Darl in As I Lay Dying

[maja_08]

Hello everybody, this is my first experience on this site and some help would be much appreciated.

My friend and I are doing an english presentation on As I Lay Dying, and we decided to analyze the character of Darl Bundren. The problem is, that we can't seem to figure him out. Is he the protagonist? Tragic hero? Bad guy? Faulkner's narrating voice?

Any insight would help greatly (specific examples would be awesome as well).

We came up with a few topics. If anybody would like to elaborate on them or add some new ones, feel free to. They are:

-Cerebral
-Narrator-like
-Philosophical
-Compared to Demian
-Hero?
-Understands without knowing

[JBI]

Read Hamlet - Darl is heavily influenced by him. In truth, Darl is the balance for Cash - he is emotional, whereas Cash is a pure utilitarian. He also has a way of seeing what is not there, or is hidden, in a prophetic sense, yet at the same time cannot act. In many ways he is the modern Hamlet, and I find the two inseparable.

[mayneverhave]

Hello everybody, this is my first experience on this site and some help would be much appreciated.

My friend and I are doing an english presentation on As I Lay Dying, and we decided to analyze the character of Darl Bundren. The problem is, that we can't seem to figure him out. Is he the protagonist? Tragic hero? Bad guy? Faulkner's narrating voice?

Any insight would help greatly (specific examples would be awesome as well).

We came up with a few topics. If anybody would like to elaborate on them or add some new ones, feel free to. They are:

-Cerebral
-Narrator-like
-Philosophical
-Compared to Demian
-Hero?
-Understands without knowing

JBI was correct in reading Darl as a modern Hamlet - in the way that Darl is cerebral and introverted to the point of being disconnected from society and his family. Unlike Hamlet, though, Darl is not so charismatic and manipulative in dealing with those around him (this probably owing to the fact that Hamlet holds a social position over others), and Darl lacks the close friend that Hamlet seems to find in Horatio.

If you've read The Sound and the Fury, in addition to As I Lay Dying, you'll find similarities in character between Darl and Quentin Compson. If you haven't read that earlier novel, I highly recommend it.

There is no straight protagonist in As I Lay Dying, rather the plot is focused through each of the characters' perspectives in turn as each fights to have their voice heard. It is easy, however, to assume Darl as the main character because his narration is the most common, the most acute, and the most poetic/descriptive. It would not be much of a stretch to assume that the most poetic and literary of the characters is the closest to the writer's heart, so we may be biased towards Darl. We may guess that, especially considering the rest of Faulkner's canon, that his most resembles Faulkner's narrative voice.

Darl's burning of the barn is his heroic act, and perhaps the most important action in the novel (besides the death in the beginning). The burning of a barn in southern society is an extremely sacrilegious thing, as farming is extremely important to the longevity of the farmer. So in the context of society, Darl's actions are horrendous. However, in the context of the novel, Darl saves his mother from the fire - which has thematic importance. After Darl is sent to Jackson, Cash takes over as the leading voice, but he is a drop in the bucket compared to Darl.

Arguably the main character of the novel is Addie Bundren, as it is she who drives and pushes the novel - posthumously - and her narration is given a central spot. As I've said before though, no character is essentially a bad guy or a good guy - except perhaps Jewel.

You definitely chose the most interesting character to analyze among the characters of As I Lay Dying - or at least the character with the most depth - in a technical sense.

Does any of that help?

[maja_08]

Yea, that helps a lot you guys.

Also, would you say that Darl is similar to Hesse's Demian in that both are feared by people around them simply because they seem to have a "different" persona about them?

[JBI]

I wouldn't say that about Darl - look at the reactions by their neighbors at the beginning - Jewel comes off as more disliked, I would argue, as he seems less likable.