Verbena

“The Odor of Verbena” is the title of the last chapter of Faulkner’s “The Unvanquished”.  In the last chapter of this novel, verbena serves a very big role, the novel itself ending on the image of a sprig of verbena on an empty bed. Typically, flowers represent femininity and female sexuality, which is somewhat the case here, but it also acts as a smoke screen that covers a lot of the characters problems. Drusilla carries verbena because she says that during the war, the only thing that would cover the horrible smells was a sprig of verbena, “so we had a garden… for her to gather sprigs of verbena from to wear because she said verbena was the only scent you could smell above the smell of horses and courage and so it was the only one worth wearing”(Faulkner 220). Drusilla rejected other flowers, much like she rejected the other traditional forms of femininity, and wore verbena because it reminded her of her time in the war, a time in which her life had meaning and purpose. In her article “Feminization, Masculinization, and the Role of Woman Patriot, June Dwyer argues that the woman in this novel, especially the young women, are “unwilling to abdicate the powers that war has given them”(Dwyer 1). During wartime, Drusilla had a purpose the ability to pursue what she wanted. Drusilla was basically forced into a marriage, lost the love of her life, was made to conform into her gender roles, and abandon the spirit that made her so unique. Her decline is seen in the preceding chapter, when Drusilla finally puts back on a dress, and Bayard says, “They have beat you Drusilla”(Faulkner 203). But she kept the sprig of verbena because it represents her inner turmoil, and how even though she is appearing fine, internally she is struggling.The use of flowers as a symbol in representing the suppression of female identity and sexuality is seen other 20th century writers, specifically in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. In this novel, the first sentence is “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself,”(Woolf 1). In this first sentence, Clarissa reclaims some semblance of power by going and getting the flowers by herself, and also revisits her moment with Sally. Here we see how flowers are used in the context of female empowerment. During this last chapter, verbena becomes a symbol of Drusilla, her femininity, and the sexual tension between her and Bayard, “We rode on, toward the house… where Drusilla would be waiting for me beneath all the festive glitter of the chandeliers, in the yellow ballgown and the sprig of verbena in her hair…”(Faulkner 219). The relationship between Drusilla and Bayard is sinful, because she is his stepmother. Verbena became the scent of this relationship, a representation of this unhealthy reliance and infatuation they had with each other. For Bayard, verbena is the essence of Drusilla, and is a token of his lust and his desire for her. Right before Drusilla tells Bayard to kiss her, “the scent of verbena in her hair seemed to have increased a hundred times, to have got a hundred times stronger, to be everywhere in the dusk in which something was about to happen which I had never dreamed of”(Faulkner 227). In the last chapter, Drusilla’s once admirable bravery, becomes blinding and vindictive in her pursuit for revenge. She struggles to find an inner peace, and sanity for herself. Towards the end of the novel, Drusilla gives Bayard a sprig of verbena, and drops the one in her hand, declaring “I abjure verbena forever more; I have smelled it above the odor of courage… how beautiful you are; do you know it? How beautiful; young, to be permitted to kill, to be permitted vengeance”(Faulkner 238). By handing Bayard the sprig, and dropping hers, it's as if Drusilla has given up her pursuit of revenge, aware that her limitations as a woman- seen in her use of the word “permit”- will not allow her to exact the revenge she wants. What’s interesting in this title is use of the word odor in order to describe verbena. When describing something that smells good, one usually would use words like aroma or scent. Odor has a negative connotation, like using the word stench. The word usage here is deliberate, and throughout the chapter, verbena loses its empowering and romantic sense when we realize its actual use was to the cover the stench of war, which means that its main purpose is to try and cover things up to give someone the sense and the false belief that everything is good.

Dwyer, June. The Faulkner Journal; Ada, Ohio6.2 (Spring 1991): 55. Faulkner, William. The Unvanquished. Whitehouse Station: Vintage, 1966. Print. Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925. Print