As ? Lay Dying

What follows is an answer to the question, “What does the title As I Lay Dying mean for Faulkner’s novel?” The question of titles is fun and sometimes fruitful, so I ask myself. Knowing the novel isn’t imperative to join in the discussion, because ultimately, this essay is only about life and death. And we all have experiential knowledge of both, maybe.

Before the textual beginning of the narrative, Addie has already been dying for ten days (she may argue that she’s always been dying) in her bed. In those ten days before her death and the eight days after, what is the difference? The family is in her service while she’s in bed: Dewey Dell with the fan, Cash with the coffin. And when she’s on the journey to Jefferson, the family is still ostensibly focused on serving Addie’s wish of burial.

Furthermore, what is the difference between how the Bundren’s are “living” and what will become after they pass? There can be no death without life, and I am not sure that Darl or Addie would claim that the family is living. Of course, this calls into question the meaning of the word “life”–and the text, particularly Addie, is concerned with the worth of words. If nothing is being done, if there is no progress, isn’t the family just lying in wait, in a static condition that a physical death may not effect. All of the kids serve their family in various ways; they are insulated in a way similar to Mokketubbe. And Anse does what he can, peaking with maiming his oldest son, to constrain his family to his own desires.

If there is no progress in what you call life, is there a point of living? I think this question is a contributor to Darl’s madness. If life means only a changing of scenes that all produce pain, what’s the point? And if everyone you come into contact with can’t see through the insignificance of their actions, the triviality of their plans and words (like “love”) and the implacable human situation, how does one reconcile his own “life”?