There are also intense psychological themes in The Sound and The Fury. I was always struck by the similarities between this work and Dostoevsky and Joyce. The section of the novel where Quentin, away at school, walks through town extremely concious of his seperateness recalls Raskalnikov in Crime and Punishment and both Bloom and Dedalus in Ulysses identity is manifest in the otherness of the world. All three works have scenes where the protagonists move through society. They are introspective and anomolous. This conciousness of character reaches its apotheosis in the works of Joyce and Faulkner but has its roots in the pre-modernist writings of authors like Dostoevsky.
The filth of the city encountered by Raskolnikov justifies his withdrawal into a cerebral world, where immense mental activity results in a brutal outward manifestation of his being when he murders. In The Sound and the Fury, Quentin, who is withdrawn into himself, is only called out when he meets a small girl who seems lost. This quickly proves unpleasant as he is accused of abducting the girl. Action is rejected and he must retreat within himself.
Ultimately, these characters are symbolic of the modern mind. Hyper-concious of its separateness and devoid of purpose, the mind reaches out, shadowed by the constantly shifting society and action that surrounds it, and seeks purpose. Ironically, the mind traps itself and cannot escape. Raskolnikov finds love God, Quentin death, and Bloom and Dedalus each other, but they never escape the maze of what is ultimately the realm of man, the mind. Physicality becomes ultimately a reminder of ones loneliness.