Love is often what holds a family together. However, in the case of Addie Bundren and her family in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, it is duty that keeps them from falling apart. After Addie Bundren’s death, her husband and children embark on a misadventure to bury her body, not necessarily out of their love for her, but because of the duty they feel to follow her request and the duty they have to fulfill other expectations. Each member uses their duty to the family’s matriarch as a way to distract them from truly dealing with her death. The Bundrens also tend to treat their duty as an excuse rather than a responsibility in many cases. This is not to say that there is not love within their family, but through their journey and their
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Before her death, Addie Bundren requests that her body is buried in Jefferson, Mississippi and her family attempts to make good on this promise because of their duty to her. However, throughout the book, there are instances when Addie herself feels compelled to do something simply out of duty rather than love. The most notable example of this the very existence of her children. In her sole chapter of the book, Addie says “I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them [...]. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled” (Faulkner 174). It is only after she has borne her husband, Anse, a third son “to replace the child [she] had robbed him of” that she says she “could get ready to die” (Faulkner 176). She lives her modest life with contempt and with the motto “life is duty, death its end” (Bassett 126). Her perfunctory relationship with her husband comes from the isolation and lack of love she feels in their marriage. According to Elizabeth Spavento in her criticism of the novel, “sex serves one purpose, one duty, which belongs exclusively to [Addie’s] husband” (Spavento 69). Addie is a lonely school teacher and “took Anse” (Faulkner 171) just because her body was “simply a shape …show more content…
Before Addie has even drawn her last breath, Darl accuses Dewey Dell of being selfish by saying “You want [Addie] to die so you get to town; is that it?” (Faulkner 39). Once she gets to town, on of her first priorities is to find a place to get an abortion. Dewey Dell is so “completely absorbed in her own pregnancy” that “she has no time to mourn her mother 's dying” (Wagner 80). To further draw attention away from her mother’s death, Dewey Dell “sacrifices Darl in order to silence him” (Wagner 80) about the duty she was taking care of, once again choosing excuses and duty over love. Instead of directly confronting her emotions she feels regarding her mother’s death, “Dewey Dell 's revenge on Darl, in fact, seems an outlet for her general hostility toward the family” (Bassett 128). She rejects the roles she is expected to play as “the victim of Darl 's ridicule, MacGowan 's exploitation [...], Anse 's theft, Jewel 's anger, and Lafe 's lust” (Bassett 128), but because of the duty she has to her family, there is nothing she can do about any of
Before her death, Addie Bundren requests that her body is buried in Jefferson, Mississippi and her family attempts to make good on this promise because of their duty to her. However, throughout the book, there are instances when Addie herself feels compelled to do something simply out of duty rather than love. The most notable example of this the very existence of her children. In her sole chapter of the book, Addie says “I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them [...]. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled” (Faulkner 174). It is only after she has borne her husband, Anse, a third son “to replace the child [she] had robbed him of” that she says she “could get ready to die” (Faulkner 176). She lives her modest life with contempt and with the motto “life is duty, death its end” (Bassett 126). Her perfunctory relationship with her husband comes from the isolation and lack of love she feels in their marriage. According to Elizabeth Spavento in her criticism of the novel, “sex serves one purpose, one duty, which belongs exclusively to [Addie’s] husband” (Spavento 69). Addie is a lonely school teacher and “took Anse” (Faulkner 171) just because her body was “simply a shape …show more content…
Before Addie has even drawn her last breath, Darl accuses Dewey Dell of being selfish by saying “You want [Addie] to die so you get to town; is that it?” (Faulkner 39). Once she gets to town, on of her first priorities is to find a place to get an abortion. Dewey Dell is so “completely absorbed in her own pregnancy” that “she has no time to mourn her mother 's dying” (Wagner 80). To further draw attention away from her mother’s death, Dewey Dell “sacrifices Darl in order to silence him” (Wagner 80) about the duty she was taking care of, once again choosing excuses and duty over love. Instead of directly confronting her emotions she feels regarding her mother’s death, “Dewey Dell 's revenge on Darl, in fact, seems an outlet for her general hostility toward the family” (Bassett 128). She rejects the roles she is expected to play as “the victim of Darl 's ridicule, MacGowan 's exploitation [...], Anse 's theft, Jewel 's anger, and Lafe 's lust” (Bassett 128), but because of the duty she has to her family, there is nothing she can do about any of