To be fully present in a literary work, a character has to be conscious; however, a character cas still be important. Since Addie Bundren is dead, she only appears briefly as a conscious character. Addie’s being is important to the entire book’s plot. Addie Bundren’s presence is significant even though she is an absent protagonist. William Faulkner uses Addie Bundren’s character to help develop action in the plot, the development of characters, and theme. Even though her chapter is not a long one, the chapter reveals information about her character: mainly her actions. She reveals in the chapter that she never loved Anse, even though they are married. Addie has children with Anse; but when Cora, Vernon Tull’s wife, speaks her mind to Addie,
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Because of her loveless marriage and her affair, Addie spends a lot of time dotting on Jewel, instead of her other children. Her dotting affects Darl, and he resents her and turns angry. Darl notes that Jewel buys a horse, which is not good for the family’s economic situation, and Addie only cries instead of scolding him for wasting his money (Faulkner 136). Addie skews the relationship between Jewel and the other Bundren children due to her favoritism. Jewel becomes awkward around the other characters such as Darl, causing anger towards Addie. Eventually, Jewel becomes a violent person shown when he beats his horse by “[striking] it upon the face with the back of the curry-comb” (Faulkner 183). Darl, also affected by his mother, becomes incessantly aware about Addie and her relationship to Jewel. He knew that Jewel is not Anse’s son which he alludes to by asking Jewel who his father is, causing more conflict/tension between the two characters (Faulkner 212). She is still his mother even though he states that “[he] cannot love [his] mother because [he has] no mother” (Faulkner 94). This may refer to Addie not acting like a mother; in the end, Darl did not want his mother to be made a mockery by parading her to Jefferson (because she smelled awful due to her corpse rotting on this journey). Instead of waiting to bury her in Jefferson, he burns down the Gillespie’s barn to “save” her from being made a fool after her death to which Jewel rushes into the barn to save her body (Faulkner 218-222). Darl seems insane for burning a man’s barn since a barn contains tools and animals to sustain the Gillespie family’s lives so he is sent to an insane asylum. Even though throughout the book Darl is one of the most thoughtful of the group and seems to be the only one to care about Addie’s reputation, Darl knew better to burn down a man’s barn and yet, Addie effected his personality to the point he did not want
Because of her loveless marriage and her affair, Addie spends a lot of time dotting on Jewel, instead of her other children. Her dotting affects Darl, and he resents her and turns angry. Darl notes that Jewel buys a horse, which is not good for the family’s economic situation, and Addie only cries instead of scolding him for wasting his money (Faulkner 136). Addie skews the relationship between Jewel and the other Bundren children due to her favoritism. Jewel becomes awkward around the other characters such as Darl, causing anger towards Addie. Eventually, Jewel becomes a violent person shown when he beats his horse by “[striking] it upon the face with the back of the curry-comb” (Faulkner 183). Darl, also affected by his mother, becomes incessantly aware about Addie and her relationship to Jewel. He knew that Jewel is not Anse’s son which he alludes to by asking Jewel who his father is, causing more conflict/tension between the two characters (Faulkner 212). She is still his mother even though he states that “[he] cannot love [his] mother because [he has] no mother” (Faulkner 94). This may refer to Addie not acting like a mother; in the end, Darl did not want his mother to be made a mockery by parading her to Jefferson (because she smelled awful due to her corpse rotting on this journey). Instead of waiting to bury her in Jefferson, he burns down the Gillespie’s barn to “save” her from being made a fool after her death to which Jewel rushes into the barn to save her body (Faulkner 218-222). Darl seems insane for burning a man’s barn since a barn contains tools and animals to sustain the Gillespie family’s lives so he is sent to an insane asylum. Even though throughout the book Darl is one of the most thoughtful of the group and seems to be the only one to care about Addie’s reputation, Darl knew better to burn down a man’s barn and yet, Addie effected his personality to the point he did not want