"There Was a Queen"

"There Was a Queen" By William Faulkner

I relate Faulkner’s “There was a queen” to a lot of Gertrude Stein’s work as they are both confusing. Needless to say what is confusing about stein, Faulkner at times was just too elaborate and detailed in this story. I just constantly found myself lost in the story only because Faulkner uses so many characters. While this gets confusing, it is amazing how elaborate and complex he makes the plot in the end. Elnora is featured in much of the text but at the end it was like her character wasn’t even needed. This shows how elaborate his plot was and how the main story line truly laid within what we saw as the sub characters (i.e. the writer of the letters). However, Faulkner does use many names in his stories that can confuse the readers such as in paragraph two when many of the characters are being introduced and throughout the entire story when they are cited. While these helped to make the plot more real and complex, it added to my own personal confusion.

While the complexity of the plot was amazing, Faulkner’s use of imagery and describing the setting is phenomenal. He truly gives the reader a great sense of the setting. Whether it is describing the sent of the flowers that wafted from the garden, or how Elanora stood at the door as she crept towards Narcissa and Miss Jenny. This quality Faulkner exemplifies in this story truly draws the reader and helps give the reader a better understanding of the exact setting he wants you to feel or hear.