The Hamlet

The Hamlet, by William Faulkner, takes place in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, in a rural area known as Frenchman’s Bend in the late 19th and early 20th century. It chronicles the rise to local power of the Snopes family, led by the ruthlessly ambitious Flem Snopes. The story is told in episodic bursts, often from the point of view of V. K. Ratliff, a traveling sewing machine salesman and foil to the Snopes family. Published in 1940, it is the first book in the Snopes trilogy, which follows the Snopes family throughout Yoknapatawpha County as their power and influence continue to increase. Many of the central characters of the novel appear in other works of Faulkner’s set in Yoknapatawpha County.

This guide uses the Penguin Random House Third Edition, published in 1964.

Content Warning: This novel contains anti-Black slurs. It also contains sexist language and depictions of women. There is also a depiction of the sexual assault of a teenager.

Plot Summary

The book begins with the arrival of Ab Snopes and his family, including his son Flem, to the small town of Frenchman’s Bend in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. The most powerful family in the town prior to the Snopeses’ arrival is the Varner family, headed by Will Varner. Will has worked many jobs within Frenchman’s Bend and owns most of the surrounding land, controlling vital services like the general store and the school. When Ab arrives in town, he rents an empty sharecropper’s farm from Jody Varner, Will’s son, who runs the general store in his father’s stead. Jody is at first pleased, as he did not expect to make a profit from the farm that year. Quickly, however, he hears from the men that hang around the store that Ab Snopes has repeatedly been accused of barn burning, but that no one has ever been able to convict him.

Jody grows increasingly panicked over the possibility that Snopes will scam him and burn the farm, though he himself had been planning to scam the Snopes family. He goes to the farm and makes a deal with Flem Snopes—in exchange for keeping his father from burning down the farm, Flem can have a job as a clerk in the Varners’ store. The town is shocked by this, and gossip runs rampant. One man, V. K. Ratliff, a successful sewing machine salesman and trader, tells the others that Ab Snopes isn’t a bad man, just “soured.” Having grown up near Ab Snopes, he tells a story he remembers from his youth, where Ab was tricked and scammed in a horse-trading deal. Ab is cold to Ratliff when Ratliff greets him.

Flem takes more and more control over the store, and more and more Snopeses begin to arrive in town. They take over jobs like town blacksmith and schoolteacher. Jody grows increasingly upset over the loss of his power. Time passes, and Ratliff is away from Frenchman’s Bend for a year receiving medical treatment. When he returns, he finds that even more Snopeses have moved into town and that Flem has “passed” Jody at the store, becoming the new protege of Will Varner.

The focus now moves to Eula Varner, the youngest child of Will Varner. She is described as both extremely lazy and extremely feminine. Thirteen when Flem begins to work as a clerk at the Varner’s store, Eula is developed beyond her years, having the appearance of a woman of 20. She has been attending the town’s school since she was eight, at the insistence of her brother Jody. Jody is paranoid over Eula’s virtue and views her excessive femininity and beauty as dangerous. The schoolmaster, Labove, becomes obsessed with Eula, eventually trying to assault her one day when Jody is late to pick her up. She fends him off and leaves, seemingly not upset by his actions but unwilling to allow them. Labove flees town.

At sixteen, Eula attracts a group of other teenagers who all orbit around her. Eventually, men begin to try and court her, though she shows none of them any preferential treatment. Jody becomes more lax in his control of Eula. Eventually one man, Hoake, fights off the other men who gather around the Varner’s place to see Eula, breaking his arm in the process. Will Varner treats his arm, and he and Eula secretly sleep together. Three months later, Eula is visibly pregnant. Jody is enraged, but Will says there’s no use trying to find the father. Instead he marries Eula to Flem, gives Flem the deed to one of his properties, the Old Frenchman’s Place, and sends them on a honeymoon to Texas.

Ike Snopes, the mentally disabled cousin of Flem, lives with a local woman named Mrs. Littlejohn. He becomes obsessed with the cow owned by their neighbor, a farmer named Houston. Houston has recently won a court case against another member of the Snopes family, Mink Snopes, receiving in the verdict a horse Mink repeatedly let ravage Houston’s crops. Ike repeatedly tries to sneak into the field where Houston’s cow is pastured, being driven off by Houston each time. One day Houston is out and Ike manages to ride away on the cow, getting away for days before Houston brings them back. Houston gives the cow to Mrs. Littlejohn to wash his hands of the situation. He is then shot by Mink Snopes in revenge for the court case.

The other Snopeses buy the cow from Mrs. Littlejohn and kill it to protect their family’s reputation. Mink Snopes is arrested for the murder of Houston when trying to retrieve $50 from Houston’s body. Mink’s wife and children stay with Ratliff while Mink is in jail. Mink is convinced that Flem will return from Texas and save him, but Mink’s wife and Ratliff doubt that Flem would do anything not motivated by ambition. Flem returns from Texas with Eula and her new daughter.

Flem has brought with him a Texan and a herd of wild ponies. No one is quite sure if the ponies belong to the Texan or Flem. The Texan sells the ponies at auction cheaply. Though the townsfolk are reluctant to buy, he convinces them by giving Eck Snopes, the town’s blacksmith, a pony for free. The ponies are too wild to be caught however, and one man, Henry Armstid, breaks his leg trying to catch one while another farmer, Tull, is run down in his wagon by the pony the Texan gave to Eck. The Texan gives Flem the money from the auction and leaves town. Flem avoids all liability by claiming to have never owned the ponies, placing all the blame on the absent Texan. Ratliff sees through this scheme from the start.

Ratliff, Armstid, and another farmer, Bookwright, are convinced that there is treasure on the grounds of the Old Frenchman’s Place, hidden there during the Civil War. Believing they have discovered it, they go to buy it from Flem, who seems about to sell it to someone else. They buy it, go back to claim the money, and realize it is all recent coins planted by Flem to trick them. This is the only time Flem outsmarts Ratliff. Flem, Eula, and the baby leave Frenchman’s Bend for Jefferson, Flem having surpassed the small town.