Faulkner does nothing haphazardly, so I’m absolutely sure there is some deep meaning to this choice. The history is riveting and it is unbelievable how much information and emotion Faulkner is able to convey in a these rather short sections. There is a play, sandwiched within three sections of historical exposition of Jackson and Yoknapatawpha County. Faulkner is such a remarkable writer and his works are so layered, that I think I will still be thinking about these characters and dissecting them for some time. To read this without first reading Sanctuary would certainly lessen the impact of the story, and in truth, I do not think you could sufficiently understand Temple without the background story that unfolds in Sanctuary. Married to Gowan, she can never hope to escape that moment.for even his mere presence is a constant reminder. She is trapped forever in the moment of her life in which she gets into a car with a drunkard and leaves her life and self behind. She fails to understand, even herself, what makes her unable to feel emotion as others do, and she carries the blame within her for her obvious shortcomings. I view her as a damaged soul, someone who has been so marred by life that she can no longer function. I, unlike so many, do not view Temple as an evil person.

There was more to her story and it must have haunted him, as it haunted me, for he returned to her twenty years later to put her soul under a microscope. Faulkner obviously could not leave Temple Drake as we last saw her in Sanctuary.

Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner