As I Lay Dying Characters Analysis
Anse Bundren - He is the lazy patriarch of the Bundren family and the only member of the family who seems to not contribute to the family. Darl explains that Anse never sweats as he had once been told that sweating will kill him. Throughout the novel, he repeatedly claims to be conducting the journey to Jefferson for the benefit of his wife’s wish to be buried among her ancestors. Anse proves himself to be a poor father, as he behaves terribly with his children, paying attention to them only when he wants to make use of them. He ignores the grief they experience over their mother’s death and replaces her with another woman, the very next day after she has been buried.
Addie Bundren - Anse Bundren’s dead wife is introduced to us as she lays on her deathbed. She dies in the first few chapters, and the family sets out on a journey to have her buried at the place she had chosen in life. In Addie’s narrative section, we learn that she had not had a happy marriage with Anse and that her children had been a burden to her, all except one. Addie had an affair with the local priest, Whitfield, and Jewel had been born from their time together. Addie had taken that secret to her grave, although she had always treated him rather preferentially to the other Bundren children.
Cash Bundren - The eldest Bundren child is a young carpenter with a ridiculous level of stoicism. He carefully crafts Addie’s coffin, which he begins to construct even before she has passed away. He dutifully places the needs of his family above his own and seems to prize his tools above all else. Cash’s ridiculous stoicism is displayed through his inability to express any pain upon breaking his leg, having it plastered with cement, and then suffering the consequences of using cement on the skin.
Darl Bundren - He is the most enigmatic character in the novel, as he seems to have the ability to see and understand things that none of the other characters do. He narrates the events of the Bundren household even when he isn’t there. Darl learns both Addie’s secret and Dewey’s secret without ever learning about it from someone. His relationship with Jewel is riddled with conflict, and it comes to a head when Darl tries to burn the corpse of his mother in a barn to stop the farce of their journey. He is eventually sent to the mental institute in Jackson due to his part in starting the fire at the Gillepsie’s farm.
Jewel Bundren - He is Addie’s favorite child and Addie prophesizes that he will save her from both water and fire. Jewel fulfills that prophecy as he saves Addie’s coffin from the river and the barn fire. Addie prefers Jewel not just because he is not a Bundren, but also because of his nature that fixates on action rather than words like the rest of the Bundren family. He displays this tendency for action throughout the novel and sets himself apart by buying a horse when he is fifteen years old.
Dewey Dell - She is the only daughter of Anse and Addie Bundren. The seventeen-year-old girl spends the whole plot of the book trying to deal with an unplanned pregnancy that occurs due to her affair with a farmhand called Lafe. She tries to secure an abortion from different pharmacies but finds little success.
Vardaman - He is Addie’s youngest son, and he struggles to come to terms with his mother's death. Vardaman is left mostly to his own devices, and his narrative displays a tendency towards philosophy as he grapples with the complex nature of mortality. Vardaman catches a fish early in the novel and spends the rest of the novel thinking that his dead mother and the dead fish have essentially become the same thing.
