As I Lay Dying · Chapter
Addie explained
Addie Bundren reflects on her life, her marriage to Anse, her affair with Whitfield, and her complex feelings about motherhood, duty, and language.
What happens
Addie Bundren reflects on her life, her marriage to Anse, her affair with Whitfield, and her complex feelings about motherhood, duty, and language. She describes her hatred for her students, her decision to marry Anse, the births of her children, and her belief that words are meaningless compared to actions and deeds. She concludes that she has 'cleaned her house' through Jewel and is ready to die.
Themes in this chapter
Language and Communication
Addie repeatedly asserts that words are empty and fail to capture reality, contrasting them with deeds and physical experience.
Family Duty and Selfishness
Addie reflects on her duties to Anse and her children, and her own selfish desires, particularly in her affair.
Death and Grief
Addie contemplates her father's saying that 'the reason for living is getting ready to stay dead,' and prepares for her own death.
Characters to notice
- Addie Bundren
Narrates her life story, expressing her views on sin, love, motherhood, and the inadequacy of words.
- Anse Bundren
Addie describes her marriage to Anse, his passivity, and her sense of duty toward him.
- Jewel Bundren
Addie's favorite child, born from her affair; she associates him with the 'wild blood' and her act of 'cleaning the house.'
- Cora Tull
Addie recalls Cora's prayers and judgments about sin and duty, which Addie dismisses as mere words.
- Cash Bundren
Mentioned as the first child Addie refused to breastfeed after his time was up.
- Darl Bundren
Mentioned as another child Addie refused to breastfeed after his time was up.
Key passages
“I would think of sin as I would think of the clothes we both wore in the world's face, of the circumspection necessary because he was he and I was I; the sin the more utter and terrible since he was the instrument ordained by God who created the sin, to sanctify that sin He had created.”
Addie views sin as a garment worn publicly, and sees her affair with Whitfield as sanctified by God, who created sin itself.
Addie's complex theology of sin and sanctification.
“I knew that words are no good; that words don't ever fit even what they are trying to say at.”
Addie believes language is fundamentally inadequate to express reality.
Central theme of the chapter: the failure of language.
“I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. Then I gave him Vardaman to replace the child I had robbed him of. And now he has three children that are his and not mine.”
Addie sees her later children as compensation to Anse for Jewel, who is not his biological child.
Addie's transactional view of motherhood and marriage.