“I held the point of the knife at her throat

It wont take but a second just a second then I can do

Mine I can do mine then

All right can you do yours by yourself

Yes the blades long enough Benjys in bed by now

Yes

It wont take but a second Ill try not to hurt

All right

Will you close your eyes

No like this youll have to push harder

Touch your hand

But she didn’t move her eyes were wide open looking past my head at the sky” (Faulkner 152).

            In this passage of the novel, Quentin and Caddy are by the pond talking about Caddy’s fiancé.  Quentin does not want Caddy to go ahead with the marriage because he longs to be with Caddy.  Quentin has always had an obsession with time and suicide.  He feels as though the only way they can be together is if he kills both of them.  Also, in Quentin’s mind, suicide is much easier than living with the pain he has been forced to face in his life and the difficulties he is going through.  Quentin puts a knife to Caddy’s throat and at first Caddy agrees to let Quentin go through with the killing, all while playing with Quentin’s mind.  She was just leading Quentin on and Caddy really had no intentions of letting Quentin kill her.    

            In this passage many lines stood out to me as I read it.  The line, it wont take but a second just a second then I can do, shows how Quentin has thought a lot about suicide before and wanting to kill himself.  This later explains his death.  Yes the blades long enough Benjys in bed by now, shows that Quentin knows that Caddy cares a great deal about Benjy because Benjy relies on Caddy to care for him.  If Caddy were to die, Benjy would be lost without her.   Will you close your eyes, No like this youll have to push harder is where Quentin gets the thought in his head that he has actually slept with Caddy, when his dream of it happening has really never occurred.  He views what Caddy is saying as sexual in his head, when all she is doing is referring to the knife in Quentin’s hand.  

            This passage, I thought, caught my attention the most.  As I read it the first time, I was shocked that Caddy would let Quentin kill them both when she quoted, All right.  I thought that Quentin was going to be successful in ending both of their lives.  However, Caddy was playing along with Quentin, which was cruel of her, but she was a smart women and was not going to let Quentin end her life.  After Caddy is done playing around with Quentin, she just picks up and leaves.  Quentin is upset and realizes that he and Caddy will probably never be together.  Quentin’s messed up life is what causes him to commit suicide.  I feel like this incident with Caddy foreshadows the ending of his life soon to come.