Introduction
You often struggle to confront systemic evil and the quiet cowardice that allows corruption to destroy the vulnerable. William Faulkner exposes this grim reality in his dark novel Sanctuary, set across the decaying landscape of Mississippi.
A corrupting web of violence and moral cowardice destroys the vulnerable across the Yoknapatawpha landscape.
The book traces a devastating descent from the ruined Old Frenchman place to a Memphis brothel, a courtroom in Jefferson, and a final silence in Paris.
- How do reckless choices trap the innocent in cycles of abuse?
- What happens when community leaders prefer convenient lies over difficult truths?
- Can justice survive in a society built on fear and complicity?
1. The Old Frenchman Place and Popeye
The desolate Old Frenchman place harbors illicit whiskey operations and chilling figures of pure mechanism.
Desolate Ruins
You encounter a landscape defined by the Delta, an approximate size of five thousand square miles described as flat and foul. Within this setting stands the Old Frenchman place.
Once a pre-Civil War plantation house, it has degenerated into a gutted ruin surrounded by jungle-like grounds. Locals have spent fifty years pulling down the plantation house for firewood. Others occasionally dig there for rumored buried gold.
Lee Goodwin and Ruby Lamar live there with an old blind and deaf man. They operate an illegal whiskey enterprise backed by Popeye from Memphis.
Popeye's Arrival
Popeye possesses a chilling, mechanical, and lifeless appearance. His face resembles a wax doll set too near a fire, with a bloodless color and eyes like rubber knobs. His entire demeanor evokes a vicious, depthless quality.
Popeye unhesitatingly shoots Tommy's harmless old dog simply because it sniffs his heels.
2. Gowan Stevens and Temple Drake
Reckless collegiate drinking and predatory social games lead Gowan and Temple directly into danger.
Gowan Stevens ruins his planned outing due to excessive drinking driven by a false sense of collegiate sophistication. He believes his time at the University of Virginia taught him how to drink like a gentleman. He drinks raw whiskey and whiskey sours excessively, leading to a severe blackout.
Gowan gets violently drunk at a local confectionery-lunchroom, passes out in a railway station, and misses the early morning special train. The special train arrived at Taylor at six-thirty. He crossed the square to reach Taylor at forty miles an hour.
Temple's Facade
Temple flirts dangerously with town boys while maintaining a cold, predatory facade at college functions. She engages with town boys who hold deep resentment toward university students. She revels in the attention while remaining entirely detached and calculating.
Temple attends the Letter Club dances and formal balls, slipping away into cars with town boys and leaving a trail of broken bottles and frayed social tensions.
The Drunken Drive
Gowan's reckless driving and psychological unraveling culminate in a crash near the Old Frenchman place. Driving with a hangover and drinking hair-oil or whiskey substitutes out of desperation, Gowan speeds down eroded country roads and drives straight into a fallen tree.
Gowan drove into the tree at twenty miles an hour. Gowan and Temple reached the wooded road at two o'clock that afternoon.
Gowan crashes his long roadster into a tree blocking the road, throwing Temple into a panic and landing them directly at the doorstep of Goodwin's hideout.
3. Crisis at the Moonshiners Hideout
As Gowan flees in shame, Ruby hides Temple in the barn while the moonshiners clash.
Ruby's Protection
Recognizing the danger Temple faces from Van and the others, Ruby guides her barefoot through the dark to the safety of the barn's cottonseed-hulls. Fifty yards is the distance from the house to the barn where Ruby hides Temple.
Ruby takes Temple away from the house and settles her in a grain-filled room in the barn to keep her safe.
Gowan's Flight
Gowan recovers slightly at the spring, feels overwhelmed by the physical and psychological agony of his defeat, and decides to hire a car to escape without confronting the others.
Gowan goes to Tull's two miles away, engages a car, and leaves the area without rescuing Temple personally. Two miles away is where the nearest car is located at Tull's.
4. The Murder of Tommy
Temple Awakens
Temple wakes up hidden in the cottonseed-hulls of the old barn and desperately attempts to escape the desolate property. Seventeen is Temple's age, mentioned via her hard slumber. Nine o'clock is the time on Temple's watch hidden in her stocking.
Temple wakes stiff and covered in blood-stained clothes, terrified of a rat in the loft. She slips out, encounters the blind man, tries to find food in the silent house, and runs into the woods in a panic before hiding.
Temple finds her dress and hat in a room, puts on her shoes, and meets Goodwin's woman in the kitchen who gives her torn catalog pages for toilet paper.
Popeye murders Tommy in cold blood inside the barn while Temple is trapped inside the crib.
Death in the Barn
Popeye enters the barn from the rear and climbs into the loft. After Tommy lets him into the crib area, Popeye shoots Tommy quietly with a small pistol.
Tommy sits outside the crib watching the house with his eyes glowing, unaware of Popeye's approach before being shot.
5. Horace Benbow and Goodwin's Arrest
Horace Benbow leaves his wife in Kinston and retreats to his hometown of Jefferson, staying with his sister Narcissa and Miss Jenny. Horace abandons his home after realizing he cannot stand smelling shrimp or living with Belle. His sister Narcissa disapproves of his abrupt departure and unorthodox behavior.
Horace abandons his domestic routine to shelter Ruby and support Goodwin in his cell.
Leaving Kinston
Horace stays at Miss Jenny's house for two days, discussing his frustration and recounting his time spent with Goodwin and Tommy. Ten years is the duration Horace has been buying shrimp and the time his town house has been unoccupied. Seven years is the age gap between Horace and his sister.
The Accused Moonshiner
Goodwin is jailed alongside a singing negro murderer, and Horace decides to take Ruby and her child into his vacant family home. Goodwin denies the murder from his cell while a neighboring prisoner sings spirituals. Horace brings Ruby and her sick baby to his empty house to protect her, defying his sister.
The negro murderer sings about heaven and being tired while local citizens and prisoners gather around the jail fence to listen.
6. Memphis Brothel and Temple's Ordeal
Popeye transports Temple to Miss Reba's brothel where she endures profound psychological dissociation.
The Journey South
Popeye drives Temple Drake swiftly to Memphis, showing cold indifference to her continuous physical trauma and psychological distress. During the car ride, Temple experiences continuous bleeding and hysteria. Popeye silences her screams by force, compels her to fix her appearance in a mirror, and brings her to a house in Memphis. Popeye maintains a speed of forty miles an hour even in sand.
Popeye stops at a filling station in Dumfries while Temple hides behind a barrel in terror of being recognized by a schoolboy.
Miss Reba's House
Popeye places Temple in the brothel run by Miss Reba in Memphis, a house populated by unruly pets and characterized by a sordid atmosphere. Miss Reba welcomes Temple, boasting of the prominent men, police captains, and commissioners who have frequented her establishment. She attempts to comfort Temple regarding her physical condition while managing her asthma and her two woolly white dogs named Mr. Binford and Miss Reba. Mr. Binford served as landlord for eleven years before dying about two years prior.
Miss Reba recounts how the police commissioner once crashed a door open while dancing the Highland fling completely naked.
Confined to a room in the brothel, Temple drifts into obsessive mental loops about time, her schoolmates, and social conversations. Temple fixes her attention on a flowered china clock that indicates half-past ten. She recalls conversations with school friends about dating, virginity, and the nature of temptation, trying to convince herself that she is still safe at school. The flowered china clock shows half-past ten o'clock.
Temple remembers her schoolmates discussing the snake in the Garden of Eden and how girls are viewed by boys.
7. Small-Town Hypocrisy and Political Corruption
Small-town morality and church committees enforce rigid social ostracism against the vulnerable while politicians manipulate these prejudices for personal gain.
Sanctified Ostracism
You witness how sanctified streets hide profound cruelty. A committee of Baptist church ladies forces Lee Goodwin's woman out of the hotel for political and public effect. Local figures exploit such scandals to advance their standing while maintaining an outward facade of propriety.
After church ladies intervene, the hotel proprietor evicts Goodwin's woman, forcing her to take shelter in a ramshackle house on the edge of town.
Snopes's Schemes
Cla'ence Snopes embodies petty political corruption, leveraging his family's vast network and exchanging information for personal leverage. Senator Snopes uses his political position and underworld connections to gather information that he can sell to interested parties. He treats human misery and legal crises as mere commodities for negotiation.
Ten years ago, Horace remembers Snopes as a hulking, dull youth. Snopes tracks down Horace Benbow on a train and later visits him at night to offer, for a price, information regarding Temple Drake's whereabouts.
8. The Grotto and Red's Death
Temple's desperate obsession with Red at the Grotto leads directly to a chaotic and drunken gangster funeral.
The Nightclub
Temple forces a brief, desperate tryst with Red at the club, unaware that she is walking into a trap set by Popeye. You watch Temple rush into a private room with Red, pressing herself against him and begging him to hurry, while Popeye waits outside with his associates.
Temple begs Red to run away with her and escape Popeye. Red dismisses her urgency and tells her to wait until he gives her a sign, ultimately returning to his game. Red even dismisses Popeye as a dopey bastard without realizing the immediate danger.
The Funeral Carnival
A gangster's funeral is deliberately turned into a chaotic, drunken carnival rather than a solemn event. Gene the bootlegger provides endless free whiskey from a punch bowl, causing the mourners to abandon any sense of grief, quarrel over expenses, and eventually riot when someone complains about the cost.
At Red's funeral at the bootlegger's place, the mourners drink heavily from a punch bowl replenished from suitcases, shout down the music, and eventually cause the coffin to tip over, spilling the corpse onto a wreath. The procession involves six Packard touring cars following the hearse. The hearse travels down the asphalt road at forty miles an hour, increasing its speed to forty-five and then fifty.
9. The Circuit Court Trial
Manipulated by the prosecution, Temple testifies in court to condemn Lee Goodwin to death.
Horace Benbow enters the Circuit Court of Yoknapatawpha county with confidence in an acquittal. The defense strategy shatters completely when unexpected witnesses arrive.
The Prosecution's Witness
Temple Drake appears at the opening of the Circuit Court of Yoknapatawpha county. A smart Memphis lawyer represents her interests.
At eighteen, Temple wears a black hat, a platinum bag, and a pale tan coat. She stares fixedly at the back of the room during the proceedings.
Guilty Verdict
The District Attorney uses leading questions to extract parrotlike answers from Temple. He forces her to point to Goodwin and identify the corn-cob and the crib.
Horace Benbow raises objections throughout the questioning. The judge mostly overrules or dismisses them.
Judge Drake arrives at the courtroom after the testimony concludes. He leads Temple away from the building.
10. Lynching and Retribution
An angry mob burns Goodwin alive while Popeye and Temple meet their tragic conclusions.
The Fire at the Jail
A crowd gathers outside the jail after the jury reaches a verdict. Horace witnesses the horrifying scene at the vacant lot where a man carrying a five-gallon coal oil can is engulfed in flames.
The mob sets fire to the jail and burns Lee Goodwin alive along with his defender. The crowd even suggests throwing Horace into the fire as well.
Epilogue in Paris
Popeye is arrested in Birmingham for killing an Alabama policeman on June 17, a crime he did not commit. He gives the turnkey one hundred dollars for a shaving-kit and cigarettes, receiving forty-eight dollars in change.
In his cell, Popeye counts down the days until his execution by scratching marks on the base of the wall with burned matches. The jury deliberates for eight minutes before finding Popeye guilty, and he accepts the verdict with total apathy.
The novel concludes with Temple and her father in Paris.
Temple yawns behind her hand in the Luxembourg Gardens pavilion while a band plays Massenet, Scriabine, and Berlioz. Her face in the compact mirrors a sullen and discontented sadness under the autumn rain.
10 Key Ideas
- The desolate Old Frenchman place harbors illicit whiskey operations and chilling figures of pure mechanism.
- Reckless collegiate drinking and predatory social games lead Gowan and Temple directly into danger.
- As Gowan flees in shame, Ruby hides Temple in the barn while the moonshiners clash.
- Popeye murders Tommy in cold blood inside the barn while Temple is trapped inside the crib.
- Horace abandons his domestic routine to shelter Ruby and support Goodwin in his cell.
- Popeye transports Temple to Miss Reba's brothel where she endures profound psychological dissociation.
- Small-town morality and church committees enforce rigid social ostracism against the vulnerable while politicians manipulate these prejudices for personal gain.
- Temple's desperate obsession with Red at the Grotto leads directly to a chaotic and drunken gangster funeral.
- Manipulated by the prosecution, Temple testifies in court to condemn Lee Goodwin to death.
- An angry mob burns Goodwin alive while Popeye and Temple meet their tragic conclusions.