Betrayal In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

(An autopsy done by the Stark County Coroner’s Office concluded her death was a homicide by virtue of neglect.) He spoke of how the brothers admitted knowing their mother was unable to take proper care of herself in the weeks immediately preceding her death. Delores Bevington lost the ability to get up and move and clean herself, and was confined to a couch, onto which the urine and feces from her decomposing adult diaper had spilled. The diaper also was filled with maggots and bugs and her thighs and buttocks were covered with open sores and one patch of blackened and rotting flesh, noting the evidence was so overwhelming it contradicts the claim they were unaware of the seriousness of her condition.

Acknowledging this puts Dell in a trance because she now realises that she is the only girl within the Bundren family, and as the woman of the family, she will have more duties to serve. The thought of Lafe also brother's Dell considering they are not married and she’s pregnant by him. Dewey Dell older brother, Darl knows “are you going to tell pa are you going to kill him?”. This changed Dewey Dell she now knows she is alone with nobody to talk to about her temptation and cannot trust her brother Darl since he might say something to her father. She has also attacked him for the fear of him saying something.

It is always important to remember that with every story there comes more than one side to the story. William Faulkner presents this thought in a challenging way in his novel As I Lay Dying. He does this by having each of his fifteen characters in the novel narrate from their own perspective. This allows the reader to connect with the characters on multiple levels from what others say about them to what they have to say about themselves. There are only three chapters that are dedicated to the narration of Anse Bundren.

When it seems that someone is betraying the other, that very person might believe that they are in fact being loyal. In many of the situations that happened in the book, when someone was betrayed, there was often an opposite perspective which thought they were in fact being loyal to that person. When Najwa was betrayed by her family and forced to marry a complete stranger, her family believed that they were being loyal to her virtue and the culture’s traditions where she could have a safe, prosperous life with a man who could support her. When Suleiman betrayed his family thus betraying the dissidents, he felt he was being loyal to the family’s views unaware he was giving them up over to the government. The betrayal of people are sometimes given with the gift of loyalty.

The bodies of a sixteen year old Leslie Arnold’s parents were found buried in their house’s backyard of Omaha, Nebraska after he confessed to the police about the killings. On September 27th, 1958, Leslie had into an argument with his parents over their family car. This led him to brutally shooting his parents and burying their bodies in a shallow grave behind their home. His parents were William Arnold, a 42 year old manager and his wife Opel who was about 40 years at the time of their death. Arnold and his 11 year old brother even stayed in the home alone since that time.

Betrayal: the act of betraying someone or something or the fact of being betrayed: violation of a person's trust or confidence, of a moral standard, etc. (Merriam Webster.) Betrayal, at its core, is change, disappointment, and pain. It is about the subversion of expectations, where what is given is far less than what is expected. In literary works, it is a simple device used to drive plots forward and create complex characters.

Religion in As I Lay Dying The time and setting during which the novel was written are very important for understanding William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. This novel was written in 1930 Mississippi; during this time Mississippi was very religious. Unsurprisingly, Christianity and religion also plays a big role in As I Lay Dying particularly through imagery and symbolism that connects different characters to religious figures, including Jesus Christ.

The conclusion of As I Lay Dying is as twisted as the rest of novel. In the final section, it is revealed that Anse married the woman he borrowed the spades from. (Hence why Cash referred to the house as Mrs. Bundren’s house.) Anse is certainly the most detestable character in the novel, and his final action in the story only solidifies that opinion. He met his new wife while looking for some tools to bury his first wife!

Life is troublesome on its own, but when your loved ones betray you it gets worse. Betrayal is an evident theme in Lord of the Flies, Macbeth and Fifth Business. The betrayers typically are your friends, your family and most often yourself. In the novels Lord of the Flies, Macbeth and Fifth Business friends are the characters worst enemies.

The first sign of betrayal is shown when Tom Driscoll sends his mother down the river after she specifically requests him not to. His mother was giving up her life in order to convenience him with only two requests: That Tom would return in a year to buy her free and that he would sell her up North. Tom betrays her and sells her down the river without hesitation. Judge Driscoll is also betrayed by Tom in Pudd’nhead Wilson. He spends many years of his life providing for Tom as his own son.

She is the one female character that challenges the standard of a southern, rural woman. Unlike Cora she isn’t obedient to her husband nor God. She cheated on her husband, Anse, with a minister and isn’t sexually satisfied by Anse. Addie isn’t happy with the traditional way of life of having a husband and kids, “So I took Anse. And when I knew that I had Cash, I knew that living was terrible…”

William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying follows the Bundren family on a journey while it explores the subject of heroism and discusses its subjectivity. The family travels on an expedition to bury Addie, the deceased mother of the protagonist, Darl Bundren, and his siblings. As days continue to pass, however, the journey seemed interminable. During the adventure, the family takes a stop at Gillespie’s barn for the evening. While they rest Darl sets the barn, in which the coffin sits, ablaze.

In Love and In Death William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, centers around a reclusive woman named Emily Grierson who is the protagonist of this story. Emily lives in Jefferson, Mississippi with her strict and over protective father who turns away any male suitor who shows any interest in her as he believes them to be unfit for his daughter. Emily and her father are regarded as upper-class southerners who live in a very nice home. The townspeople see Emily as a mysterious individual, often pitting her.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner follows the Bundren family on their arduous journey to fulfill their dying mother's wish: to be buried with her family. Faulkner utilizes fifteen narrators, including Vardaman, the confused child, Addie, the dying mother, and objective characters such as the Tull family, to recount the details of the family's quest. Although death is a meaningful and somber topic, Faulkner reveals his opinion that death is an escape from the difficulties of life. Despite this grim subject matter, Faulkner uses irony and humor to effectively turn the novel into a dark comedy. Faulkner illustrates this dark humor through Addie's anticipation of her death, Anse's blatant ignorance toward his dying wife, and Vardaman's amusing confusion about death.

In the novel, As I lay dying by William Faulkner, the Bundren family go through a mental journey of loss and death of their mother later to go on a physical journey to bury their mother. To the conclusion of any novel, many have an opinion on what is much happy or not a happy ending. In the case of the ending to As I lay dying, include no real burial of how the mother wanted, which was the point of the physical journey in the first place, secrets comes out, one of the five the siblings gets taken away, and many are left with unfinished business, was not a happy at all for most of the characters. The novel is narrated by 15 characters that are not all part of the Bundren family but in some way connected.