As I Lay Dying: A Template for Grief

             Psychoanalytic interpretations of literature are important to culture because they often open our eyes to the cause and effect of things we read, or even experience, but are sitting too closely to understand in context. For example, it is no mystery that Jewel beats his horse because he is upset about the loss of his mother; however the basic psychoanalytical concept of transference, taking an emotional response to a person or situation and using an unrelated person or situation as an outlet for that emotional response, is illustrated by Jewel’s treatment of the horse. All literature is threaded with psychoanalytical concepts because we cannot write about human interactions without emulating some form of psychological response. However, by understanding the more basic mechanisms of psychology, such as emotional responses and desires – id, ego, superego – we can further our ability to interpret many facets of literature ­­– archetypes, stimulus/response relationship – and have better knowledge of how those facets operate within and out of text. Thus, by applying knowledge gained through literature as a template to which one should or should not adhere to, we gain better understanding not only of literature, but our own human interactions. William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is a perfect example of how a piece of literature can have so many facets and the various psychological responses contained therein represent different templates for grief.

             Before using As I Lay Dying as a template for grief we must first have a basic understanding of the five stages of grief as described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in On Death and Dying. The first stage of grief is Denial and Isolation (34), in which a person denies that the event occurred, often isolating their self from those around them whom may serve to help in the grieving process in order to avoid the realization of loss. Anger, the second stage, is usually a quick replacement for denial, resulting from a person’s acknowledgement of the reality of the situation and allowing one’s self to begin the grieving process (44). When one tires of anger they begin Bargaining, usually with god and/or immediate loved ones, this often manifests itself as an attempt to postpone letting go (72), but can also result in a power-play between friends and relatives. There comes a point when one acknowledges they have nothing left to bargain, loss is fully realized, and Depression occurs (75). The fifth stage of grief, in which one finally attains the ability to move beyond grief and into Acceptance (99). Each of the Bundrens represents a unique manifestation of the stages of grief as they are confronted by Addie’s death and funeral, “events which are by no means identical” (Vickery 237), but illicit similar grief responses.

             The fact that Addie’s death occurs slowly is important to shaping how the Bundrens grieve because her death does not come as a shock. For this reason most of the Bundrens are able to move quickly through denial, or skip it altogether as is the case for Darl. Anse however, who does not appear to grieve at all, is likely in denial throughout the entire novel and is never seen reaching acceptance. It could be said that his lack of grief for Addie is due to his blatant selfishness and rejection of personal responsibility. Upon Addie’s death Anse elicits the appropriate social response, but it is all for show: “His face tragic and composed, he easily makes the proper responses to condolences and recites his litany of grief, though somewhat marred by his irrepressible egotism” (Vickery 237). Anse is therefore in denial of the loss of a loved one and eager to replace her as a way of bypassing the grief process or never cared about Addie to begin with. Addie herself would argue that his actions prove the latter. Cash’s brief denial is illustrated by his first narrative on page 48, in which he itemizes the building of Addie’s coffin without elaborating on his relationship with Addie or showing any emotional connection to her whatsoever. In this passage Cash denies his emotional connection in order to focus on building the coffin and upon her death and completion of the coffin we see his narratives slowly become more cognitive.

             Dewey Dell, like Anse, has a stagnant relationship with denial, but hers borders on anger. She is so preoccupied by her want for an abortion and caring for Vardaman that the only outward emotional response she shows is her anger toward Darl for knowing her secret. On page 69 Dewey Dell laments her sexuality as a form of captivity, “I had a nightmare once I thought I was awake but I couldn’t see and I couldn’t feel… I couldn’t think of my name I couldn’t even think I am a girl… it was like the wind came and blew me back from where it was… and all of them back under me again and going on like a piece of cool silk dragging across my naked legs,” and expresses her want to kill Darl, “I rose and took the knife from the streaming fish still hissing and I killed Darl.” Dewey Dell uses this anger like a blanket to mask any emotional response she may have to Addie’s death. Darl is the only other character in the novel who knows that Dewey Dell is pregnant, therefore her anger toward Darl is not only an agent of her denial of Addie’s death, but also a result of denying her pregnancy, which she is also grieving.

             Throughout the novel Jewel is described as stoic, “like wood” (3, 13, 55, 70), as such his emotions toward the other characters in the novel remain vague; however, Jewel’s anger and love are reflected upon his horse. In Darl’s second narrative he describes Jewel as caressing the horse, then he beats it (8-9). Here the horse is used as Jewel’s outlet for anger over his mother’s illness. After her death Jewel transfers all of his emotions unto the horse. Protecting the horse so much so that no one else is allowed to feed or even touch it. This transference represents the bargaining stage of grief, through which the horse “perpetuates Addie’s emotional relationship with Jewel” (244). Bargaining, in the sense of refusing to release a loved one, is best illustrated by Vardaman when he believes, “My mother is a fish” (49) and that by cooking and eating the fish Addie will become part of each of them (39). This belief that Addie will become a part of him by eating the fish illustrates Vardamans adolescent refusal to accept the loss of his mother.

             In the river-crossing scene Jewel forces his horse back into the water to get to the coffin, but then sends his horse back to safety with Cash (89). This release of the horse is a pivotal moment in Jewels release of anger, though the result is just a deeper bargaining because now his emotions are divided between the horse and the coffin containing his dead mother’s body. When he trades the horse for a new team he redirects his transferred emotions back to Addie, who lay dead in her coffin; so it comes as no surprise that when Darl attempts to burn the coffin, Jewel rescues it and emerges from the barn riding atop the coffin as if it were a horse (126). The imagery is a beautiful metaphor for the end of Jewel’s transference of his emotions for Addie onto the horse because we see the horse and coffin appear as one.

             Darl Bundren is the most poetic and intelligent of the Bundrens. His intelligence is partly the reason he is the only character who does not manifest any denial of Addie’s death. Darl does direct some anger toward Jewel in the form of taunting him about who his father is, but he does not experience any form of bargaining. What is most apparent about Darl is his gradual decline into deep psychosis. In the first scene of the funeral procession, when the Bundrens have arrived in town, Darl is just sitting in the wagon laughing (61) and progressively, this already strange character, grows ever stranger. After burning down the Gillespies’ barn (126) he begins to speak in third person and upon entering Jefferson they are approached by police (137). His siblings give him up to be institutionalized, sitting at a window on the train, heading to Jackson, thinking in third person, mumbling, “yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes” (146). As a war veteran it is possible that Darl was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome prior to Addie’s death. Nevertheless, her death was the tipping point to sending Darl into deep depression resulting in institutionalization.

             Only one character is seen to move through all five stages of grief, Cash Bundren. Cash is the eldest son, an experienced introverted carpenter, easily commanded in the beginning of the novel. From his first narrative, the itemized list which demonstrates his brief denial, to his last few narratives where he is seen as patriarch and grounding force for his siblings, Cash is the only character who truly grows and comes to accept that his mother has passed. He sympathizes with Darl’s burning of the barn and when the police arrest Darl Cash is the only one who remains calm and convinces Darl to go quietly (137). “This increase in sensitivity and perception makes Cash the only character in the novel who achieves his full humanity in which reason and intuition, words and action merge into a single though complex response.”(242) In this sense Cash represents exactly what the five stages of grief strive to achieve: a resolute acceptance of loss that results in personal growth.

Zero Draft AILD

·      As I Lay Dying is a modernist experiment in psychoanalytic literature focusing on how a family deals with the passing of the matriarch.

o   “Each of the Bundrens is concerned with Addie’s death and with her funeral, events which are by no means identical… Thus, it is Addie not as a mother, corpse, or promise but as an element in the blood of her children who dominates and shapes the complex psychological reactions.” (237)

o   In its simplest explanation grief has five stages:

§  Denial/Isolation occurs when a person pretends as though there is nothing to grieve and pushes those closest to them away in order to avoid grief

§  Anger results from the newly realized grief when a person finally comes to terms with loss

§  Bargaining/power-play are social elements one uses in order to make exceptions and replacements for what was lost

§  Depression results from the person realizing that there is no alternative to what was lost and their grief must commence

§  Acceptance is, therefore, the end all to grief. It is the point which a person has realized that there is no alternative and makes the decision to move forward with their own life

·      Anse Bundren is a reluctant patriarch incapable of accepting that his wife is dead. Denial, Isolation

o   Anse is the only character to portray socially appropriate mourning “His face tragic and composed, he easily makes the proper responses to condolences and recites his litany of grief, though somewhat marred by his irrepressible egotism” (Vickery 237); however his eagerness for new teeth and to replace his bride illustrate his avoidance of the real issue.

o   He acts very well adjusted, but under guise of fulfilling Addie’s wishes he isolates his children, dragging them through a funeral procession of hell.

·      Darl Bundren is an intelligent veteran whose depression over mother’s death results in deep psychosis. Depression

o   In the first scene of the funeral procession, when they have arrived in town, Darl is just sitting in the wagon laughing (61)

§  Progressively, this already strange character, grows ever stranger

o   Burns down the barn (126), institutionalized, sitting at a window thinking in 3^rd person, saying, “yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes” (146)

·      Jewel Bundren is a headstrong, emotionless man very attached to his horse, suffering from extreme anger over the death of his mother. Denial, Anger

o   Upon the death of his mother, his protectiveness of the horse grows as he shifts his affections from his mother to his horse denying himself grief. He uses the horse to save Cash while he saves Addie (89)

o   After selling the horse he becomes protective of Addie in her coffin again, rescuing her from the fire (126, Vickery 244)

·      Dewey Dell Bundren is a pregnant young woman ignoring that her mother has passed, preoccupied by yearning for an abortion, rejecting the idea of becoming the matriarch. Denial, Isolation Anger

·      Vardaman Bundren is a deeply philosophical child who takes turns the passing of his mother into a fantastically existential thought. Denial, Bargaining

o   Vardamans response is much more complex than the other characters because he is a child without the life experience and education to make sense of what has happened. Thus he creates these fantasies in order to avoid the truth.

§  “My mother is a fish” (49)

§  “An is different from my is” (33)

·      Cash Bundren is the eldest son, an experienced introverted carpenter, easily commanded in the beginning, emerges as a replacement patriarch and grounding force to his siblings. Depression, Power Play, Acceptance

o   Cash is the only character who truly grows through the novel and comes to accept that his mother has passed and use that event to his personal growth

§  “This increase in sensitivity and perception makes cash the only character in the novel who achieves his full humanity in which reason and intuition words and action merge into a single though complex response.”(242)

3.4 AILD Pre-Zero Draft

            William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (AILD) is a modernist experiment in psychoanalytical literature that exemplifies how a family grieves. Through Faulkner’s descriptions of the Bundrens, a rural southern family, of the lowest social status dealing with the death of their matriarch, he successfully, even if unintentionally, portrays the five steps of grief: denial/isolation, anger, bargaining/power struggle, depression, and finally acceptance.[??1]  We do not all go through every stage of grief with each bereavement we experience nor do we all experience each stage in the same manner. It is common for members of a family to experience grief in an archetypal fashion: each person subconsciously taking on a specific role through which they facilitate each others’ grief by experiencing the different phases simultaneously. We see process come to fruition in AILD as each character experiences grief differently, therefore sharing in one another’s experience until the end when they have all reached acceptance. Anse is in a state of denial, he knows that he promised to bury Addie in Jeferson and must take her there, but in he continues to fantasize about getting new teeth and finding a bride. These are distractions from his grief and finding a bride so soon after Addie’s death is a way for him to replace her without having to experience what his life would be like without a wife. Early in the novel Cash is introverted, an artistic and experienced carpenter, who grieves for his mother by building her coffin therefore bypassing denial and anger. Through the chaos of their journey he emerges

            Anse, who is to take the place of patriarch, is in such denial that he makes the focus of his narrative his search for new teeth and a bride to replace Addie Bundren, thereby isolating himself from the rest of his family.[??2]  Anse, prior to Addie’s death and before getting new teeth, was not a proud man. He was a stooping, unintelligent, mooch of a neighbor, cotton-picking, uninvolved father eager to order his children around, but hesitant to take responsibility for them in any other way. Because of this, and the chaotic funeral procession, his children have little respect for him and he has isolated himself from the rest of his family.[??3]  Anse’s isolation is beautifully illustrated at the end when he and his bride are walking down the street, he cannot look at his children because of the isolation he feels for having dragged them through hell to bury Addie. His children waiting in the wagon, staring back and Anse and his bride:[??4]  “‘It’s Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell,’ pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at us. ‘Meet Mrs. Bundren,’ he says” (149)[??5] . The image of his children on the wagon waiting and watching while he approaches, unable to make eye contact, is a perfect example of the dichotomy that has emerged from the funeral procession: Cash is now the patriarch, his siblings respond to and respect him; Anse, though still their father, no longer has their respect. The characters are now, more or less, in acceptance of Addie’s death, but now they have a whole new journey to experience.[??6] 

            Prior to Addie’s death Darl is the most intelligent and poetic of all of the characters, but he slips into a great depression upon her death and as their journey gains distance he slips further into severe psychosis, resulting in institutionalization. Jewel and Dewey Dell represent anger, though each presents it in a different way. Dewey Dell, never appearing to react to her mother’s death, can also be classified as in denial because her main focus is to get an abortion in Jefferson, which also isolates her character as she strives for secrecy. Vardaman has the most shocking combination of denial and bargaining in that he believes his mother has become a fish (49) and easily accepts that a new hierarchy is to result from her transition. The new hierarchy is actually led by Cash, previously the controllable introvert in the family eager to lend a hand to all. Cash emerges, through an interesting power play between he and Anse, as the patriarch commanding his siblings in the last scenes.

---

 [??1]Main argument.

 [??2]Topic sentence, first sub-argument.

 [??3]Situating the reader into the story.

 [??4]Introduces first supporting quote.

 [??5]First supporting quote.

 [??6]Interpretation

3.3 AILD Critical Essay Breakdown

            “Her sudden and brief affair with Whitfield constitutes Addie’s attempt to explore this new relationship between words and acts, for it encompasses even as it differentiates between two quite distinct conceptions of sin. As a word, sin is the opposite of virtue and leads inevitably to damnation. It is this aspect, which Addie stresses when she thinks of sin as garments which she and Whitfield wear in the face of the world and which they remove ‘in order to shape and coerce the terrible blood to the forlorn echo of the dead word high in the air.’ (101) But as an act sin may be a step toward salvation… The adultery thus becomes a moral act, not, of course, in the sense of ‘good’ or ‘virtuous’ but in the sense that it reestablishes the reality of moral conduct and of the relationship between God and man. This reality is neither linguistic nor factual in character; instead, it consists of the possible, the hypothetical, the conceivable, all, in short, that follows from the capacity for unrestricted choice. Significantly, Addie sees in Jewel, the child of her sin, a sign of grace: ‘He is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire.’ (97) Through sin Addie seeks to find and enact her own humanity, and if her solution seems extreme, so is her provocation. (239)

            “The Interplay of seriousness which reaches toward tragedy and of humor which is practically farce is part of the complete success of As I Lay Dying. In a sense, it reinforces the theme of the separation of words and acts by insisting on at least these two modes of response to the same set of characters and events. At the same time, it precludes any easy generalizations about the funeral journey itself. Any event or series of events elicits various and, at times, contradictory responses. The meaning of an experience as distinct from a word exists in the consciousness of the individual observer. Accordingly, it is only when one becomes conscious of the mingling humor and pathos, of the relation of the Bundrens to Addie, and of the observers to the action that the full complexity of As I Lay Dying is plumbed and Faulkner’s easy mastery of it recognized.” (248) Formalism

            Catherine Belsey would claim that formalist critics limit themselves by deriving all meaning in their critique from the text being read and not allowing themselves the freedom to expand upon their interpretations using outside sources including other critical analysis, historical references, intertextual comparisons, and ideological interpretations. The result of formalism does however present the reader of the analysis with insight into the opinions and perspectives of the critic.

            “Words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at. When he was born I knew that motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not.” (99)

            “[Anse] had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn’t need a word for that anymore than for pride or fear. Cash did not need to say it to me nor I to him, and I would say, ‘Let Anse use it, if he wants to.’ So that it was Anse or love; love or Anse: it didn’t matter.” (99)

            These passages reflect the formalist perspective that meaning of a text be derived only from the words presented by the text. These passages can also be interpreted as structuralist because they suppose that the meaning of words is derived historically.

           

            The limitation of formalism is that all meaning is derived from within the single text in question. It is essentially a critic’s way of doing their own rereading of the text without reflecting on any outside sources or opinions. This limitation is also the source of formalisms importance to literary criticism because every critic has their own life experiences that have shaped their perspective and therefore critics will “see” different things in a work of literature.

3.2 AILD From Critical Perspective

1.            Formalist

            William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is a narrative following a rural southern family struggling with the death of their matriarch in which he uses italics as a way of signifying the characters’ personal thoughts and one character’s return from clairvoyant visions. Many of the narratives read as though the character is speaking directly to the reader about their thoughts, actions, and existential ramblings. This makes the passages that appear in italics very confusing. On page 52, in one of Tull’s narratives, he is having a conversation with Cash and several of the men from town. Suddenly the entire conversation switches into italics. “‘Its them durn women’… ‘You couldn’t have holp it,’” are the last quotes to appear in standard type. There is nearly half a page of conversation taking place in italics and then “‘You couldn’t have holp it’… ‘Its them durn women,’” is reiterated in standard type again. The only signifier that the conversation taking place in italics is not a real conversation is that there are no quotes to signify when a character is speaking. This is because none of the characters are speaking in the italicized segment, that part of the conversation is taking place in Tull’s imagination. Many of the characters break into personal thought in this way. The only character in which italics are used differently is Darl, who narratives scenes that take place when he is miles away and couldn’t possibly know. These scenes appear in standard type, but when the narrative returns to where Darl himself is interacting with other characters the type is italicized to signify that it has returned to Darl’s person (30).

2.            Mimetic

            One of the most trying times in family life is the death of a loved one, but the death of the matriarch is immensely more significant because it represents a shuffle of power and familial roles can be thrown into tumult. William Faulkner writes a tremendously accurate portrayal of the emotional upheaval that results from the death of matriarch. In As I Lay Dying the Bundren’s have just lost Addie and are struggling to provide her with an honorable burial. A power play arises between her husband Anse, who claims she wished to be buried in her birth town several days journey away, and her son Darl, whose increasingly apparent psychosis drives him to attempt cremation in order to preserve her dignity. The most tragic figure is actually Dewey Dell who becomes trapped in matriarchal duty by unwanted pregnancy and the death of Addie. Dewey Dell is so adverse to being the matriarch that she seeks an abortion because she does not want to be tied down the way her mother was. Through the struggle of these three characters a new patriarch emerges from the most unsuspecting character. With Darl institutionalized, Anse taking in a new wife, and Dewey Dell’s emerging independence, Cash becomes the leader of the pack. In the last chapter, narrated by Cash, he is interacting with his siblings who now have to take more care of him since his leg is broken (148). In this scene we see Cash, previously the shy and introverted sibling, emerge as the managerial figure. The paradox of how this crippled and shy character becomes the central figure in the siblings’ lives is commonly portrayed in art for the realism it represents.

3.            Reader Response

            William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is a modernist experiment in psychoanalytic literature. The rural southern family, of the lowest social status, dealing with the death of their matriarch each fall into one of the five categories of grief: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Anse, who is to take the place of patriarch, is in such denial that he makes the focus of the novel his search for new teeth and a bride to the place of Addie Bundren, thereby isolating himself from the rest of his family. His isolation is illustrated at the end when he and his bride are coming down one side of the street, “even if he wouldn’t look at us,” and his children are coming from the other side staring back at his bride (149). Anse cannot look at his children because of his isolation for having dragged them through hell to bury Addie. Darl slips into the greatest form of depression resulting a psychosis that causes his institutionalization. Prior to her death Darl is the most intelligent and poetic of all of the characters, but as their journey gains distance he becomes more insane. Jewel and Dewey Dell represent anger, though each presents it in a different way. Dewey Dell, never appearing to react to her mother’s death, can also be classified as in denial because her main focus is to get an abortion upon their arrival in Jefferson. Vardaman has the most shocking combination of denial and bargaining in that he believes his mother has become a fish (49) and easily accepts that a new hierarchy is to result from her transition. The new hierarchy is actually led by Cash, previously the controllable introvert in the family eager to lend a hand to all, strangely emerges as the patriarch commanding his siblings in the last scenes.

4.            Structuralist

             In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying the narratives are riddled with biblical references, but Cora’s are constantly referring to her Christian duty. She chooses to live as though God has a constant interest in her, “riches is nothing in the face of the Lord, for He can see into the heart,” (5) even though she believes everyone else to be more in need of his guidance, “Not like Addie Bundren dying alone, hiding her pride and her broken heart” (15). These biblical references are paramount to her portrayal as the novel’s most self-centered narcissist because even when she is acting out of good it is not without the obvious selfish motivation for acceptance into Heaven, “So that when I lay me down in the consciousness of my duty and reward I will be surrounded by loving faces, carrying the farewell kiss of each of my loved ones in my reward” (my italics, page 15). The other biblical references seen in the story are used more in figurative terms, the irony is that none of the characters in AILD actually grasp the concepts of Christianity as they pertain to “thy neighbor.”

5.            Post-Structuralist

            William Faulkner’s use of italics in As I Lay Dying presents the reader with confusing binary oppositions within the characters narrative. The binary oppositions presented by these italicized passages are subsequently broken down by the unconventional use of language. Because the characters are saying one thing aloud and internalizing conflicting opinions these binaries become meaningless to the critic. One cannot begin to deconstruct the binaries within the story, if the characters themselves are ignoring them. Tull narrative on page 52 is a good example of these meaningless binaries because he creates an entire conversation in his head, in which he is imagining what the other men’s opinions are. In deconstructing the text, these italics can only be read as indicative of Tull’s experiences and prejudices, even though the reader knows full when through the other narratives that these negative opinions of women are shared by most of the male characters.

6.            Ideology

            The question of race in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is illustrated in Vardaman’s narrative. Vardaman’s declaration that because Cash’s broken cement-cast leg appears black and Jewel’s back is black, being covered in ash, that they must be black, breaks down the binaries of race (129). As a character, he is also the most existential, “an is different from my is,” (33) “my mother is a fish” (49). Because of the existential nature of his previous narratives, it seems fitting that he be the character to call in to question the arbitrariness of race. It is also fitting that these philosophies be illustrated by a child because of the cultural implications of a child’s lack of worldly knowledge, which results in their candidness. Vardaman’s narratives, therefore, illustrate the arbitrariness of race and present existential philosophy from an inherent place, begging to question the level of understanding and cultural ignorance of children’s insight.