Absalom, Absalom! Dreams, Hopes, and Plans Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

[H]e must have felt and heard the design – house, position, posterity and all – come down like it had been built out of smoke, making no sound, creating no rush of displaced air and not even leaving any debris. (7.33)

Charles Bon was not part of Sutpen's dream. This can't end well.

Quote #8

[…] when he realised that there was more in his problem than just lack of time, that the problem contained some super-distillation of this lack; that he was now past sixty and that possibly he could get but one more son, had at best one more son in his loins, as the old cannon might know when it has just one more shot in its corporeality (7.42).

According to Quentin and Shreve's version of events, Sutpen became desperate after the war. Since he needed a son to continue the dynasty, and Henry was missing, he set his sights on Miss Rosa. It's clearly not about the means, just about the end.

Quote #9

[…] created between this woman [Eulalia] and a hired lawyer (the woman who since before he could remember he now realised had been planning and grooming him for some moment that would come. (8.5)

Shreve and Quentin believe that Charles Bon's mother planned her revenge against Sutpen by sending her son in to mess up his plans. In their version, Charles Bon slowly realizes that she has been waiting for just the right moment to strike.