Not only in reality, but also in the fictional world of literature, women have been silenced since time immemorial. Such is the case with As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, a novel that details the journey of a family as they travel to bury the family's late matriarch, Addie Bundren. Some critics, such as Linda Wagner, disagree, claiming that the book is "the story of Addie Bundren and her most beloved child, Jewel" (74). Marc Hewson agrees with the more positive interpretation of Addie's position, arguing that: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Through the process of Addie's monologue and the combined actions and thoughts of her children, the dynamic feminine and maternal principle she supports negates the stolid and immobile masculine principle, and Addie herself becomes a possible source of feminine power in the book . (552) But I argue that the first red flag, indicative of her silenced position, should be the fact that she is the character who died and that this is a sign of a much deeper problem. As Patricia Yaeger observes, "Faulkner places Addie Bundren's corpse on the axis of As I Lay Dying and gives it a smell" because she is just another woman on the assembly line of a family mass-produced by Anse Bundren, who simply he goes and finds another wife when Addie dies (61). John Earl Bassett observes that "every member of the family shows a latent hostility towards Addie" (127). And Cinda Gault points out that there is “a persistent sense that life continues to be restrictive for mothers” and that “Faulkner's corpse metaphor emphasizes physical constraints” (440-441). Yaeger, Bassett, and Gault are all aware that Addie is in a marginalized position, the position of someone who has been silenced. Because Addie has been silenced, she becomes nothing more than a force of nature and this ultimately leads to the disintegration of her family. As a woman, and particularly as a mother, Addie is transformed by Anse into simply a force of nature because her marginalized position in society causes an accumulation of frustration that she takes out on her family and, ultimately, as the literal forces of nature that have to face, this leads to the disintegration of his family. The forcible removal of Addie's autonomy results in a powerless woman. She has no say in how many children she and Anse have because she isn't even allowed to have power over her own body. She describes giving children to Anse as her “duty to him” (Faulkner 174). And the way she describes her first pregnancy and Anse's response to it demonstrates how little say she had in the matter: Then I found out I had Darl. At first I wouldn't have believed it. Then I thought I would kill Anse. It was as if he had deceived me, hidden in a word as if in a paper screen and through it he had hit me from behind. But then I realized that I had been deceived by words older than Anse or love, and that the same word had deceived Anse too, and that my revenge would be that he would never know that I was taking revenge. And when Darl was born I asked Anse to promise to take me back to Jefferson when I died, because I knew my father was right, even when he couldn't have known he was right any more than I could have known I was wrong. “Nonsense,” said Anse; "You and I aren't done chatting yet, we only have two." (172-73). Anse doesn't even take into consideration the fact that Addie doesn't want to have children, or maybe she didn't even want to have any; he simply tells her that they don't have it yetfinished. And indeed they are not, because they have two more children together after Darl's birth. Gault notes that “it is after marriage, but especially after becoming a mother, that Addie's physical autonomy is most limited” (444). His opinion or wishes regarding having children are completely ignored and the number of children the couple's choice seems to depend entirely on Anse. Addie loses her autonomy, in the sense that she no longer has freedom over her actions: now it's Anse's turn. Addie can't govern her own body, Anse decides when to have sex. And Addie doesn't know how to govern her own desires, Anse decides how many children they will have. As a result, Addie is completely helpless: she loses control of herself, both mentally and physically. By marrying Anse, she is transformed into a completely helpless creature; he is no longer a person, because a person has the autonomy to govern himself, his own body, his own actions and desires. Addie no longer displays any of this, now displaying the traits of a totally passive creature, unable to govern her own actions or desires, and unable to show any signs of power. His helpless position begins the process of his fall into a position of mere force of nature. From the beginning Addie seems to be empty, senseless. She's missing the vibrant features that make us human and it's not just because she's dying, it's because someone else took her life: The quilt is pulled up to her chin, warm as it is, with only her two hands and face showing . She is resting on the pillow, with her head raised so she can see out the window, and we can feel it every time she picks up the ax or saw. If we were deaf we could almost look at his face and him, see it. His face is worn, so much so that the bones trace white lines just under the skin. His eyes are like two candles when you watch them drip into the iron candle holders. But eternal and everlasting salvation and grace are not upon her. (Faulkner 8) Her family laid her in a bed and simply allowed her to wait for death and while it is true that it was probably physically impossible for her to move, it is also true that she showed no sign of wanting to do so. stay alive. In fact, she tells the reader that her father told her that “the reason for living is to prepare to stay dead” and that after having her children, she can “prepare to die” (175-176). A person who wants to die is a person from whom life has disappeared. Addie has lost the will to live. In fact, she and Jewel are only given one chapter of the book each because, as Wagner says, "Addie and Jewel are...the silent ones" (74). She has been silenced, physically and mentally, by Anse and has no reason to live anymore; now she exists only as a force of nature, an object that the Bundren family fights against on their journey to take her to her resting place. A silenced person is a person who is never listened to. Addie is never heard because she has lost her autonomy and lost her voice. Being a person without a voice and without autonomy, she has lost the traits that make her human: the ability to want her own life and to be listened to and respected by others. What is not human is an object: Addie has become an object. The object she becomes is a force of nature, which the Bundren family battles against as they travel to Jefferson to bury her. Addie's death, and its effects, finalize her destiny as a simple force of nature. Because he has lost his autonomy, because he has lost the ability to govern himself, he resigns himself to death. His death completes the transformation Anse intended: he has lost his humanity, now he is nothing more than an object. The object it becomes is a force of nature. His death brings her back to earth and she becomes part of it: then the chariot tilted and then he, Jewel and the horse wereall mixed together. The cash disappeared from sight, still holding the reinforced coffin, and then I could say nothing for the horse lunging and splashing. I thought Cash had given up at that moment and was swimming for it and I was yelling at Jewel to come back and then all of a sudden he and the horse went under too and I thought they were all going to go away. I knew that the horse had been dragged out of the ford with that drowning wild horse and that wagon and that loose crate, it was going to be a bad situation, and there I was, standing in knee-deep water, yelling at Anse behind me. me: “See what you did now? Do you see what you have done now?" (Faulkner 154).Jewel, Cash, and Darl fight with the coffin as if it were wind, fire, or storm, a natural force against which humans must struggle to achieve their ends. Indeed, here the narrative is so confusing, because the coffin, the horse, the wagon, and the people all fall together, that it's hard to tell what exactly is happening other than this: Addie's children are struggling with her coffin. Lawrence Buell notices that Addie has a "truculent but loyal illegitimate son, Jewel, Addie's trial but also her favorite of the five brothers, whose brute strength saves her coffin from floodwaters and a barn fire down the road" and the meaning here is that Addie's illegitimate son the coffin had to be saved (94-95). It is almost as if he has a mind of his own and acts independently of any member of the Bundren family. Addie is dead at this point, but his coffin stands giving his children a rather difficult time. This exemplifies the idea that his corpse in the coffin has become a force of nature, much like the flood waters, fires, and other hardships the family faces during the journey. As a force of nature, Addie influences her children indirectly, but does not influence them directly. This is where Addie's absence is most noticeable: the influence she has on her children is entirely indirect. He doesn't talk to them, he doesn't support or encourage them, he just affects them psychologically with his absence. She is criticized by her neighbors for her parenting skills: and so, when Cora Tull told me that I was not a real mother, I thought about how words go straight down a thin line, quick and harmless, and how terribly the doing proceeds along the path. earth, clinging to it, so that after a while the two lines are too far apart for the same person to ride from one to the other; and that sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who have never sinned or loved or feared have for what they have never had and cannot have until they forget the words. (Faulkner 173-74). So both Addie and her neighbors recognize that she is a quiet and aloof mother. Addie has already established that words are inadequate, noting that Cora wanted her to pray for her sins "because the people to whom sin is only a matter of words, to them salvation is also only words" (176). Bassett agrees that Addie "makes a strong case against empty verbalism and the inadequacy of words to capture the terrors of life, the ordeal of doing" (126). Addie's life is full of terrors because she is an outcast. When you do something long enough, you start to believe in it. Addie has been silent for so long, because Anse has silenced her throughout their marriage, that she now begins to see value in silence and cannot understand the value of words. Unfortunately, this is no way to connect with your children. This silence is what separates her from her children, this silence is what transforms her from a human being to a force of nature. According to Bassett, “ultimately, human experience and interactionthey require language” and that is the missing link between Addie and her children: language. She lost her tongue when she married Anse and he decided when they would have children and how many they should have, regardless of her wishes. He lost his tongue when he lost the ability to govern his own desires and actions. Her language is stuck within her: Sometimes I lay beside him in the darkness, listening to the earth that was now of my blood and flesh, and I thought: Anse. Why Anse. Why are you Anse? I thought of its name until after a while I saw the word as a shape, a vessel, and watched it liquefy and flow into the vessel, until the vessel remained full and still: a significant form as profoundly lifeless as the jamb of an empty door; and then I discovered that I had forgotten the name of the vase. (Faulkner 173) These are Addie's thoughts as she lies next to her husband; he has them, but is unable to vocalize them. If her children never hear her vocalize, what do they know about her? What can they know about her? What can you know about a person who never speaks, except that there is probably a reason for his silence? There is a reason for Addie's silence and it is this silence that drives a wedge between her and her children. Since he cannot speak to them, he cannot have any direct influence on them. It can only influence them inadvertently and indirectly. Even before he literally dies, he is largely absent in the lives of Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman. Addie's inability to exert influence over her children creates an absolute lack of maternal presence that is sorely felt by her children. This is evident in his death scene: he lies down and turns his head without even looking at Dad. Look at Vardaman; his eyes, the life in them, suddenly pouring into them; the two flames shine for a constant instant. Then they come out as if someone had bent down and breathed on them. “Mama,” says Dewey Dell; "but!" Leaning on the bed, with her hands slightly raised, the fan, which continues to move as it has for ten days, begins to puff. His voice is strong, young, tremulous and clear, captivated by its timbre and volume, the fan continues to move constantly up and down, whispering the useless air. Then he throws himself onto Addie Bundren's lap, squeezing her, shaking her with the furious strength of youth before suddenly lying on the handful of rotten bones Addie Bundren has left, shaking the entire bed in a chattering hiss of mattress shells, the arms wide open. and the fan in one hand continued to beat with the breath exhaled into the quilt. (Faulkner 48-49) This is the first sign of the disintegration of a family member following Addie's death. Dewey Dell shows an expected display of emotion, but the rest of his plot suggests that his end is not stable; for her, the trip turns into a quest for an abortion and she becomes silent, withdrawn, and, ultimately, a key player in Darl's violent transfer to a mental institution. Hewson suggests that "by mourning her [Addie] and contemplating their relationship with her, Cash, Darl, Jewel, and Vardaman learn to emulate her and adopt her suspicion of patriarchal constructs" (552). This view, however, fails to acknowledge the ending of each of their stories: Cash has a broken leg, Darl ends up in a mental institution, Jewel is quietly angry that her father sold his horse, and Vardaman is confused, comparing continually his mother to the animals, and seemingly unaware of what really happened. Wagner provides insight into the response of a family member, Jewel, and acknowledges that her reaction to the loss of her mother, both because she died and because she was essentially dead while stillphysically alive, it is distressing: First he [Faulkner] clearly shows how distraught Jewel is over Addie's impending death: he is harsh on his beloved horse; his voice is "harsh, wild" as he insults Tull for being a "buzzard"; he complains bitterly that Cash built the coffin right under his window (only Jewel can't pronounce the word coffin): "let him be private," he cries in anguish. (75)Addie's disappearance, whether through her physical death or her marginalization while still alive, has detrimental effects. His children clearly feel this absence and all of them, but especially Jewel and Darl, have difficulty dealing with it. Children are the center of a family and if, due to the mother's silence, they do not function effectively, there are serious problems at hand. There are many examples from Faulkner's text of Addie's absence from her children. They feel this absence because she has lost herself, she has lost her autonomy and as such she has nothing to offer them; she cannot be heard by them because she has been silenced. In this sense, there is a direct connection between Addie's marginalized position in society and the downfall of her family members. Since she is simply a force of nature at this point, her pent-up energy is poured out on her family. As has already been demonstrated, Addie is a silent character. She was silenced by her husband, Anse, and the conformities of society. This wears her down to the point that she's preparing to die and can't seem to wait. The truly telling aspect of his pent-up frustration, however, is that it plays out in his family, injuring Cash's leg, driving Darl to madness and residency in a mental institution, and nearly killing Jewel, his favorite daughter, in a fire. barn: Now its sound has become quite peaceful, like the sound of the river. We watch through the proscenium of the fading door as Jewel runs in a crouch to the end of the coffin and bends over it. For an instant he looks up at us through the rain of burning hay like a curtain of flaming beads, and I can see the shape of his mouth as he calls my name. (221-22)Indeed, the family is destroying itself. Because of Anse's treatment of Addie, Addie has become an outcast, a woman who has no control over her own destiny and who has no relationship with her children. This disconnect between her and her children and her total inability to form any relationship because she has no autonomy destroys her. It destroys her in the sense that it destroys her will to live. Then he continues to destroy his family. Some destructive side effects have already been mentioned: injuries, miscarriages, insanity. But the very essence of Addie's family unit is destroyed on the last page of the novel when Anse says “meet Mrs. Bundren” (261). She's the new Mrs. Bundren, she took Addie's place. As the new Mrs. Bundren, she represents the new Bundren family. The family that Addie was part of no longer exists: it died together with her. In the days before and after his death, the practical effects of his death on his children are evident. But the new Mrs. Bundren represents the theoretical destruction of Addie's family. It is easy to understand how this happened: Anse immediately silenced Addie after the wedding, Addie's silent position causes a gap between her and her children and the loss of the will to live, and these factors result in negative life paths for Addie's children. All the pain in Addie's life and the lives of her children can be traced back to Anse and his immediate treatment of Addie as submissive to him. When Addie's pent-up energy.