Dewey Dell’s conflict
Dewey Dell is the fourth child, and the only daughter, of Anse and Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying. “Dewey Dell monologues are characterized with unarticulated wishes, powerful but poorly misunderstood emotions, and weakness.” From the dialogue, Darl said to Dewel Dell that Addie is going to die and she will die before they get back from the lumber job. Based on the story As I Lay Dying, does Dewey Dell hates Darl or she doesn’t? If yes, what is the reason? This paper will discuss how Dewey Dell’s attitude towards Darl is continuous with her weird dreams.
First, Dewey Dell is the fourth of five children from Addie’s Bundren. She is the only daughter of the family. One night, Darl, Cash, Dewey Dell and Vardaman went to New Hope. Cash and Darl are swimming. “Vardaman rise and go to the window and strike the knife into the fish, the blood gushing, hissing like steam but I could not see.” Vardaman is younger brother of Dewey Dell. “He’ll do as I say.” Dewey Dell can persuade him to anything. On that night, Dewey Dell’s got a weird dream. “I rose and took the knife from the streaming fish still hissing and I killed Darl. She remembers a dream where she killed him. But it was only a dream. ” When I used to sleep with Vardaman I had a nightmare one I thought I was awake but I couldn’t see and couldn’t feel the bed under me and I couldn’t think what I was I couldn’t think of my name I couldn’t even think I am a girl …She remembers a nightmare where she did not know where or who or what she was, nor what was happening.
“Do you know she is going to die, Jewel?” Darl said. “It takes two people to make you, and one people to die.” I said to Dewey Dell: “You want her to die so you can get to town: is that it?” She wouldn’t say what we both knew. “The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true: is that it? But you know it is true now.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway undergoes an internal struggle between her love for society and life and a combined affinity for and fear of death. Her practical marriage to Richard serves its purpose of providing her with an involved social life of gatherings and parties that others may find frivolous but Clarissa sees as “an offering” to the life she loves so well. Throughout the novel she grapples with the prospect of growing old and approaching death, which after the joys of her life seems “unbelievable… that it must end; and no one in the whole world would know how she had loved it all; how, every instant…” At the same time, she is drawn to the very idea of dying, a theme which is most obviously exposed through her reaction to the news of Septimus Smith’s suicide. However, this crucial scene r...
...a good result. However, Dewey Dell shows signs of motherly actions when she "... tears a piece of paper from the package and wipes the cement from the top of it as it drips from Cash's leg" (Faulkner 208). Dewey Dell shows a surprising amount of maternal instinct when she finds out Vardaman saw Darl light the Gillespie's barn on fire. Vardaman was just being the typical, curious boy when he gained knowledge of Darl's wrongdoings. In a protective manner, Dewey Dell warned Vardaman as he explains "... I saw something that Dewey Dell says I mustn't tell nobody" (Faulkner 225). Another example of Dewey Dell assuming a protective, motherly role occurs when Jewel and a townsman have an altercation. Dewey Dell attempts to shield Jewel from the dispute. All of these examples along the Bundren's journey depict Dewey Dell maturing and evolving into a motherly figure.
Darl, the second child of Anse and Addie Bundren is the most prolific voice in the novel As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner. Darl Bundren, the next eldest of the Bundren children, delivers the largest number of interior monologues in the novel. An extremely sensitive and articulate young man, he is heartbroken by the death of his mother and the plight of his family's burial journey. Darl seemed to possess a gift of clairvoyance, which allowed him to narrate; for instance, the scene of Addie's death. Even though he and Jewel were away at the time. Similarly, he knew Dewey Dell was pregnant because he had seen her with Lafe, and he also knew that Jewel was illegitimate. Nevertheless, he was regarded as strange. Cora Tull says, he was "the one that folks says is queer, lazy, pottering about the place no better than Anse." Out of jealousy, he constantly taunted Jewel, Addie's favorite child. Except for Jewel, he alone among the Bundrens had no hidden motive for wanting to go to Jefferson.
Addie Bundren conjures up the central darkness derived from her death and directly or indirectly causes actions in which each Bundren character takes advantage of Addie. With the character's actions revolving around her death, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying reveals the truth about the people who surround a person may take advantage of him or her. The death of Addie Bundren shapes all of the character's actions in life including Addie's final request before her death. Addie takes advantage of her death by using it for revenge and inflicting final pains upon some characters, while the other characters use her to get what they want for their personal needs.
In the following essay, I will develop my thoughts by talking about how Weirob challenges her long life friend Miller to comfort her on her death bed for three nights, about the slight possibility of her soul surviving after death. This is based on the author John Perrys’ ideas. I will also be discussing the two personal criterions that we discussed in class that I believe fit best to the passage.
Louise is trapped in her marriage. The lines of her face "bespoke repression" (paragraph 8). When Louise acknowledges that her husband is dead, she knows that there will "be no powerful will bending her" (paragraph 14). There will be no husband who believes he has the "right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature" (paragraph 14). Louise knows that her husband loved her. Brently had only ever looked at Louise with love (paragraph 13). This tells the reader that Brently is not a horrible ma...
She begins to speak directly to the reader, getting them to realize that even though they have read her thoughts, they do not quite understand them. She tells the reader they are
“We lie so much/ truth has a false ring and its hard to tell,” (Williams, “Ruby Tells All” 15). This is just one of the many life lessons the speaker of the poem, “Ruby Tells All,” by Miller Williams, learns in her long life. The voice of Ruby in this confessional style poem is a wise one. Ruby shares her philosophy on life with the audience, conveying through her tone that she is resigned about what she has learned. Life is not what she thought it would be. But, Ruby also admits that despite everything unpleasant, there are good parts to life as well. In “Ruby Tells All,” the tone, language, and style give insight into who Ruby is and how she feels about life.
Addie feels dead inside and is angered that she has to have the children. She also plans on getting revenge on Anse for this. Dewey Dell is affected because she goes through a lot to get an abortion and is scared and angry at Darl because he knows that she is pregnant. The women in the novel attempt to cope with their situations through religion. Religion is connected to only the female characters in the novel, Cora is the most prominent because she uses religion to judge the other women showing how she is hypocritical. She states that Addie is not a true mother, further reinforcing their roles. She also reinforces their role using religion. “I have tried to live right in the sight of God and man, for the honor and comfort of my Christian husband (23),”which says that she believes that God wants her to be put into this role. Addie is connected with religion because she recognizes her sin when she sleeps with Whitfield and makes it up to “Anse and to God (174)” by having Dewey Dell and Vardaman. Unlike Cora, she does not use religion to cope. Lastly, Dewey Dell says that “God gave women a sign when something has happened bad (58),” so she believes that God will give her a sign and things may work out for her.
Since the beginning of her life, Louisa isn't allowed to express herself because her father continually stresses the facts. Mr. Gradgrind suppresses Louisa's imagination and all she can do is wonder. One example of Louisa attempting to view the unknown occurs when she and Tom peep through a loophole in order to see a circus (8). This is the first time both Louisa and Tom have seen such a sight. When asked why they were there, Louisa curiously answers, "Wanted to see what it was like" (8), a response any normal child would have. Her "starved imagination" (8) is curious and needs some sort of avenue for release. As Louisa blossoms into a young lady, the young Miss Gradgrind enchants one particular suitor. Her father thought that it was time for Louisa to marry and had a suitable companion in mind. When Mr. Gradgrind asks Louisa if she would like to be Mrs. Bounderby, all Louisa can utter is, "You have been so careful of me, that I never had a child's dream. You have dealt so wisely with me, father, from my cradle to this hour, that I never had a child's belief or a child's fear" (63). Mr. Gradgrind interprets his daughter's words as a compliment to him and his strict belief in teaching only the facts. But Louisa means she has not experienced life and has never been given the chance. Her childhood has been murdered by her father's strict insistence on the perpetuation of facts only. Although Louisa realizes she has been enslaved by the theories of fact, she willingly enters yet another bondage to Mr. Bounderby allowing the process of her suppression to continue.
Towards the middle of the story, Usher’s twin sister Madeline is shown to be sick and close to giving into the “prostrating power of her destroyer” (21). Eventually, Usher gives the narrator the bad news that Madeline has passed away and immediately be placed in the family burial vault until proper arrangements can be done. Later, it is revealed that Madeleine had been buried alive and Usher knew exactly what he had done. When the narrator confronted him about what he did to Madeline, Usher simply replied with “Not hear it - yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have i heard it -- yet I dared not speak...” (28). This abnormal response gives insight into how much of Usher’s thoughts control him; he let his twin sister remain in a coffin buried alive and did absolutely nothing to save her. Poe attacks how vulnerable individuals become to their own minds and forces the readers to consider the downside of the Human Condition. Although not on such intense level as Usher, people let their thoughts define who they are and what they do. Insecurity, a problem among several teenagers and even adults, begins with the person’s thoughts and self-esteem. Due to insecurity, many believe they aren’t capable of doing what they love and that they should stick doing what their mind is convincing them to.
Instead of teaching us how to do projects and essays, how to use the quadratic formula, how to understand the concept of war, teach us instead the art of persuasion. Teach us the ways of entertaining an audience, the dilemmas that the world faces. Teach us that there are an enormous amount of issues in the world and they come with an abundant amount of solutions. To learn how to engage an audience is to learn how to teach one.
During his stay at the house of Usher, the narrator finds himself unable to draw his friend out of the abyss of misery in which he has enshrouded himself, both figuratively and literally. Admitting to his sister's approaching death being one of...
The extensive descriptions of Mrs. Dalloway’s inner thoughts and observations reveals Woolf’s “stream of consciousness” writing style, which emphasizes the complexity of Clarissa’s existential crisis. She also alludes to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, further revealing her preoccupation with death as she quotes lines from a funeral song. She reads these lines while shopping in the commotion and joy of the streets of London, which juxtaposes with her internal conflicts regarding death. Shakespeare, a motif in the book, represents hope and solace for Mrs. Dalloway, as his lines form Cymbeline talk about the comforts found in death. From the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dalloway has shown a fear for death and experiences multiple existential crises, so her connection with Shakespeare is her way of dealing with the horrors of death. The multiple layers to this passage, including the irony, juxtaposition, and allusion, reveal Woolf’s complex writing style, which demonstrates that death is constantly present in people’s minds, affecting their everyday
... to accept that nothing can change the fact that Lucy is dead. What really makes it apparent that Lucy’s parents refuse to let her fade away, is the fact that the stranger is telling the story. The stranger is narrating it as if it was told to him by one of the parents, word by word, to be repeated and spread throughout the town, so in a way Lucy is always kept alive. In words of Wordsworth: