Sullivan 1
Korinne Sullivan
English 70
Professor Vasquez
29 September 2014
Irony: The Tragic and Comic
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is the tale of the Bundren family and
their forty-mile trek to a distant town to bury Addie, the family matriarch,
according to her last wishes. It is told from varying points of view that include
both family members and outside observers, but the most prominent narrator is
Darl Bundren, Addie's second-oldest son. The dysfunctional dynamic among the
various family members sets events in motion as Addie lays on her deathbed,
watching the construction of her coffin. By looking through the eyes of Darl, the
family's journey to bury Addie turns what should be a solemn family affair into a
farce because of the selfishness of key family members and the underlying tensions
that are brewing between them.
Even before Addie's death, the other Bundrens' selfish motives and latent
hostilities are clear and become more obvious after her passing. Darl is quiet and
serious, and glimpses into his character show that he has an intuitive, intelligent
nature, despite being discounted as mentally deficient by the rest of his family.
Jewel, Addie's favorite son, has a quick temper and a gift with horses. Dewey Dell
Sullivan 2
is the only daughter of the Bundren offspring, and is simple-minded and consumed
with her own trouble of being unmarried and pregnant. Anse, Addie's husband,
frequently bemoans the troubles he endures, referring to himself as "a luckless
man" (Faulkner 18), yet ignoring the fact that he has brought much of those
troubles upon himself. Dewey Dell hates Darl because he is aware of the affair
that resulted in her pregnancy and she believes that he might tell their parents
(Faulkner 27). The friction between Darl and Jewel is always present throughout
the book, but is illustrated the best when Darl forces his brother to face reality by
reminding Jewel that their mother is dying (Faulkner 39) and later, when he senses
Addie's passing, stating outright "she is dead, Jewel. Addie Bundren is dead"
(Faulkner 52). These tensions begin to heighten when the journey to Jefferson
begins. Anse berates each of his children for various sins: Jewel for riding his
horse (Faulkner 104), Dewey Dell for having volunteered to sell a neighbor
woman's cakes (Faulkner 102), Cash for planning to do some paid work on the
return trip (Faulkner 101). Yet, his feigned outrage at them for exploiting the
family tragedy is ludicrous because Anse has his own selfish goal in mind; to
acquire himself new teeth (Faulkner 111).
The tragicomic element is emphasized by the fact that Addie was too busy
being miserable to attempt to experience the joys of living. Addie's single
monologue does not come until more than halfway through the book. Up until this
Sullivan 3
point, Addie's character is sketched into place by the other main characters, but her
own words prove to be far more revealing. She hates her young students, hates her
father (Faulkner 170); in fact, she seems to hate life itself, subscribing to her
father's belief that "the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead" (Faulkner
168). She married Anse when he offered in order to escape the drudgery of being a
teacher, and thought that Cash's birth would fill the emotional void (Faulkner 171),
only to feel anger when that void remained: "Motherhood was invented by
someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had children didn't
care whether there was a word for it..." (Faulkner 171-172). She becomes angry
when she finds out she is pregnant with Darl, and summarily rejects him even
before his birth. In his essay Faulknerian Tragedy: The Examples of ‘As I Lay
Dying’, Merrill states, “What makes Addie a tragic figure is not simply that she
seeks an impossible communion, but that she seeks it from everyone but…the one
son who feels something like her own passion.” (5) This rejection gives her no
opportunity to attempt to get to know Darl and therefore realize how much like her
he will become.
By having more farcical mishaps occur as the journey nears its end, it
leaves only Darl cognizant of the potential catastrophes that still lay ahead. Nature
itself appears to be working against them; heavy rains wash out Tull’s bridge,
forcing them to attempt to ford the river in the wagon. Jewel fumes with
Sullivan 4
impatience while Darl and Cash work to secure the coffin for a safe trip (Faulkner
146), but their efforts end up being in vain. The mules drown, Addie’s coffin is
nearly lost, and Cash suffers a severe leg fracture (Faulkner 148). Anse complains
aloud to anyone who will listen about how this is more misfortune for him, yet
then proceeds to makes the preposterous comment that Cash’s injury is “lucky
[because] it was the same leg he broke when he fell offen that church” (Faulkner
163). Neighbors such as Armstid and Gillespie offer the family overnight shelter
and assistance with reluctance, confounded by both Anse’s attitude (Faulkner 192)
and the disgraceful treatment of Addie’s remains (Faulkner 187). Darl eventually
attempts to set the Gillespie barn afire in the middle of the night while Addie’s
coffin is inside, telling his youngest brother Vardaman before the arson attempt
that Addie “wants [God] to hide her away from the sight of man" (Faulkner 215).
But Jewel risks his own safety to retrieve the coffin from the flames (Faulkner 222)
and Darl lays atop the coffin afterward, crying; Vardaman mistakes his tears for
relief when they are, in fact, from frustration (Faulkner 225). "Of the Bundren
children, only Darl sees the sheer absurdity of their journey; only he attempts to
rescue his mother from the outrageous and disrespectful spectacles along the way"
(Lilburn 3). Even though it is hinted that Vardaman saw Darl start the fire, he is
too young to understand that his beloved older brother was actually trying to give
their mother a decent interment by way of cremation. Once arriving in Jefferson,
Sullivan 5
the other Bundrens decide behind Darl’s back that it’s better to turn him in to the
authorities and have him committed to an asylum than risk Gillespie suing them for
the fire (Faulkner 232). Cash urges that it be done after Addie is buried, stating
“we can wait until she is underground” (Faulkner 233). And, moments after
Addie’s grave is filled, the authorities arrive to arrest Darl (Faulkner 237). Much
to everyone’s surprise, Darl’s reaction to his arrest is to laugh (Faulkner 238). To
everyone else present, it is taken as a sign that Darl has indeed gone mad, though
Cash tries to soften the blow by saying “it’ll be quiet…it’ll be better for you, Darl”
(Faulkner 238). It is both saddening and amusing that Cash is the one to find
something positive in Darl's being committed to an asylum. He reflects that, while
"nothing justifies the deliberate destruction of what a man has built with his own
sweat" (Faulkner 238), Darl will be better off away from people who never
accepted him for the sensitive, intuitive person he is, that "this world is not [Darl's]
world, this is not his life" (Faulkner 261).
A tragicomedy is defined in the online Brittanica dictionary as "a dramatic
work incorporating both tragic and comic elements". As I Lay Dying is a prime
example of this type of work. The Bundren family members are dysfunctional
both separately and as a family unit, each with their own amusing idiosyncrasies,
yet pathetic pathos. What is even more pathetic is that the one person they are
allegedly attempting to honor never cared about any of them in the first place, and
Sullivan 6
saw life itself as a meaningless, miserable existence. There is a delicious irony in
the fact that Darl, the one person who can see the conceit of the others, is the same
person considered to be an imbecile by the rest of the characters. His being
committed to a mental institution because of his unorthodox method in rectifying
an already bad situation is even more ironic and is the final nail in the coffin in
what was, start to finish, a tragic tale.
Sullivan 7
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text. New York: Vintage, 1990.
Print.
Lilburn, Jeffrey M. "Overview of 'As I Lay Dying'." Novels for Students. Ed. Marie
Rose Napierkowski and Deborah A. Stanley. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, 2000.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.
Merrill, Robert. "Faulknerian tragedy: the example of 'As I Lay Dying.' (Special
Issue: William Faulkner)." The Mississippi Quarterly 47.3 (1994): 403+.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.