Undying Malice
Addie Bundren is a rather mysterious figure in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. The first portion of the book has her sitting in the death-room not saying a word to anyone, or even looking in Anse's direction. Only at the moment of her death does she call out to Cash.
The next portion of the book sees Addie dead, in the coffin (accidentally augured), and on the road. She is very dead at this point, but she still maintains a significant presence in the plot, with Anse's adamant declarations that "this is what she wanted" or the omnipresent stench that follows the cart like a blight on the land. In the paradigm of the Hero's Journey, Addie, residing in her coffin is a Talisman, but she seems to be a bad-luck charm or a harbinger of misfortune as well, given the reactions of people outside the Bundren family.
After the river crossing, we get a chapter narrated by Addie herself, even though she has been dead for a week at that point. We learn that Addie Bundren is spiteful, isolated from humanity, with a life philosophy of "the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time." When she learns that she is pregnant with Darl, she swears/prophesies vengeance upon Anse (yet he would never understand that she is taking revenge). At this time, Addie takes on an even more supernatural role, almost like a vengeful spirit, because of her continued presence in the plot and how well she seems to predict the suffering of the Bundren family.
Finally, the moment that makes clear to me Addie's status as a vengeful spirit is in Gillespie's barn. Darl, the child who inspired Addie's malice, hears her whispering from her coffin to "hide her from the eyes of men," inspiring him in turn to burn the barn. Perhaps she wanted a dramatic burial by cremation. Perhaps she just wanted to hurt Anse and the others further by destroying their relations with the neighbors. Perhaps Darl was genuinely acting on his own insane impulses.
Whatever the case, As I Lay Dying is in many ways the story of a family haunted the ghost of their mother, as misfortune befalls them and an epic journey mixes with tragedy.
The next portion of the book sees Addie dead, in the coffin (accidentally augured), and on the road. She is very dead at this point, but she still maintains a significant presence in the plot, with Anse's adamant declarations that "this is what she wanted" or the omnipresent stench that follows the cart like a blight on the land. In the paradigm of the Hero's Journey, Addie, residing in her coffin is a Talisman, but she seems to be a bad-luck charm or a harbinger of misfortune as well, given the reactions of people outside the Bundren family.
After the river crossing, we get a chapter narrated by Addie herself, even though she has been dead for a week at that point. We learn that Addie Bundren is spiteful, isolated from humanity, with a life philosophy of "the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time." When she learns that she is pregnant with Darl, she swears/prophesies vengeance upon Anse (yet he would never understand that she is taking revenge). At this time, Addie takes on an even more supernatural role, almost like a vengeful spirit, because of her continued presence in the plot and how well she seems to predict the suffering of the Bundren family.
Finally, the moment that makes clear to me Addie's status as a vengeful spirit is in Gillespie's barn. Darl, the child who inspired Addie's malice, hears her whispering from her coffin to "hide her from the eyes of men," inspiring him in turn to burn the barn. Perhaps she wanted a dramatic burial by cremation. Perhaps she just wanted to hurt Anse and the others further by destroying their relations with the neighbors. Perhaps Darl was genuinely acting on his own insane impulses.
Whatever the case, As I Lay Dying is in many ways the story of a family haunted the ghost of their mother, as misfortune befalls them and an epic journey mixes with tragedy.
Nice post! I like your idea of Addie haunting the Bundrens. Addie also predicts that Jewel is going to save her from water and fire when she's talking to Cora so these supernatural abilities before her death works well a sort of supernatural existence after her death. I also think it's really interesting that if we think of Addie as a ghost fulfilling her last wish of making her family miserable, she's vanquished, or the story ends, not when she's buried, but when Anse remarries.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about how Addie really does haunt the family. It's also weird to think about a possible supernatural connection between Addie and Darl? I mean when Addie dies, Darl just feels it and knows. And then with the barn Darl communicates in away with Addie, or her spirit. Except it may not just be between Darl and Addie. It;s possible it's just Darl who has the powers. After all, h's the one who narrates scenes he doesn't take part in with precise detail. He's also the one who communicates without words and knows things hidden in the dark. There's something more to Darl that Faulkner won't tell us, but I wonder what it is.
ReplyDeleteI really like this description of Addie. I never really thought about her that much despite the whole focus of the book being her revenge plot. I kind of just felt like she was dead and didn't have much impact during the journey. However, the spiritual elements that you point out show that she is still very much part of the trip despite not being alive.
ReplyDeleteAddie's definitely some kind of bad luck charm. There's a very perfect storm of events that makes the journey in AILD so bad for all the characters:
ReplyDeletea flood
Dewey Dell's affair
Cash, having broken his leg, breaking the same leg again
Darl's insanity (though we can debate the cause later)
Vardaman catching the fish (you could argue) and his ensuing insanity
Many of these events are created by the characters in response to other things, and some of them seem symbolic of larger problems that would emerge no matter what (think the fish that Vardaman catches). But big events like Dewey Dell's affair, the flood, and the "talking to the coffin" incident seem to be strangely aligned with what Addie says in her chapter.
Oooooooooo I love this theory! I can totally see Addie as this agent of chaos from the grave playing a twisted prank on the family that she hates. Though this wouldn't explain to me why some characters end up in a good place and some don't, you would think if Addie really hated Anse so much he wouldn't get his teeth or a new wife. Maybe she was attempting to do something and her intentions got lost in translation. Maybe they all just do this to themselves, maybe it's somewhere in the middle. It's hard to tell since they're all such messes tbh. But this is a really interesting idea and something I hadn't thought about before. Hopefully now that Addie is buried they can all move on and Addie can stop her spiteful revenge.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I agree with Addie being this type of talisman which brings bad luck. However, if I was to theorize for a bit, I would put this more into an idea of Faulkner pointing fun at the Heroes Journey narrative. It's almost a satirisation, blowing all parts out of proportion. From Darls relationship with the weird clairvoyant bard found in "The Odyssey" to Addie as the traditional catalyst to the heroes journey, only now we see the destruction wrought by this talisman and our heroes. If you think about it even in Star Wars, the Talisman caused the death of a whole planet, the death of Lukes foster parents, and also the death of a whole tribe of Jawas, and much more which I can't recall. As for Darls burning of the barn, in a way I think its more Darl knowing the reason behind this journey to bury Addie, and hates her and said journey for causing them so much difficulty, and so tries to burn the barn and her coffin with it.
ReplyDelete