Challenging Darl Bundren’s insanity: A study on trauma

Abstract

William Faulkner’s fifth novel, As I Lay Dying (1930) (henceforth AILD) is the author’s tour the force as he delves into the depths of the family sphere and skilfully portrays the complex, almost pathological universe of several individuals. Narrating the vicissitudes which the Bundrens face on their journey to the city of Jefferson, where they are to take the matriarch Addie Bundren’s dead body, the family’s nine-day trip concludes with a ruinous end for almost all of its members. For Darl Bundren, this price is the confinement in an insane asylum. As a consequence, literary criticism has frequently read Darl Bundren as a mentally deranged individual. The aim of this paper is to challenge the label of insane attached to Darl, interpreting him as a traumatized subject instead. Using Contemporary trauma theory as a critical tool, we will bring forward those symptoms which account for Darl suffering from PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a state triggered by his participation in WWI. Moreover, we will examine those aspects accounting for the complexity of his trauma, as the maternal abandonment he has been exposed to. Finally, our argumentation will allow us to dismiss the assumption that Darl is a schizophrenic. We will conclude by emphasizing the relevance trauma theory has in Darl’s characterization and suggesting further research contributing to unveiling the construal of the character’s insanity.