In “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner Darl is one of the main characters and has nineteen narrations throughout the story. Darl’s character in the story is more intellectual than emotional. Even though Darl is the second oldest child, his role and narration in the story makes him sometimes seem like the eldest yet his actions and feelings in the story make him seem careless. Darl’s narration has more in depth analysis or description in the story and his voice becomes the guiding narration in the story with lots of internal thoughts.
Darl’s relationships with his brothers are not good even though Darl seems like the most reasonable or intellectual. For example Darl says “Jewel,” I say, “do you know that Addie Bundren is going to die?” (Faulkner pg.40). Darl says this to Jewel multiple times in this narration because Jewel is in disbelief that Addie is going to die. This also shows that Darl doesn’t care about his mother dying. Darl calls his mother by her name and he repeats several times that she is going to die and he doesn’t seem to care.
We also know that Darl’s narration is one of the most significant because he is very observant or perceptive in containing information. Darl knows about Dewey Dell’s pregnancy, without speaking to her and learn that his mother died in his narration. Darl is clearly different from the rest of the family and he separates himself with his own higher intellect above the family. Darl also has a lot of interior monologues which shows what he thinks about other characters and how he perceives them.
Through the story Darl seems distant or doesn’t seem to agree with the family’s mission in burying Addie Bundren in Jefferson. Darl seems too careless when he abandons his mother’s coffin during the horrific river crossing. Overall I think Faulkner wants us to know that Darl is very different from the rest of his family and characters which isolates him from his family.
1 comment:
Interesting look on Darl, i have him also as a character. I never really thought of Darl not really caring that his mother was dying. But when i read your analysis,i saw that maybe he did in fact care less about his mom hence the burning of his mom...well the atempt to... But at the same time, i thought that he was the most sane and kept his family in check. That they were all really just held together by Darl...but i think that when he was talking to Jewel, like he seems like a jerk, but when you look at it, Darl , I think is really just trying to get Jewel to realize reality. And although Darl has the most narrations/or his own sections...i think it's because he's the most realistic. That burying his mother 40 miles away from home is really out of the ordinary, esp. in those days...so. Overall, i'd agree that he's distant but that he's also down to earth. Until the end of course..which makes us re-think about him and his character...
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