The Mansion - William Faulkner

Summary

"The Mansion" is the concluding novel in William Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, which chronicles the rise and eventual downfall of the amoral Snopes family in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. The story primarily focuses on Mink Snopes, a simple, determined, and long-suffering tenant farmer, who is released from the Parchman penitentiary after serving 38 years for murder. Throughout his incarceration, Mink nurses a burning desire for revenge against his wealthy and powerful cousin, Flem Snopes, whom he believes betrayed him and orchestrated his long sentence.

Upon his release, Mink finds a world drastically changed and struggles to navigate its complexities, but his singular focus remains killing Flem. Meanwhile, Linda Snopes Kohl, Flem's stepdaughter (though biologically the daughter of Eula Varner Snopes and McCarron), returns to Jefferson after her husband's death in the Spanish Civil War. Deafened by the war, she becomes an activist and develops her own deep-seated hatred for Flem, whom she also blames for her mother's death and her own stunted life. Linda, along with Gavin Stevens, the town's lawyer who has long been obsessed with the Snopes saga, covertly assists Mink in his relentless pursuit of Flem, providing him with a gun and facilitating the murder. The novel culminates in Mink's successful assassination of Flem, bringing an end to the Snopes's reign of quiet, amoral terror and fulfilling a long-deferred justice in Mink's eyes.

Book Sections

Section 1: Mink

This section opens with Mink Snopes's release from Parchman Penitentiary after serving 38 years for the murder of Houston. Despite the vast passage of time and the complete transformation of the world outside, Mink's single-minded purpose remains unchanged: to kill his cousin, Flem Snopes. He feels Flem betrayed him by not intervening to shorten his sentence, seeing Flem's inaction as an intentional prolongation of his suffering and an insult to the Snopes name. Mink is bewildered by the modern world—cars, electric lights, new roads—but remains steadfast in his mission. He journeys back towards Frenchman's Bend, encountering old acquaintances and new dangers, all while trying to secure a gun. He is a relic of a past era, driven by a simple, unyielding code of honor and vengeance. He eventually finds help from an old man, O.P. Armstid, who represents the dwindling vestiges of the old South that Mink understands.

Characters Involved	Characteristics	Motivations
Mink Snopes	Simple, uneducated tenant farmer; extremely patient, determined, and vengeful; deeply rooted in an archaic, personal code of honor and justice.	Revenge against Flem Snopes for perceived betrayal and for allowing him to spend 38 years in prison; to reclaim his honor and that of his family line.
Flem Snopes	Amoral, shrewd, utterly ruthless; has risen from poverty to become the most powerful and wealthy man in Jefferson, owning the bank and several businesses.	Acquisition and maintenance of wealth and power; control over others; absolute social and economic dominance.
V.K. Ratliff (the sewing-machine salesman)	Observant, philosophical, a chronicler of local gossip and history; serves as a moral commentator and Greek chorus for the Snopes saga.	To understand human nature and the social dynamics of Yoknapatawpha County; to witness and comment on the Snopes family's machinations.
O.P. Armstid	An elderly, simple farmer from Frenchman's Bend; represents the older, less corrupted rural values.	To offer aid and hospitality to a fellow man, even if a stranger, upholding traditional Southern hospitality; perhaps a sense of pity for Mink.
Wallstreet Panic Snopes	One of Mink's sons, now grown.	Avoidance of association with his criminal father; to protect his own established, respectable life.
Buddy Snopes	Another of Mink's sons.	Similar to Wallstreet Panic, seeking to distance himself from Mink and maintain his own life.

Section 2: Linda

This section shifts focus to Linda Snopes Kohl, Flem's stepdaughter. Having lived abroad in Greenwich Village and Spain, she returns to Jefferson after her husband's death in the Spanish Civil War, where she was deafened by an exploding bomb. Linda, once the illegitimate daughter of Eula Varner and McCarron, was raised as Flem's stepdaughter, but she harbors a profound hatred for Flem, whom she blames for her mother's death (Eula committed suicide to prevent Flem from exposing Linda's true parentage and possibly using it to extort leverage) and for her own miserable upbringing. She becomes a fervent advocate for social justice, organizing labor movements and civil rights groups, but also begins to subtly manipulate events to bring about Flem's demise. She lives with Gavin Stevens, who is still deeply infatuated with her and obsessed with the Snopes family's influence. Linda, now empowered and ruthless, starts to arrange for Mink to acquire a weapon and eventually helps facilitate his ultimate act of revenge. She uses her deafness as both a shield and a tool, allowing her to listen more intently to the subtle currents of human interaction and plan her revenge without suspicion.

Characters Involved	Characteristics	Motivations
Linda Snopes Kohl	Flem's stepdaughter (Eula's biological daughter); intelligent, fiercely independent, morally driven despite her ruthlessness; a survivor of personal tragedy and war; deaf; initially an idealist turned activist, later consumed by a desire for revenge against Flem.	Revenge against Flem for her mother's death and for controlling her life; a desire to cleanse Jefferson of Flem's corrupting influence; to find meaning and justice after her personal losses and disillusionment with political ideals.
Gavin Stevens	Town lawyer and district attorney; educated, intellectual, moralistic, yet often ineffectual; deeply infatuated with Linda and obsessed with understanding and combating the Snopes family.	To protect Linda; to uphold moral justice and expose the corruption of the Snopes family; to fulfill his unrequited love for Linda.

Section 3: Flem

The final section brings Mink's long-deferred revenge to fruition. After various struggles, including being picked up and released by the sheriff for vagrancy, and enduring a stay in an almshouse, Mink eventually obtains a pistol, secretly provided by Linda. He makes his way to Flem's mansion. Flem, now the president of the bank and the undisputed financial power in Jefferson, lives in quiet, cold splendor, a monument to his relentless climb. Despite his wealth, Flem remains largely emotionless and seems to anticipate his fate with a stoic indifference. Mink confronts Flem in his study and shoots him twice. The murder is surprisingly quick and clinical. After the act, Mink, feeling a profound sense of peace and a settling of cosmic injustice, returns to his family's old homestead in Frenchman's Bend, where he dies and is buried in an unmarked grave. Gavin Stevens, though horrified by the act of murder, subtly ensures that Mink's path to justice is cleared, implicitly acknowledging the deeper, unwritten laws that Flem had violated. The saga of the Snopes family, which began with their arrival in Frenchman's Bend, effectively ends with Flem's death and Mink's quiet demise, closing a dark chapter in Yoknapatawpha's history.

Literary Genre

Southern Gothic, Modernist, Revenge Tragedy, Social Commentary.

Author Facts

• William Faulkner (1897-1962): An American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi.
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Awarded in 1949 for "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel."
• Yoknapatawpha County: Most of Faulkner's novels and short stories are set in this fictional county, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi. This recurring setting allows for a complex tapestry of interconnected characters and histories.
• Literary Style: Known for his experimental narrative techniques, including stream of consciousness, multiple narrators, shifting timeframes, and dense, complex prose.
• Themes: Explored themes such as the decline of the Old South, racial injustice, class struggle, the legacy of slavery, and the complex relationship between the past and present.
• Major Works: Besides the Snopes trilogy ("The Hamlet," "The Town," "The Mansion"), his most famous works include "The Sound and the Fury," "As I Lay Dying," "Light in August," and "Absalom, Absalom!"

Morals

• Justice vs. Law: The book explores the tension between legal justice and a more primal, personal sense of justice or retribution. Mink's act, while illegal, is portrayed as the fulfillment of a long-delayed, cosmic balance.
• The Corrupting Influence of Power and Greed: Flem Snopes embodies unchecked ambition and avarice, demonstrating how the pursuit of wealth can strip an individual of all morality and empathy, ultimately leading to their destruction.
• The Persistence of the Past: Mink Snopes represents an old, unyielding code of honor that transcends modern legal systems. His long-nursed grievance highlights how the past can never truly be buried and will eventually demand reckoning.
• Social Change and Disillusionment: The novel shows a changing South, from traditional rural communities to more modern towns, and the various reactions to these changes. Characters like Linda embody disillusionment with grand political ideals and a turn towards more immediate, personal acts of vengeance.
• The Nature of Evil: Flem Snopes is not a dramatic villain but an embodiment of quiet, amoral evil, whose power lies in his ability to manipulate and exploit without visible emotion. His death is less a triumph of good over evil than a necessary, if brutal, rebalancing.

Curiosities

• The Snopes Trilogy: "The Mansion" is the third and final novel in Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, following "The Hamlet" (1940) and "The Town" (1957). These books collectively chronicle the Snopes family's insidious rise to power and influence in Yoknapatawpha County.
• Faulkner's Revisions: The Snopes saga evolved over decades. Faulkner often reused and revised characters and storylines from earlier short stories and drafts. The character of Mink Snopes and his eventual revenge plot against Flem had been brewing in Faulkner's mind for many years.
• Narrative Perspective: Like much of Faulkner's work, "The Mansion" uses multiple perspectives (primarily Mink's, Linda's, and Gavin Stevens's), often shifting seamlessly, which contributes to its complex and nuanced understanding of events.
• Faulkner's Last Major Novel: Published in 1959, "The Mansion" was one of Faulkner's later major works, completing a significant portion of his Yoknapatawpha fictional universe.
• Linda Snopes Kohl's Deafness: Linda's deafness, acquired in the Spanish Civil War, is a significant plot device. It isolates her, enhances her perceptiveness in other ways, and allows her to act with a certain detached ruthlessness, facilitating her role in Flem's demise. It also symbolizes a kind of disconnection from the "sound" of conventional morality.