Temple Drake

[3] The reviewer added that "Faulkner sees woman as the instrument who instigates and perpetuates this pattern of evil" and that the use of Temple was "attacking the chivalric code of the South".

[9] In regards to the sequel novel Degenfelder stated that the author formed, in Temple, "an essentially different woman from the same base, without sensing any contradiction.

[11] Joseph R. Urgo, author of an encyclopedia article on Temple Drake, wrote that the character is an "intersection" of "female agency", "pornographic representation", "the social construction of feminity" and other 20th century "major feminist issues".

[12] According to Urgo, audiences in the late 20th century perceived Temple as a "victim of the various social pressures" inflicted on young women while earlier ones blamed her for the sexual assault she undergoes.

Philip G. Cohen, David Krause, and Karl F. Zender, who wrote an article about Faulkner's works for Sixteen Modern American Authors, argued that compared to "A Measure of Innocence in Sanctuary" by Diane Luce Cox, Muhlenfeld's article "persuades more", and that Muhlenfeld's stance on needing a different viewpoint on Temple agrees with that of Urgo;[13] Muhlenfeld counted Urgo, Cleanth Brooks, Philip M. Weinstein, and Judith Bryant Wittenberg as writers who view Temple in a positive light, while she categorized Calvin S. Brown, Robert L. Mason, Sally R. Page, and Olga Vickery as critics who regard the character as "a symbol of moral decay or evil".

[1] Urgo also argued that Temple's actions differ wildly based on varying "social (and antisocial) situations" that the character lacks a unified "integral being".