Dark House Jennifer Baldwin College

In his novel Light in August, Faulkner presents one of his most biting critiques of religious and social intolerance in early twentieth-century society. Faulkner uses the fictional town of Jefferson to confront the presence of racism, sexuality, gender, and religious discrimination in his endemic state, Mississippi. The novel focuses on the unforgiving social standards that Faulkner feels are sanctioned by religious institutions, particularly in isolated rural areas. Light in August is comprised of the personal stories of several women. The misconceptions that Faulkner underscores are part of a paternalistic world where society endorses men’s abusive actions while religious and social intolerance imprison women in victimhood. In the novel, the men justify their prejudices through their belief that women naturally hate other women, especially the fallen ones. Faulkner traverses the strange territory of gender-discrimination through the characters of Byron Bunch and Lena Grove.

Right away, the reader becomes aware that a gaping double standard exists in the social realm of Light in August. Men are not faulted for indulging in sex or impregnating a woman outside of matrimony. However, when a woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock,...