William Faulkner's "Light in August": significance of the Title

 

Faulkner believed that late-summer light in the South assumed unique qualities. He himself says: “. . .in August in Mississippi there’s a few days somewhere about the middle of the month when suddenly there’s a foretaste of fall, it’s cool, there’s a lambence, a soft, a luminous quality to the light, as though it came not from just today but from back in the old classic times. It might have fauns and satyrs and the gods and—from Greece, from Olympus in it somewhere. It lasts just for a day or two, then it’s gone. . .the title reminded me of that time, of a luminosity older than our Christian civilization.”


Faulkner refers to these unique qualities of light at the opening of Chapter 20, where Reverend Hightower sits at his window before the sun begins to set and marvels at "how that fading copper light would seem almost audible, like a dying yellow fall of trumpets dying into an interval of silence and waiting". Thus, some scholars suggest that the title is a way of honoring a peculiar geographical feature –the Southern light.

The interplay of light and shadow figures into many of the novel’s lush descriptions, and Faulkner’s original working title for the novel Dark House refers to this divide. Hightower and Miss Burden cloister themselves in the shadow world of their domiciles, tempted by the world of light, of reality and self-exposure that exists beyond their windows. Miss Burden’s relationship with Joe Christmas plays out only at night, in the distorting cover of darkness.

Hightower's final scene is also important in that he finally takes responsibility for being a bad minister and for driving his wife insane, leading him to experience a kind of en’light’enment while sitting at the window and observing the changing light outside. In this chapter, the August light is tied to the overlapping of past and present, for it brings with it the ghosts of the past. In this sense, to "live in the light" might mean to have the ability to see oneself clearly, without such distortions as egotism or a pre-occupation with the past.


Some scholars also note that the phrase "to be light in August" is a Southern slang term for pregnancy; this highlights Lena Grove's role as a character that unites several aspects of the story and brings characters together during her pregnancy and with the birth of her child.

The title may also refer to the fire of Joanna’s house that is at the center of the story. The whole novel revolves around one event, the fire, which is visible for miles around, and happens in August.

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