“THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM”: GENDERED SPACES AND ISOLATION IN FAULKNER’S SANCTUARY “THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM”: RELAÇÕES ENTRE GÊNERO, ESPAÇO E ISOLAMENTO EM SANTUÁRIO DE WILLIAM FAULKNER

RESUMO: Desde sua publicação em 1931, Santuário de William Faulkner tem causado numerosos e contraditórios discursos críticos. Talvez devido ao caráter paradoxal da protagonista (ou antagonista, para alguns críticos) Temple Drake, a obra foi caracterizada por muitos teóricos dos anos de 1950 a 1980 como uma alegoria entre o bem e o mal. Esses estudiosos caracterizaram Temple Drake como uma mulher cheia de truques sexuais, isto é, uma mulher que tenta seduzir os homens com quem se relaciona na obra através do seu corpo e sorriso faceiro. Nesse artigo, espaços como Old Frenchman’s Place (a mansão em ruína na qual o proprietário, Goodwin, vende bebidas durante a Lei Seca no Estados Unidos), o bordel, o tribunal, entre outros, serão analisados de modo a ressaltar o caráter opressor e misógino desses espaços masculinos na obra de Faulkner. Ademais, será avaliado como esses espaços contribuem para o isolamento e silenciamento das vozes femininas, especialmente de Temple Drake.


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"She's a predatory female… technically a virgin, technically a student in the local university", said Henry Seidel Canby in his 1931 review for the Saturday Review of Literature. 1 Such perspective of Faulkner's character Temple Drake (Sanctuary 1931) would not vary for many decades to come.Victim of a brutal rape, Temple would be portrayed as evil, 2 doomed, corrupted, 3 grotesque, as well as a psychopath, a flapper, a femme fatale, or even a coquette with masochist nymphomaniac tendencies who wants to be raped. 4Apart from few exceptions, not until the late eighties and early nineties would criticism on Temple Drake drift away from religious and Southern myth readings to a more humanized criticism -certainly influenced by the rise of Psychoanalytic and Feminist studies.While spaces are "important in the construction of gender relations", 5 and an important area of feminist criticism, few critics have focused on analyzing spaces in Sanctuary.Perhaps this is due to a focus on victim blaming and the counterpart attempt to re-signify Temple Drake's traumatic experience, without referring to gender and space relations.According to Danielle Russell, "both the construction and representation of space […] are crucial to identity formation" 6 -that is, to consider space is to consider identity and gender relations.By investigating how Temple and other female characters, such as Ruby, negotiate and experience distinctive spaces marked by patriarchy in the novel, it is possible to highlight associations between space and patriarchy as contributing factors to Temple Drake's isolation.
After a disastrous da te, Temple ends up a t Old Frenchman's place (a ruined plantation house where Goodwin, Ruby and their child live out of wedlock) with the drunk Virginia college student Gowan Stevens, where he expects to find more liquor.Critics such as David Davis have affirmed that Temple has no business at Frenchman's place.He argues that Temple has no role at Goodwin's property: "Lee is a producer, Popeye is a distributor […]  and Gowan is a consumer.Temple does not belong […]  because, unless she purchases alcohol, she has no business there". 7Although such ideas are not completely out of context, they fail to question why a woman would not belong in certain spaces; would it be simply because this woman does not know the social rules of a place?Spaces should not be regarded as unbiased, for they involve "ideological, cultural, and social concerns". 8netheless, Temple seems to believe that she should not be there, since she refuses to go into the house immediately after taking a look at it; "build before the civil war, a plantation house set in the middle of a track of land; of cotton fields and gardens and lawns long since gone back to the jungle…" with a "faint light" 9 -characteristics which suggest a place out of law, part of a fallen society (the

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Antebellum South).The presence of alcohol also enhances the lawless aspect of old Frenchman's place. 10However, Temple agrees to go in after learning there is a woman there.In a sense, the presence of a woman should diminish the male control she feels around the place; yet, Ruby's presence does not make old Frenchman's place a neutrally gendered place.
When Horace first sees Ruby, she is in the kitchen: "a woman stood at the stove.She wore a faded calico dress.About her naked ankles a worn pair of man's brogans, unlaced, flapped when she moved" 11 .Such an image is juxtaposed to Temple, whose "high delicate head and […] bold painted mouth and soft chin, her eyes […] cool, predatory, and discreet" 12 paint a picture of provoking refinement and privilege.Moreover, Temple's pair of slippers contrasts Ruby's man's shoes.An interesting item of apparel, Ruby's man's shoes problematizes Ruby's identity and position at old Frenchman's place.According to Roberts, "women can slip toward masculinity, ladies […] slip toward whorishness, white […] slip toward black". 13On the other hand, Ruby's man's shoes also suggest her assimilation of patriarchal culture. 14en Davis analyzes the social spaces at old Frenchman's place and concludes that Temple has no business there, he does not comment on the presence of Ruby Lamar.As Temple, Ruby does not produce, distribute or consume alcohol.Following Davis reasoning, Ruby would not belong there either.Nevertheless, Ruby is accepted as a part of old Frenchman's place, fulfilling the role of servant.Throughout the whole story, Ruby is performing this role for men, particularly Goodwin but not only him.Temple herself notices how Ruby is continually surrounded by those men and still relatively safe from being sexually assaulted.The reason behind such circumstance is that Ruby has a role in old Frenchman's place; in fact, Popeye reminds her of her place right after bringing Benhow to the property: "you cook.He'll want to eat" -a comment to which Ruby answers resentfully: "I cook.I cook for crimps and spungs and feebs.Yes.I cook". 15Mostly, she resents Popeye's reduction of her existence at the Frenchman's place economy as strictly related to servitude.For Popeye, the only other option for Ruby is prostitution: "you can quit.I'll take you back to Memphis Sunday.You can go to hustling again…". 16opeye's understanding of women's position in societyindependently of class -is either as a dutiful servant or a prostitute.
Although Ruby resents her place at the old Frenchman's place's economy, she does not deny it.During dinner, she serves men and feeds papa.After, "cleared the table and carried the dishes to the kitchen […] then she returned Dossiê and put her own supper on a plate and sat down to the table and ate". 17Ruby has assimilated women's roles in a patriarchal society.She believes women are supposed to serve men; while listening to Benhow's story of how he abandoned his wife, she thinks: "he better get on to where he's going, where his women folks can take care of him". 18nterestingly, many Faulkner's critics have usually compared Ruby to Temple and exalted Ruby's extreme devotion towards Goodwin.Joanne Creighton, for instance, juxtaposes Temple selfishness to Ruby's "fierce loyalty […] [and] commitment to love" 19 towards Goodwin.
Nonetheless, Ruby, as Temple, is trapped a t old Frenchman's place.Ruby because she has assimilated women's roles in patriarchal communities -identifying herself primarily by her relationship with Goodwin, the man she has "slaved" for. 20Temple, on the other hand, experiences immobility not only in terms of identity, but also because of physical limitations.For example, while men can usually travel unreservedly among distinctive spaces -either by driving or simply participating in different social contexts -women are usually restricted from certain spaces; in Sanctuary, one can see consistently how Temple has no mobility of her own; she depends on men to take her to and away from places.She only gets to Frenchman's place because Gowan Stevens takes her there; she gets to the brothel because of Popeye; finally, she gets to the Luxembourg Gardens because of her father.
Furthermore, Davis claims that Temple's previous spaces were "spaces of power and privilege". 21Though this is certainly true for some public spaces frequented by Temple, privately she was less likely to possess any kind of power, especially if one considers her father's home as her primary space.As the only woman in a male-dominant household, Temple was certainly completely restricted of power there.Temple's family environment is one of threat and control, perceived clearly by her youngest brother's promise to "beat the hell out of [her]" in case he caught her with a drunken man. 22Not so different from her father's house is old Frenchman's place, with its "meaningless masculine sounds". 23Such is the similarity that it makes Temple think constantly of her brothers and her father "sitting on the porch […] watching a negro mow the lawn" 24 -that is, without considerable authority."There are so many of them", she thinks to herself; "but maybe, with so many of them… 25 " -Temple's indecision of whether the presence of men puts her in danger or under protection reflects women's oppression as it is exposed in the novel.
Contrary to what critics have suggested, 26 Temple does try to get out of old Frenchman's place -mostly by trying to get a ride back to the city.However, Temple's negotiation Dossiê goes badly -which leads her to the kitchen.In fact, Temple's first stop upon arrival at old Frenchman's place is the kitchen, though her first conversation with Ruby is not narrated.The kitchen is a place which has got a "history and genealogy imbued with implications about gender, class, and race". 27However, the kitchen in old Frenchman's place cannot offer refuge to Temple.Eventually, Goodwin finds her hidden "behind the stove". 28In an act of violence, "his hand touched her cheek and he lifted her from behind the box by the scruff of the neck, like a kitten" and asks her what she was doing in his house. 29It is probable that Temple fears Goodwin as much as she fears Popeye, since his methods of intimidation are quite violent.Also, Goodwin is the owner of the house -in a sense, he is the one who makes the rules and exercises power. 30reover, "Ruby Lamar's kitchen is a strange and threatening place where babies have to be kept in boxes […]  and where "guests" like Temple Drake are antagonized". 31t is where Ruby accuses Temple of classism: "I know your sort […] honest women.Too good to have anything to do with common people". 32Ruby thinks Temple is an opportunist and a classist, who rides with town boys privately, but would not consider them worthy of her; however, in a dangerous situation, she asks for help by asserting that there are no differences between them: "you're just like other people". 33Class is definitely something which differentiates Ruby's and Temple's identities -an aspect highlighted in the novel by the way they dress, for instance.
Class is also perceived when Ruby goes to Jefferson for Goodwin's trial; just as Temple is misplaced at Old Frenchman's place, Ruby is misplaced in Jefferson.Her clothes, for example, identify her as part of a lower class, as she is dressed "in a madeover dress all neatly about five years out of mode". 34Other factors also contribute to her exclusion, as for instance the fact she is a former prostitute, the partner of a moonshiner accused of murder.However, what seems to have a greater significance on Ruby's marginalization -even in the courtroom -is the fact that she is not formally married to Goodwin.Narcisa, who is extremely concerned about what the presence of Ruby -and the fact that her brother is involved with her -is the major advocate for Ruby's exclusion; as she tells Horace, "to deliberately mix yourself up with a woman you said yourself was a street-walker, a murderer's woman" 35 is unacceptable.Eventually, Ruby is also expelled from the hotel she was staying in because of the church ladies.The hotel owner has "a certain position to keep up" and he must not keep a woman with Ruby's reputation in his establishment, as it may harm the business. 36The only place for Ruby is "on the edge of town" 37 like an outcast -a place without any social

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status or authority, closer to black people's position in the Southern community of the 1930s.
Despite their differences, Ruby helps Temple hide from the predatory men around Old Frenchman's place.Though she is not actually raped during the night she spends there, the fear of being raped traumatizes Temple.Through the narrative, this is particularly clear because the rape itself -which happens in the morning -is not narrated.It is implied by Temple's severe bleeding, and the fact that Popeye kidnaps her right after.
George Toles notices that "Temple's imprisonment at old Frenchman's place and Miss Reba's [represents the] process by which the power and will to move are taken away". 38uch a reading upsets the idea that Temple accepts her life in the brothel. 39At first, such an assumption seems plausible, since the brothel is indeed an ambiguous space in the novel -as it is a place of both violation and identity construction.To Foucault, brothels "create a space of illusion that exposes every real space, all the sites inside of which human life is partitioned, as still more illusory". 40In this sense, the brothel is a place of fictional masculinity and femininity, exposing "the base desires of human nature that are ordinarily sublimated in both public and private spaces". 41Despite being ruled by women, Miss Reba's brothel is where male characters go to have their patriarchal fantasies fulfilled.According to Jeffrey Folks "the prostitute figure appears as a comforting representative of the sexual status quo" for she remains in her objectified space. 42In other words, the prostitute does not emasculate men, because she accepts their domineering position over her.However, this acceptance is an artifice, for the relationship man-prostitute is a market transaction.
Nevertheless, women in the brothel are concerned with making that place a masculine place (at least an illusion of masculine place).They praise Temple's blood (which suggests the rape) as a source of money for what it symbolizes -that is, Temple's body as a sexual commodity; her blood has exchange value.As Miss Reba tells Temple, "I bled for four days, myself.It aint nothing […] that blood'll be worth a thousand dollars to you, honey". 43Miss Reba's re-signification of women's blood is her way of negotiating her place in rape culture and patriarchal objectification of women's body; since neither she nor Temple can avoid women's oppression altogether, they might at least make some money out of it.
Although the brothel can be considered a space dedicated to the male gaze, concerned with preserving patriarchy, Temple re-signifies her experience there.5 Afterwards, she imagines that it is "half-past-ten-o'clock in the morning.Sunday morning, and the couples strolling toward church". 46These fantasies enhance Temple's out-of-body experience, as she thinks to herself "I'm not here […] This is not me.Then I'm at school.I have a date tonight…". 47Hanging onto that fantasy certainly does not set Temple free, but helps her endure her traumas.According to Toles, Temple's denial of her location, and traumatic experiences ought not to be understood as "an emotional injury" provoked by panic. 48nstead, it is a "clear expression of the form of self-awareness". 49Following such self-awareness, Temple will manage to momentarily empower herself as she reports her traumatic experience to Benhow; in this occasion, she will create a narrative for her own as a form of resistance -or perhaps a "survival strategy" 50 -which will make her the subject other than the object of the story.
Temple's narrative focuses on the night before her rape: "that was the only part of the whole experience which appeared to have left any impression on her at all". 51As Roberts realizes, "Temple is raped over and over again […]  [since] Sanctuary is a text of the destruction of the female mind and body". 52The experience of inevitable rape terrifies Temple; "now and then Horace would attempt to get her on ahead to the crime itself, but she would elude him and return to herself sitting on the bed". 53Temple's experience of fright while lying in bed in paralysis is as terrifying -or perhaps more terrifying -than Tommy's murder: "yes; that," she would say."It just happened.I dont [sic] know.I guess I had been scared so long that I guess I had just gotten used to being". 54Temple has no recollection of Tommy's murder.In fact, the story she is telling Benhow is not about Tommy -it is about the one crime which is ignored by the authorities: the rape.It is a story about the constant rape and identity wreckage she undergoes at old Frenchman's place.
By telling her story, Temple re-signifies her paralysis during the night before the rape and during the rape itself.Firstly, she recounts how she imagines herself becoming a boy: "I was looking at my legs and I'd try to make like I was a boy". 55She considers that as a boy she would be safe from rape.Secondly, she pictures herself wearing a French chastity belt; materializing the belt, she takes the raincoat and puts it on.Interestingly, the French belt has spikes on, with which she fantasizes striking back and making Popeye bleed, as he did to her.Thirdly, she images herself all in white lying in a coffin, crying due to the presence of shucks.

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Death and the idea of virginity are definitely fused in this image -virginity which is "killed" by the corncob (with which Temple is raped).Moreover, death would also be a way of escaping the place of oppression and violence she encounters herself throughout the whole novel.
As her fantasy goes on, so does Popeye's hand "where [her] insides begin". 56She then imagines herself becoming a mid-aged woman with gray hair and spectacles, which in her conception would make her less attractive -therefore avoiding rape.Lastly, she imagines she is a seventy-year-old man, in an attempt to acquire maximum authority and power.As an elderly white man like her father, she would not suffer any kind of oppression, since she would be in a position of maximum patriarchal power.These fantasies combined, besides showing Temple's desperate attempt to escape rape, also construct a narrative of endurance and resistance -since she re-signifies her actual powerlessness when it comes to prevent rape or any other kind of violence against women.Temple's narrative is the only thing which may set her free; the judge or jury in Goodwin's trial certainly cannot.
After being rescued, Temple testifies against Goodwin in the trial for Tommy's murder.Temple's appearance at the courtroom is quite distressing, given that she was the only person present when Popeye killed Tommy.Temple, who at the time of Goodwin's trial is back with her father and brothers, is again described as a sleepwalker: "Her hands lay motionless, palm-up on her lap", 57 precisely how she is described when she is raped by Popeye.The district attorney is interested not in making justice for Temple or Tommy, but in winning the case. 58Moreover, he is not interested in listening to Temple's story, though he says he will: "no one will hurt you.Let these good men, these fathers and husbands, hear what you have to say and right your wrong". 59espite what he says, he does not give her any room to actually tell her story.His questions are directed at incriminating Goodwin, and not actually finding the truth.
Temple does accuse Goodwin of killing Tommy.However, not everything from her testimony is false.Joseph Urgo argues that when the district attorney asks Temple if she was hiding from "that man over there", 60 she says yes because she was indeed hiding from Goodwin.He was chasing her from the moment he saw her in his house; even Ruby knew he was planning on raping Temple; "You wont [sic] find her […] she's gone," she tells him. 61Whether Temple is consciously blaming Goodwin for the rape and kidnapping or not is hard to say.More likely, Temple's out-of-body experience in the courtroom makes it impossible for her to really recognize who actually raped and kidnapped her.Temple was terrified of both Goodwin and The good men, the fathers and husbands who promised to give Temple justice cannot do so because they do not give her the opportunity to tell her story.Anyhow, would they have understood her story if they had heard it?Would they see her story as resistance to patriarchal sexual politics, or would they accuse her of being a whore -like Benhow?Masculine spaces limit women's voices because they do not "belong" there.Their stories will not be heard because they upset principles of white male dominance; Temple, therefore, remains silenced.Truth, on the other hand, becomes an ideological space in the courtroom, since the law is not interested in truth, but only in solving cases.
Although Temple does have a voice -unlike so many Faulkner's female fictional characters -no one listens to her.According to Toles, "what Temple communicates to Horace is something he would prefer not to comprehend". 62orace believes Temple to be proud; but not proud for surviving -proud of being raped.As Roberts notices, Temple's story is "unbearable for a southern culture that claims to value virginity and innocence". 63That is because Temple's story tells of "an attempt to take control through the making of her own fiction", 64 while denouncing the hypocrisy of southern culture.
In telling her story, Temple makes sense of her own experience, which mirrors Miss Reba's dogs' feelings: she thought of them, woolly, shapeless; savage, petulant, spoiled, the flatulent monotony of their sheltered lives snatched up without warning by an incomprehensible moment of terror, and fear of bodily annihilation at the very hands which symbolized by ordinary the licensed tranquility of their lives. 65mple is a petulant, spoilt child; she lives a life of monotony, as many female characters in Faulkner's fiction.Furthermore, while making sense of her own experience, Temple's identity of "southern belle" is shattered. 66According to Duvall, "women are not safe from violence and rape unless 'good' men decide […] to protect them […] The problem is that most men are 'good' in their public persona and 'bad' in private". 67For instance, the very same lynching mob that brutally kills Goodwin because of Temple's assault declare that they "wouldn't have used no cob" to rape Temple. 68earning that the ones who were supposed to protect her will also assault her if given the chance, distresses part of Temple's identity, creating the necessity to tell her story.
Spaces in Sanctuary show how patriarchal power act violently on women's lives.Spaces such as Frenchman's place, the courtroom, the brothel, and even Ruby's kitchen become places of violence and silencing of women's voices.Nonetheless, Temple is still able to use narrative to negotiate her space within the novel.Though Temple remains powerless and voiceless in the end of Sanctuary, she has become a complete different person; she is now aware of her own lack of privilege and power -sitting in the Luxemburg Garden, embracing death.
Perhaps unintentionally, Faulkner wrote a novel thatmore than many he has written -depicts the unfairness of patriarchy on women's attempts to participate in gendered spaces and cultural narratives."Sanctuary is […] about the sexual violence inherent in a society built on a discourse of rape, defining women as sexual commodities to be exploited"; 69 in this sense, spaces in Sanctuary only keep women isolated, their bodies objectified, and their voices silenced.
This clock, which