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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Mr. Compson's Account:
The various story-tellers in Absalom, Absalom! serve as unreliable narrators. Each knows only part of the larger story of Henry Sutpen's murder of Charles Bon, and each has their own biases and prejudices. Mr. Compson, for example, believes that he understands the nature of Henry and Charles's relationship and the origin of their quarrel, though later accounts call his assurance into question:
“Because Henry loved Bon. He repudiated blood birthright and material security for his sake, for the sake of this man who was at least an intending bigamist even if not an out and out blackguard, and on whose dead body four years later Judith was to find the photograph of the other woman and the child. So much so that he (Henry) could give his father the lie about a statement which he must have realised that his father could not and would not have made without foundation and proof. Yet he did it [...]
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—A Walking Shadow :
Rosa's engagement to Thomas Sutpen is abruptly called off when he rudely demands that she bear him a son before he will commit to marrying her. Rosa, however, uses multiple metaphors when explaining to Quentin that she was not angry at Sutpen, despite what others in the community believe:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I had nothing to forgive; I had not lost him because I never owned him: a certain segment of rotten mud walked into my life, spoke that to me which I had never heard before and never shall again, and then walked out; that was all [...] I mean that he was not owned by anyone or anything in this world, had never been, would never be [...] because he was not articulated in this world.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Murder:
Much of the novel is presented in the form of flashbacks by those, like General Compson and Rosa, who have some direct memory of the events surrounding the murders of Charles Bon and Thomas Sutpen. In one pivotal flashback, Rosa recounts her memory of Charles's death:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And how I traversed those same twelve miles once more after the two years since Ellen died [...] knowing nothing, able to learn nothing save this: a shot heard, faint and far away and even direction and source indeterminate, by two women, two young women alone in a rotting house [...] then feet, in the hall and then on the stairs, running, hurrying, the feet of a man: and Judith with just time to snatch up the unfinished dress and hold it before her as the door burst open upon her brother, the wild murderer [...]
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