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.
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