In William Faulkner’s epic novel, As I Lay Dying, the author presents a highly dysfunctional family whose members exhibit violent and self-centered personalities rooted in jealousy and greed. The Bundren family’s mission to bury their dead mother ultimately turns into a showcase of fraternal rivalry accompanied by mental instability and struggles with abuse. Each member of the Bundren family holds some ill will towards another member of the tribe, and because of this resentment, the family is eventually broken apart. Throughout the novel, the Bundren clan individually expresses their personal attitudes through multiple brief monologues, in which each character highlights various episodes of familial opposition, individual acts of violence, and selfish ulterior motives to travel to Jefferson where the family must bury Addie, their dead matriarch.
First, family conflict is seen most predominantly in relationships where Jewel is involved. His speech beginning on page fourteen is this character’s sole emotional declaration, pure of any outside influence, even from Darl, who seems to have an uncanny knowledge of present events and personal secrets (Lowe). The attitudes Jewel expresses toward his siblings and father in this section illuminate his frustration and anger towards his family; though short and angrily monotonous, this speech solidifies the tone of Jewel’s relationships between himself and his father, mother, and siblings. Jewel expresses his annoyance at Cash for constantly sawing away at Addie’s unfinished coffin, an act Jewel perceives as Cash attempting to overtake Jewel in family dominance (Lowe). He satirizes this attempt by referring to Cash’s childhood when Cash brought Addie a “bread pan […] full of dung” to grow flowers in; Jewel uses “dung” as a metaphor for a disgusting gift, which is how Jewel sees the coffin (Faulkner 14; Lowe). Jewel continues on to express his disdain at Dewey Dell’s constant fanning of Addie, suggesting “if you’d just let her alone” (Faulkner 15). Dewey Dell, however, is abandoned for more worthy adversaries: Cash and Anse. Jewel fantasizes about situations in which he would have been the only onlooker, such as when Cash “fell off that church” and when “pa laid sick with that load of wood fell on him” (Faulkner 15). “If it had just been” Jewel, he would have possessed power over those who had oppressed him: his eldest brother competing for his mother’s affection, and his father who overpowers him automatically in the family hierarchy (Faulkner 15; Delville).
Next, Addie’s central role in the family is made clear by her posthumous monologue in which she outlines her relationship with Anse and her children. Addie repeatedly expresses her hate towards Anse for “trick[ing]” her, saying she “believed that [she] would kill Anse” (Faulkner 172). She even goes so far as to say that she “gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them” (Faulkner 174). This statement immediately labels Addie as a woman who, tied into a loveless marriage, reluctantly bears four children against her own wishes: first Cash and Darl, then Dewey Dell and Vardaman. The births of her first two sons may account for the illicit affair with Whitfield: to escape her dispassionate union. Nevertheless, while attempting to rid herself of her connection with her legal family, she finds herself pregnant with a child, the one who will save her “from the water and from the fire” (Faulkner 168). Addie’s rebellion and defiance for tradition is transferred into Jewel, and recognizing herself in him, she has found a soul to whom she can attach, even after death (Hayes). Darl, who comments on page seventeen that Jewel “is a head taller than any of the rest of us,” recognizes Jewel’s distinction and sees through the guise that Addie and perhaps Jewel have attempted to establish (Faulkner 17). This is the basis on which Darl mentally tortures his step-brother; Darl perceives a flaw in a member of the family who is competing for household dominance. Therefore, he attempts through mental manipulation to oust Jewel from his place within the family by using his illegitimacy against him (Bockting 126).
Furthermore, the tension exhibited between Darl and Jewel is profound. Blatant hostility is seen throughout the text from both sides; however, each party uses different tactics to antagonize the other. Beginning on page seventeen, the reader catches a first glimpse of Jewel’s aggressive strategies to silence his brother: “Shut up, Darl” (Faulkner 17). Since Darl had not previously shown any animosity toward Jewel in direct physical or verbal form, the reader can safely assume that Jewel has harbored resentment against Darl, but a specific reason is left unaddressed this early in the novel. It is not until much later that the reason for this brewing animosity is discovered: the events which determine Jewel’s birth. The negativity between the two brothers continues when Jewel tells Darl to “shut [his] goddamn mouth” (Faulkner 18). Finally, following Darl’s cruel jabs at Jewel’s legitimacy, Jewel responds with “you goddamn lying son of a bitch” (Faulkner 213). In contrast, Darl adopts a passive aggressive approach; knowing of Jewel and Addie’s relationship, Darl harasses Jewel by telling him three times, beginning on page forty, that “Addie Bundren is going to die.” As previously noted, near the end of the novel after Jewel’s illegitimacy has been established, Darl indirectly confronts Jewel about his parentage, slyly suggesting that he knows of Addie’s affair with Whitfield. Twice in conversation he asks Jewel in some form the identity of his father, knowing that this kind of taunting will anger Jewel and eventually emotionally deteriorate him (Faulkner 212-213).
Secondly, the violence and abuse demonstrated by each character only adds to the family’s mental dysfunction, proving that the only way to achieve mental satisfaction is through the torture of another individual. Addie confesses that she would “look forward to the times when [the students] faulted, so [she] could whip them” (Faulkner 170). When comparing her aggressive nature to that of Jewel’s, it is clear that Jewel is the male equivalent of Addie (Hayes). Additionally, Dewey Dell shows her own violent streak on page 121, picturing a fantasy where she kills Darl. This is followed by her attack on Darl in Jefferson where she “jumped on him like a wild cat” after he resisted detainment (Faulkner 237). Both of these startling episodes seem oddly placed, especially next to a seventeen year old, newly-pregnant female. However, these acts of violence stem from Darl’s knowledge of Dewey Dell’s pregnancy; through Darl’s knowledge of her secret, Dewey Dell is in danger of being revealed. Darl knows of the unspoken hold he has over Dewey Dell and twists the unfortunate predicament around on her, saying, “You want her to die so you can get to town: is that it?” (Faulkner 40). Darl’s abuse takes on a mental and verbal manifestation rather than a physical form. He collects information that he knows will be vital in manipulating and torturing his siblings while preying on their most private obsessions: Jewel’s illegitimacy and Dewey Dell’s pregnancy (Bockting 126).
Curiously, the violence is not limited to the human family; it is extended to the livestock, which are a part of the Bundren farm. There are three instances in the novel where an animal has been made to suffer for the grief of a member of the Bundren clan. First, following Jewel’s ride on his horse, the man and the beast retreat into the barn where, after the horse kicks at Jewel, Jewel “kicks him in the stomach” and “strikes him across the face with his fist” (Faulkner 13). Second, after Addie’s death, Vardaman escapes into the barn and begins whipping the horses with a switch, hearing the “stick striking […] hitting their heads” (Faulkner 54). Third, Anse unleashes his anger on the horse in the barn, striking it “upon the face with the back of the curry-comb” (Faulkner 183). The horse, as a symbol of male strength and vitality, is used to represent multiple male figures. The abuse of a horse is symbolic for the rage felt towards another male member of novel. Jewel’s rage stems from loathing Darl; Vardaman’s anguish branches from his misinterpretation of Peabody’s presence, seeing Peabody as Addie’s murderer; Anse’s anger stems from his frustration with himself, who cannot uphold his family’s dignity and his own pride because of his own stubbornness and stupidity. The Bundren family has no healthy way of dealing with their all-consuming rage, save for Cash, who never once lifts a hand to human nor horse.
Finally, the pilgrimage to Jefferson is not only a mission to bury Addie with her birth family, but a mission for the rest of the Bundren clan to gain what they most desire. Selfish reasons of all but two members of the family are clearly expressed in various sections of the novel. Repeatedly, Anse has told himself and others that he gave her his “promise” to bury her with her family (Faulkner 115). What he fails to mention to others is that he has planned ahead of time to purchase a new set of teeth while in the city, and ultimately, find a new wife to replace his deceased one. Vardaman, however innocent he is, still possesses a desire for an item that has nothing to do with his mother’s death. He fantasizes about eating “bananas” and seeing a train behind the glass of a store in Jefferson (Faulkner 66). Furthermore, Cash’s reason for traveling to Jefferson is not strictly reserved for a burial ceremony; his conscience is marked with the motivation to purchase a gramophone. Additionally, Dewey Dell’s reason for accompanying her family is more vital than those of her male siblings’. Her desperation for an abortion easily overshadows her mother’s death which is reflected on page 120 when she casually says, “I heard that my mother is dead”.
Collectively, the father, the oldest son, the youngest son, and the sole female have their own personal selfish reasons for venturing to Jefferson. Anse can finally “get them teeth”; Vardaman can get the train “behind the glass, red on the track”; Cash will be able to buy “that talking machine from Suratt”; and Dewey Dell can “get something at the drug store” for her intended abortion (Faulkner 52, 65, 190, 202). These selfish reasons beg the reader to ask, What family would place convenience to themselves over the burial of their dead mother? The answer is obvious: a dysfunctional group of emotionally stained individuals whose hearts have been damaged by jealousy and lives tainted by greed.
Throughout the novel, Faulkner’s characters display a wide range of emotions, all stemming from deep within their psyches which have been marred by dishonesty, familial corruption, and mental abuse. The dysfunctional Bundrens, led by a self-centered oaf and comprised of vain siblings, fall among the worst kind of family: one whose deceitful, manipulative, and cruel qualities know no bounds. It is made clear that the Bundren clan is nothing more than a group of survivalists who will stop at nothing to obtain what they desire, even if the journey to attainment is rife with fraternal contention, verbal and psychological cruelty, and dishonesty in the face of a parent’s death.
Works Cited:
Bockting, Ineke. "3 - Multiple Voices in As I Lay Dying." Character and Personality in the Novels of William Faulkner: a Study in Psychostylistics. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1995. 122-26. Print.
Delville, Michel. "Alienating Language and Darl's Narrative Consciousness in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying." The Southern Literary Journal 27.1 (1994). Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. Vintage International ed. New York: Vintage, 1985. Print.
Hayes, Elizabeth. "Tension between Darl and Jewel." The Southern Literary Journal 24.2 (1992). Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
Lowe, John. "The Fraternal Fury of the Faulkners and the Bundrens." Mississippi Quarterly. 54.4 (2001). Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
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