[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-149327-en":3,"doc-seo-149327-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},149327,1099513958607,"Jiven","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002390cf8733938c?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778829742770036399",2,"Literature","Macbeth’s Idiot - Bridget M. Bartlett","William Faulkner’s appropriation of a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth for The Sound and The Fury’s title is treated as a historically meaningful act rather than only a familiar example of literary borrowing. By historicizing the word “idiot” as early audiences understood it, the analysis foregrounds class-inflected dimensions in the Macbeth quotation and shows how these class dynamics illuminate The Sound and The Fury’s central themes. Attention to overlapping early modern meanings of class and intelligence also clarifies how race and class interact across Faulkner’s fiction and in studies of Shakespearean appropriation.","MACBETH’S IDIOT AND FAULKNER’S COMPSONS  \nBridget M. Bartlett,  \nUniversity of Mississippi  \nAbstract  \nWilliam Faulkner’s use of a line from Macbeth for the title of The Sound and The Fury is a well-known instance of Shakespearean appropriation, but in this note I uncover the unrecognized appropriation of that line as it signifies when historicized. Specifically, I highlight the class dimensions that appear prominent in the Macbeth line when we understand the word “idiot” as the play’s first audiences did, and I demonstrate how Faulkner’s appropriation of the line as it signified in Jacobean English informs and reflects the central themes of The Sound and The Fury. Because early modern understandings of class as a largely hereditary category overlapped significantly with contemporary lineal constructions of race, Faulkner’s appropriation of the historicized line with its emphasis on class is especially significant for the interactions of race and class that animate Faulkner’s fiction as well as studies of appropriative uses of Shakespeare.  \n•  \nWilliam Faulkner’s use of a line from Macbeth for the title of The Sound and The Fury is a well-known instance of Shakespearean appropriation, but in this note I uncover the unrecognized appropriation of that line as it signifies when historicized. Specifically, I highlight the class dimensions that appear prominent in the Macbeth line when we understand the word “idiot” as the play’s first audiences did, and I demonstrate how Faulkner’s appropriation of the line as it signified in Jacobean English informs and reflects the central themes of The Sound and The Fury. Because early modern understandings of class as a largely hereditary category overlapped significantly with contemporary lineal constructions of race, Faulkner’s appropriation of the historicized line with its emphasis on class is especially significant for the interactions of race and class that animate Faulkner’s fiction as well as studies of appropriative uses of Shakespeare.  \nOn one level, characterizing the novel as “a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing”(Shakespeare n.d.a, 5.5.26–28) is almost certainly the author’s joke at his own expense. In relation to the content of the novel, the reason for the title seems to be fully evident: the first of its four chapters is narrated by the intellectually disabled Compson brother, Benjy. To grasp these two explanations ofthe  \nB&L Vol. 14 No. 2 Macbeth’s Idiot – Bridget M. Bartlett  \nnovel’s title one need only understand the word “idiot” as it was meant in Faulkner’s time and since: a person judged to have very low intelligence.This clinical twentieth-century meaning of the word derives from its use as a precise legal term for someone who was found to lack the mental abilities necessary for being responsible for one’s own affairs and property (Goodey 2011) . In Shakespeare’s time, however, that was a secondary, somewhat technical meaning (Goodey 2011). When we consider Faulkner’s engagement with the line in light of its usual early modern meaning, the novel’s title becomes a clear encapsulation of The Sound and The Fury as a story about the decline of the formerly prominent Compsons of Yoknapatawpha County.  \nIn early modern England, as C. F. Goodey explains inA History of Intelligence and “Intellectual Disability”: The Shaping of Psychology in Early Modern Europe (2011),“idiot” most often denoted an ignorant and rustic common person. This sense of the word did overlap with its meaning as a legal term designating someone as lacking the cognitive abilities necessary for participation in public life. Both meanings implied that socioeconomic class and mental capacity were commensurate, with only those of the upper classes competent to wield sociopolitical influence or own land. Parsing these overlapping meanings, Goodey explains that the latter, more overtly class-based definition remained preeminent in Shakespeare’s time and is, infact, the sens","cbCaipcc5zfmQGby","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipcc5zfmQGby","pdf",79730,7,1,4,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n## Shakespearean appropriation and historicized meaning of “idiot”\n## Class, intelligence, and early modern social order\n## Decline of the Compsons and interactions of race and class","[{\"question\":\"How does the article interpret Faulkner’s use of a Macbeth line in The Sound and The Fury?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that the line’s appropriation becomes especially significant when “idiot” is understood in its early modern, historicized sense. This reframes the title as signaling themes central to the novel rather than only serving as a literary joke.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the article say “idiot” meant in Shakespeare’s time?\",\"answer\":\"In the article’s account of early modern usage, “idiot” often denoted an ignorant, rustic common person. This meaning overlaps with a legal sense of cognitive incapacity, but the class-based definition remains prominent in Shakespeare’s context.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article connect the title to themes of decline in Faulkner’s novel?\",\"answer\":\"By treating The Sound and The Fury as “tales told by idiots,” the article links the Compsons’ social and economic collapse to the historically inflected meanings of idiocy. It also relates the family’s decline to changing class relations and to interactions between race and class.\"}]","Macbeth’s Idiot - Bridget M. 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This reframes the title as signaling themes central to the novel rather than only serving as a literary joke.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What does the article say “idiot” meant in Shakespeare’s time?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"In the article’s account of early modern usage, “idiot” often denoted an ignorant, rustic common person. This meaning overlaps with a legal sense of cognitive incapacity, but the class-based definition remains prominent in Shakespeare’s context.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How does the article connect the title to themes of decline in Faulkner’s novel?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"By treating The Sound and The Fury as “tales told by idiots,” the article links the Compsons’ social and economic collapse to the historically inflected meanings of idiocy. It also relates the family’s decline to changing class relations and to interactions between race and class.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,113,117,122,127,130,134],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":30,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]