A Note on William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

104 Notes 3Vaid makes no further claim for the scene than this. 4Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle,” The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Vol. XVII (New York: Scribner’s, 1922). This and all subsequent references to “The Beast in the Jungle” are to this edition. A NOTE ON WILLIAM FAULKNER’S AS I LAY DYING John B. Rosenman Lakehead University Although readers of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (1929) and As I Lay Dying (1930) have noticed their general relationship to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, apparently the influence of Macbeth on Dewey Dell Bundren’s characterization in As I Lay Dying has been overlooked. On the surface, of course, the two seem little related. Macbeth is an illustrious nobleman and king-slayer, Dewey Dell an ignorant, sensuous poor-white girl. Yet they are clearly counterparts. Significantly, the “sound and fury” passage in Macbeth (V, v, 17-28) which inspired the title and so much of the gloom of The Sound and the Fury is the key here. Informed by an attendant officer that his wife has died, Macbeth can only regret that military matters leave him no time at present to grieve. As he says, “She should have died hereafter:/There would have been a time for such a word” (V, v, 17-18). In comparison, Dewey Dell, overwhelmed by the horror of an illegitimate pregnancy she wants to conceal, expresses a similar lament in words that echo Macbeth’s: “I heard that my mother is dead. I wish I had time to let her die. I wish I had time to. wish I had. It is because in the wild and outraged earth too soon too soon too soon. It’s not that I wouldn’t and will not it’s that it is too soon too soon too soon” (As I Lay Dying [New York: Vintage, 1964], p. 114). On the basis of such evidence it would seem that the similarities in Macbeth’s and Dewey Dell’s characters are substantial. Most significant perhaps is the fact that the two passages are so similar and reflect analogous plights: both Macbeth and Dewey Dell are unable to grieve because of the distracting pressure of other con­ siderations. But perhaps equally significant is the fact that in their Studies in American Fiction 105 strivings and mutual ability to stand up under suffering both sense cosmic and moral chaos, the emptiness of being. In short, both are touched by a nihilistic vision in which existence is seen as chaotic, absurd, meaningless, and destructive of man’s hopes. Thus to Macbeth, life is a tale “Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing” (V, v, 27-28), while, to Dewey Dell it is a “wild and outraged earth” that leaves her no time to mourn, the dis­ orientation once experienced in a nightmare in which she had been unable even to “think what I was” (p. 115). Finally, it is significant that Macbeth's and Dewey Dell’s regrets both concern women who are themselves similar. Like Lady Macbeth, Addie Bundren is a fierce and dominating woman. And like her too, her desire to have her way contributes to tragedy and suffering. “THE CASSOCK” CHAPTER IN MOBY—DICK AND THE THEME OF LITERARY CREATIVITY John Stark Kent State University A sly, amusing chapter in Moby-Dick, “The Cassock,” has become one of the most baffling enigmas in that book. Howard Vincent rightly calls it “perhaps the most amazing [chapter] in an amazing book.” 1 Many readers have laughed at its humor, a few have been confused by its description of the strange, ambiguous object lying on the deck, and hardly any have convincingly interpreted its mysteries. In spite of its difficulties and its length-one page, which makes it the shortest chapter in this long book— “The Cassock” nevertheless conveys a good deal of meaning. Specifically, this chapter tells about a major step in Ishmael’s maturation into a person able to narrate a masterpiece like Moby-Dick. This matura­ tion becomes clearer if one considers Ishmael to be the creator of “The Cassock” and of the rest of the novel. “The Cassock,” in con...