Sanctuary

Temple Drake is a 17-year-old college student at the University of Mississippi and the daughter of a powerful judge. Her subjugation at the hands of Popeye and subsequent Loss of Innocence makes up the main plotline of the novel. She is initially depicted as a beauty and a party girl, entering dances with “her high delicate head and her bold painted mouth and soft chin, her eyes blankly right and left looking, cool, predatory and discreet” (29). She has so many dates that she doesn’t bother to learn the boys’ names, instead keeping them organized in her Latin book. The narrative implies that her sheltered, privileged life leaves her unprepared for the world of the Old Frenchman place and her abduction by Popeye. While Temple is the focus of the story, the narrative does not expose much about her personality or desires; when her interior thoughts do arise in the text, they focus on her immediate reactions to her current situation.

Her kidnapping and rape serve to represent a loss of innocence and the clash between genteel Southern society and the criminal underworld. When she is first at the Old Frenchman place and becomes afraid, she cannot figure out how to pray, so instead she chants, “My father’s a judge; my father’s a judge” (50) to herself. Her clinging to this mark of status and her lack of spiritual depth expose Southern gentility as a social rather than spiritual power, despite all the moralizing on the part of the social elite. Her life at Miss Reba’s after the abduction is characterized by an excess of material goods, and her developing addiction to alcohol is intended to further signify her fall.

She is often described as being blank, even more so after being abducted by Popeye. When Ruby sees her as Popeye first drives her to Memphis, she is described as having a “face [that] did not turn, the eyes [that] did not wake; to the woman beside the road it was like a small, dead-colored mask drawn past her on a string and then away” (100). Even with Red, whom she claims she chooses to be with, she goes blank: her “eyes began to grow darker and darker, lifting into her skull above a half moon of white, without focus, with the blank rigidity of a statue’s eyes” (232). The objectification she suffers from the men around her seems to have seeped into her very being, transforming something inside her to make her continually blank.

Temple also appears in Faulkner’s 1951 novel Requiem for a Nun, which follows the trial of Temple’s maid for killing her daughter and explores the continuing effects the events of Sanctuary had on her.

Popeye is a bootlegger and career criminal who serves as the main antagonist of the novel, being directly responsible for Temple’s rape and abduction, Tommy’s and Red’s murders, and indirectly responsible for Goodwin’s lynching. Near the end of the novel, the narrative reveals that Popeye grew up with developmental issues, possibly caused by his mother having syphilis while pregnant with him. This may also have caused his impotence, the reason for which he rapes Temple by proxy. He works as a moonshiner for Lee Goodwin, though Goodwin is afraid of him due to Popeye’s ruthless reputation.

Popeye is one of the first characters introduced and is depicted in direct contrast to Benbow: “His face had a queer, bloodless color, as though seen by electric light; against the sunny silence, in his slanted straw hat and his slightly akimbo arms, he had that vicious depthless quality of stamped tin” (4), connecting Popeye to that which is artificial, metallic, and industrial. This depiction is furthered by his entrenchment in the underbelly of Memphis. Though Popeye is not Black, he is often described using racist stereotypes, with him being referred to as a “black” presence and as a “gorilla” (124). The connection of evil to these stereotypes exposes the deeply racist nature of white Southern society in this time. Popeye does not change over the course of the book, remaining unrepentantly amoral and self-centered, although his refusal to do anything in his own defense after being falsely convicted implies a certain resignation to his fate, that he will never achieve the complete dominance he desires due to his impotence.

Despite the above descriptions, Popeye is perceived as quite handsome by those in Miss Reba’s brothel. Miss Reba loves him and tells Temple that she’s lucky, because “[e]very girl in the district has been trying to get him, honey” (141), as Popeye will provide money and gifts due to his lucrative bootlegging work. Minnie describes him as handsome and a catch. These perceptions are partially due to the context they are in: Violence from men is to be expected, and what matters is how much the violent man has to offer. On this front, Popeye is ideal, giving Temple expensive gifts of clothing and toiletries. However, Temple is not allowed to leave Miss Reba’s, and these gifts are also for Popeye’s enjoyment, emphasizing the misogynistic nature of the world Faulkner creates.