow and it is in Temple's first person narration which reflects, subjectively, her tormenting hours of suffering from rape.
It is an acknowledged fact that Popeye is impotent and he uses certain objects to rape his victim. In his first rape of Temple he uses a cob and sometimes he symbolically uses his pistol as a way of threatening and gives it a phallic purpose. In her last days with Popeye, Temple is exposed to a rape which is not more different than the ones before. But this time Popeye provides his underling and assistant, Red. Popeye's viciousness extends to enforce Red to copulate with Temple while he voyeuristically watches them. In this case, Red as a raping object, just like the cob, is employed to satisfy Popeye's desires. At this time, Temple mocks Popeye and insults him saying "He's [Red] a better man than you are!" (SAN P.184) She judges the physical power in both Popeye and Red favouring the latter for the sake of humiliation and insult of Popeye to which the latter replies abusing her "His hand came over her mouth, hard, nails going into her flesh[…] whipping her head this way and that" (SAN P.185) which provokes her "whimper, moaning behind his hand" (SAN P.185). She humiliates him because of his abuse and asks him "Don't you wish you could do what he can do? Don't you wish he was the one watching us instead of you?" (SAN P.185) These words prove that Popeye provides a raping substitute, like the cob, and also proves his act of voyeurism which is, likewise, a violent sexual behaviour.
Temple develops a love relationship with Red, may be not for the sake of love or passion but for getting rid of Popeye, hoping that Red may have the ability of taking her away from this place and provides her with a new likeable atmosphere. She provides Red with information that Popeye "came here to kill [him]" (SAN P.191) and begs Red to take her and leave the place. When Popeye uncovers the plans of Red and Temple and feels that Red has no purpose anymore, he kills him when his companions negotiate to "put the son of a bitch [Red] in a coffin" (SAN 197) and leave to the club. Like most of Faulkner's violent acts, Red's murder is not revealed directly. It is foreshadowed by Temple's remark about Popeye's intention to kill him. Then, Faulkner refers to "people entered steadily, the men in the dark suits of decorous restraints" (SAN 193). These words refer to Red's death because those men in black suits are present in Red's funeral that is why they wear black suits. And there is another reference to Red's death when somebody says "There is a dead man in the bier" (SAN 194) who is definitely Red. Now it is clear but implicit that Popeye has killed Red and it is another act of violence to be added to Popeye's criminal record.
Since Tommy's murder at the beginning of the novel, Faulkner develops two overlapping plots. Every now and then, he moves from one plot to another. The most important is Temple's many rapes and her suffering which is not going to end until the trial scene and the other plot is Lee Goodwin's case and his being accused of Tommy's murder and later of Temple's rape. Faulkner manoeuvres between these two narratives. Goodwin's case is hopeless and he himself cannot tell the truth that Popeye is the murderer and the rapist. Temple is summoned to the court in Goodwin's trail in order to testify to save Goodwin from his wrong conviction. But Temple perjures, testifying that it is Goodwin who killed Tommy and raped her with a corn cob. Cleanth Brooks claims that "one theory which has won a considerable measure of acceptance holds that Temple's perjury is the result of pressure from her family" (1963, p. 6). She does so to keep herself and her family away from being involved with the villainous Popeye aiming to preserve the family reputation untarnished. This perjury sends the innocent Goodwin to a vicious death. So, it is Temple's father whose presence reminds her to lie about Goodwin and keep the case simple without involving the fugitive Popeye who may complicate the case.
After declaring Goodwin a murderer and rapist, "the loafers, the countrymen, the blackguard boys and youths" (SAN P.232) begin to gather preparing themselves to lynch Goodwin. This crowd waited long expecting a chance to break into the prison and attack Goodwin and lynch him. Horace, the defeated lawyer, "could see the glare; against it the jail loomed in stark and savage silhouette" (SAN P.235). One of the mobs announces later that "from the central mass of fire, there came no sound at all" (SAN P.235) that is no sound from Goodwin who is burnt to death. In the original text of SAN, the Vintage Books edition and Modern Library edition, there are hints of castration and homosexual rape of Goodwin before his lynching. Godwin is lynched for a crime he has not committed. It is right that he undertakes part of the responsibility of Temple's rape by Popeye to which he did not act to prevent it, but this does not mean that he is the violator. This act of lynching can be categorized as a physical act of violence in spite of the fact that it involves some sexual act, but originally it is a consequence of a sexual act. If Temple was not violated sexually, nothing of this would have happened. Thus, sexual violence is the motivation and the breeder of other acts of violence in this novel.
Popeye is arrested for the murder of a policeman in Alabama which he has not committed. According to this charge, he is tried and sentenced to death. The scene of his execution is described as: "while they adjusted the rope, dragging it over Popeye's sleek, oiled head [… he] began to jerk his neck forward in little jerks" (SAN P.252) then he falls dead. Popeye's death sounds like a poetic justice that Faulkner finally does by ending Popeye's life, although for a crime he does not commit.

Incest, an aspect of Sexual Violence
Beside rape, there is another important element which evokes sexual violence and that is incest. Incest is an issue that endangered the American society and many charges of incest were presented in Mississippi as mentioned in previous chapters. So, this novel exhibits many acts of incest mainly for the sake of shock and evocation of sheer violence.
The critic Kathleen M. Scheel emphasises Temple's fraternal incestuous relationship at home. Scheel contends that, Temple is a victim of repressed incest whose subsequent behaviour is determined to a large extent by that trauma. Temple's experience of rape is what determines her incestuous fantasies. She associates the feeble minded and blind Pap with her father who, as Scheel claims, ignores the incestuous behaviours of her brothers at home (1997, p. 39). Similarities of the setting where Pap sits to that of Judge Drake and the physical appearance of both, who both have white hair, strengthens Temple's unconscious confusion of those two persons. Thus, when Temple shouts "I told you! I told you all the time" (SAN 82), Scheel claims that she is addressing Pap who stands still and does nothing to protect her. Likewise, she unconsciously addresses those words to her father who remains blind to the threat of incest at home (1997, p.39).
The plot of incest revolving around Temple can be seen from another perspective. This time it is about Popeye who resembles her father and it eventually evokes paternal incest. It is clear from Popeye's name "Pop': father; 'eye'= vision" who is considered "a 'Daddy' to Temple" (Forter, 2000, p. 116). This consideration makes Popeye take the place of a father to Temple and as she herself confirms when "she leaned forward, putting her hand on his arm. 'Popeye', she said; 'Daddy' " (184) and in another scene "she whispered 'Daddy. Daddy' " (SAN P.188) Temple's addressing Popeye a Daddy, confirms the idea of incest because she is violated by "the paternal hand that symbolizes the licensed tranquillity of her existence. Popeye's hand [which violated her] is her father's hand. As far as Popeye is 'Daddy', Judge Drake is Popeye" (Forter, 2000, p. 117 When he gazes at this photograph "Horace acknowledges his stepdaughter's potential for a lascivious vice" (Wilson 1994, p. 441) and this happens before Horace's meeting with Temple. Touches of incest are apparent in this extract because Horace fantasizes himself holding his stepdaughter's face in his hand while he is sexually aroused just like her. After meeting Temple, Horace confuses her with Little Belle and likens himself to Popeye, thus being a rapist of his own daughter.
Then, daughters as Temple and Little Belle, are left not only unprotected by the father but vulnerable to him for fathers in SAN seem to have incestuous attractions to their daughters. Clarke contends that Horace drools over his stepdaughter little Belle and Popeye, Temple's daddy, derives sexual pleasure from watching Temple and Red copulate. So, those fathers do fail as fathers because of the horrific incestuous mood that they incorporate.

Conclusion
The images and scenes of sexual violence are various in this novel. SAN begins with sexual molestation and harassment when Temple first reaches the Old Frenchman's place, Ruby's declaration of her previous life of prostitution, Temple's several gratuitous rapes, homosexual rape and castration of Goodwin, instances of incest and even the voyeuristic element. All these acts contribute in making a base on which SAN can be categorized as a novel of violence and notably sexual violence. Through this employed sexual violence, says Sielk, Faulkner aims intentionally to make it familiar to southern culture (2009, p. 100) as a way of condemnation and criticism of the society. Temple Drake's story won much critical appraisal and is cited as a controversial matter. But after all, Temple is held responsible for Tommy's murder, Red's death and Goodwin's lynching. She is also responsible for her own corruption. Temple is to blame for these misdeeds but Faulkner intentionally throws some blame on the discrepancy between social classes, the aristocratic Drakes and others like the people of the Old Frenchman's place. This fracture contributes to evoke the turbulent life that exists in the community. If there is no such fracture and discrepancy between social classes, if there was harmony and abridgement, none of such acts of violence might happen in the community. So, the chaotic life that Popeye, his friends and Temple lead, refer to the life of Faulkner's people which he highly condemns. Faulkner managed to reflect the norms of his society in a way that shows his dissatisfaction.
This novel reflects the vanishing southern values like; justice, loyalty, truth, that have gone with the wind because of the violence inherent in this society. Temple Drake, the heroine of the novel, represents the failure of a life style which produces the violence that shapes the world of this novel. The violence that dominates this novel is mainly sexual, like, rape, incest, and castration that were prevalent in post-civil war American south. Faulkner revealed these catastrophic acts in an indirect way sometimes, showing his harsh criticism and condemnation for such phenomena. Popeye, the enactor of violence, like Jason in The Sound and the Fury, constitutes a reason for the moral loss of Temple on one hand, and on the other hand, the unjustified lynching of Lee Goodwin. Faulkner criticizes the values of such society which prefigures violence as the ultimate mode of life as though he is trying to say that better evidence is the death of innocent people. SAN defines Faulkner in the public mind as a writer of violent, sensational, semi-pornographic novels (Arnold xiv). This novel is violent and Malcolm Cowley has the right to call it "the most violent novel of Faulkner's works" (1945, p. 355) because of its frankness in treating themes of violence, and top listed with sexual acts of rape and incest. The daring presentation of these visual scenes adds a touch of sensationalism and a semi-pornographic element to the novel. The stark presentation of rape, the open description of the rape incident and the way in which Temple is portrayed, are beyond debating, semi-pornographic. All these elements together, help to categorize the novel as a novel of sexual violence.