The Hamlet

The pony auction shows the rise of “Snopesian” traits within the townspeople, illustrating the power of Ambition as a Threat to the Social Fabric. As usual, Flem appears only on the periphery of the action, and yet his actions have great and destructive effects, inspiring greed and folly in others. The Texan has travelled hundreds of miles to steal from people he’s never met at Flem’s behest, Henry Armstid wastes his family’s last $5 and puts his wife in the path of physical danger, and most men in the town make a bad and dangerous investment. Even Flem’s cousin Eck Snopes is taken in—he sees his son nearly die, is greatly distressed by it, and still ends up “owning” two of the dangerous ponies. This episode is the most dramatic demonstration yet of The Waste of Potential. The ponies have been brought to Mississippi at great expense only to run rampant, causing property damage and endangering lives. The townspeople part with their hard-earned money in a frantic competition to own animals that are worse than useless to them, and the only one to benefit is Flem.

In the aftermath of the pony auction, the town tries to recover from the most audacious of Snopesian schemes yet, bringing both Flem and Eck to trial. This, however, once again goes the Snopeses’ way. The trials show how deeply Snopesian schemes are embedded in the institutions of the county. Flem can refuse to appear, anger the judge, and be at fault, and still he faces no repercussions for the auction and the subsequent destruction of the Armstids’ stability. Eck Snopes’s trial is an example of a different way that corruption has suffused the county. Even as Eck tries to pay the Tulls for the damages they have incurred, the court finds him not liable. Snopesianism has been given such momentum that even without active force behind it, it will protect those with power. As Mrs. Tull states, “You’ll let Eck Snopes or Flem Snopes or that whole Varner tribe snatch you out of the wagon and beat you half to death against a wooden bridge. But when it comes to suing them for your just rights and a punishment, oh no. Because that wouldn’t be neighborly” (328). The real victims, the Armstids and the Tulls, are left with nothing, the narrative making it clear what an uphill battle they were fighting.

Ratliff’s frustration and righteous anger at the Snopeses, particularly Flem, have finally driven him to outright action. His scheme to buy the Old Frenchman’s Place is motivated by a desire to punish Flem, to one-up him, and to take his money for himself. This is the first time Ratliff has acted out of such base motives, and it is the first time Flem manages to trick him. While Ratliff is very intelligent, he cannot beat Flem at his own game. The Old Frenchman’s Place itself is an important symbol in this last section. Dilapidated and apparently worthless, it nonetheless draws Ratliff in with the false promise of Confederate treasure and a chance to recover past wealth. Illusion is the basis of the Old Frenchman’s Place. Beyond the mystique of the treasure and the “Frenchman” who lived there, men like Will Varner and Flem Snopes have conferred value upon the property by claiming to value it themselves. Part of the reason Ratliff gave in to his desire to buy the property in the first place is that he had trust in Will’s ability to assess the value of something, not believing that he would have kept the property for so long if there wasn’t some inherent value to it. The mythos of these powerful men is reinforced by their own actions, a self-perpetuating system.

The end of the novel sees Flem departing at last, leaving Frenchman’s Bend for the larger town of Jefferson. Managing to trick Ratliff seems to have been the final challenge for Flem in Frenchman’s Bend, and having done so, he can at last move on. Bringing a still silent and unfulfilled Eula with him, he has sucked the town dry without appearing to do much at all. Like the “Frenchman” discussed at the beginning of the book, Flem is poised to fade into legend and folklore, a shadowy figure pulling the strings in the background, amassing wealth from the less powerful people he scams. The final image, of Armstid desperately digging for the treasure, is emblematic of the false promises and the ruin Flem leaves behind him.