Meaning of this William Faulkner quote?

Question

In a specific scene of _Requiem for a Nun_ by William Faulkner, Temple Drake states that > Temple Drake is dead. In response, Gavin, Nancy's lawyer, responds: > The past is never dead. It's not even past. What does this famous quote mean in this context?

Answer 1

The complete quote is:

The past is never dead. It's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity. Haunted by wrong turns and roads not taken, we pursue images perceived as new but whose providence dates to the dim dramas of childhood, which are themselves but ripples of consequence echoing down the generations. The quotidian demands of life distract from this resonance of images and events, but some of us feel it always.

Faulkner is talking about humanity's actions being followed by reactions. Our past actions will catch up with us, some time in our future--be they positive or negative--they will cross our paths. Life's challenges, in most cases, are our own creations because of choices we made in our pasts. These repercussions, by some people, can be felt shortly after their choices because of the "resonance of images and events" haunting them; whether or not their actions might have been necessary, their conscience haunts them of the outcome. I hope this clarifies the depth of the quote. You only opened up the quote, you didn't dive in.