Requiem for a Nun (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: William Faulkner
- First Published: 1951
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1930’s
- Setting: Mississippi
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Melodrama
- Subjects: Prisons, Racism, Murder or homicide, South or Southerners, Prostitution or prostitutes, Guilt, 1930’s, Capital punishment, Law or legislation, Christianity, Mississippi, Atonement, Courts or courtrooms
- Locales: Yoknapatawpha County (fictive), Jackson, MS
Characters Discussed
Mrs. Gowan Stevens, née Temple Drake, the central character of William Faulkner’s earlier worky Sanctuary (1931), a novel in which Temple is abducted by a petty criminal, Popeye Vitelli, and forced to live in a Memphis brothel. She is both repulsed by and attracted to the evil and sexually strange outlaw and even provides perjured testimony to protect Popeye from a murder charge. At the end of Sanctuary, Temple is taken abroad by her father for a long rest cure. By the opening of Requiem for a Nun, she has married and is the mother...
[The entire page is 958 words long]
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