Quentin : Caddy :: Benjy : Caddy

When reading Quentin's section, all I could think about was this odd relationship between Quentin and Caddy. Why would Quentin's relationship be so weird? I understand Benjy's, but Quentin's? And then when it was all over, it hit me. Faulkner uses the two character's relationships with Caddy to show how similar they are. At first glance, Benjy (who is mentally retarded) and Quentin (who is at Harvard) would not be similar at all. However, since they actually have kind of similar relationships with Caddy, it groups them together more and shows the reader their similarity: not being well mentally. Neither Benjy nor Quentin is very mentally stable and arguments could be made that they are not only both idiots, but both actually mentally ill (Benjy obviously being retarded, and Quentin with the whole "Old South" thing, the fact that very little punctuation is used in his section, and the fact that he commits suicide). I feel that Faulkner is trying to show us just how similar these two seemingly different characters are.