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Hasty or inexperienced readers often construe William Faulkner's alleged pot-boiler, Sanctuary, to be on a par with his less literary writings, such as Pylon, since the sordidness and depravity exhibited in the novel tend to becloud its richer offerings. Even to careful and experienced readers, Sanctuary remains an enigma of sorts. The most unsatisfactory and troublesome aspect of the novel seems to be the apparent lack of description concerning the motivation of the actions of the heroine, Miss Temple Drake.
Why does Temple choose to act as she does? More specifically, why doesn't she make every possible effort to escape from the evil atmosphere of the Goodwin place? Later, why doesn't Temple escape from her easy captivity in a Memphis bordello and seek to return to the safety of her home in Jackson? Finally, why does Temple testify against the accused murderer, Goodwin, whom she knows to be innocent? These questions and possibly many more concerning Temple's curious and complex actions can be answered in an approximate and more or less satisfactory way if the reader can bring to bear the necessary knowledge and experience upon the clues and suggestions in the text. For Sanctuary, like most of the other important novels of Faulkner, evokes several distinct levels of meaning and interpretation.
Not content with the straightforward surface meaning of a work of literary art, the advanced reader will attempt to superimpose a number of allegorical or symbolic forms upon the surface structure, working from the realistic and specific to the surrealistic and universal in his effort to encapsulate the totality of richness generated by the art piece. I will allow the controversial literary critic, Leslie A. Fiedler,