tragicomic

The term **tragicomic** describes a situation that combines the classical elements of tragedy with the classical elements of comedy. A tragedy does not simply present suffering for its own sake but with the goal of achieving catharsis (therapeutic emotional release) in the viewer or reader. In the best tragicomic works, the comic aspects should heighten the tragedy and the tragic aspects should heighten the comedy. William Faulkner is a master of the tragicomic, a quality best exhibited in //As I Lay Dying//.

The humor of AILD is perhaps not immediately evident. It is a humor that does not announce itself and yet soon becomes unmistakable. An early example of the tragicomic appears in Jewel’s only chapter, when his description of Cash building the coffin brings forth a memory of Addie asking him to fetch fertilizer and Cash returning with dung in a bread pan (14). This scatalogical evidence of Cash's singular task-mindedness, juxtaposed with the weightiness of death, makes the chapter sad-funny enough, but in the context of Jewel’s immense grief, expressed only through rage, the scene becomes surreal. More tragicomic moments soon follow: we learn that Cash is building the coffin outside Addie’s window so that she may observe first-hand the quality of each board and his craftsmanship (19); the obese Dr. Peabody must be hauled up to the house by rope to examine the dying woman (42); Vardaman, unable to manage his grief over Addie’s death, begins to confuse her with a fish he has caught and grotesquely drills holes in her face while trying to let air in the coffin so that she may breathe (73); he finally concludes, absurdly, “My mother is a fish” (84). The auguring of the corpse is narrated by one of the novel’s comedic straight men, Vernon Tull, whose matter-of-fact narration only accents the dark humor of the scene. Tull’s voice is again summoned to describe the awkward packaging of the corpse into the coffin: Addie’s body is inserted inversely so that the bottom of her wedding dress may flare out unimpeded, and a veil is used to obscure the holes in her face (88).

There is certainly a satirical edge to the humor of AILD, though despite some wonderfully indulgent portrayals of country-bumpkinism (most wickedly when MacGowan, the druggist’s assistant, takes advantage of Dewey Dell’s ignorance to negotiate a sexual liaison [247-248]), the book does not condescend to the Bundrens. In fact, the mountainfolk are often treated with great respect (for example, Darl, Cash, Jewel, and neighbors such as Tull and Samson), often more so than some of the Compson “aristocracy” in //The Sound and the Fury//. Faulkner does enjoy exposing human foibles and worse: hypocrisy, selfishness and cruelty, but that is a common characteristic of his writing, no more pronounced here because the recipients are less cultured. Though AILD seems to reside in the shadow of TSAF, having been written in a flurry just after the completion of the other and sharing several common elements (such as the use of alternating narratives/perspectives, the depiction of a dysfunctional Southern family and the character overlaps between Quentin/Darl and Benjy/Vardaman), it is useful to read AILD as a continuation of the same thought behind TSAF and perhaps as a more fluid, complete expression of that thought, delivered with an unmistakably greater ease. The tragicomic element of AILD is integral to that success.

Addie's only chapter is the key to understanding the effectiveness of this humor. She is critical of the meaninglessness of words ("just a shape to fill a lack"; "words are no good...[they] dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at." [171-172]). Her favorite child is Jewel, who barely expresses himself verbally, and only through curses, but who is the most decisive member of the family in terms of action. She detests her husband Anse, who is lazy and inactive but full of hypocritical, self-pitying, cliched speech. This highlights the largest tragicomic element of the book: the irony that humans, as the only species on earth capable of speech, remain so unable to capitalize on its benefits. With speech, humans have every advantage necessary to succeed and yet they often fail miserably. Humans are the only creatures capable of identifying hypocrisy, selfishness and cruelty and understanding their evils, and yet they exhibit these traits nonetheless, Anse being the prime example in the novel. Only humans can conceptualize honor and decency and yet they so frequently act contrary to these notions, as do the Bundrens as they haul Addie's wretched, foul-smelling corpse through Mississippi for days on end. Darl, whose beautiful grasp of words contradicts Addie's viewpoint, is able to understand the horror of the journey and the misguided and sometimes despicable motivations of the family members. He attempts to burn the coffin and end the horror. For this logical act, Darl, the only character able to articulate the truth, is declared insane. Finally, all he can do is laugh, which hopefully the reader understands is all he can do as well.

A few more examples of the tragicomic in AILD:

Jewel's noble trading of his beloved horse so that the family may continue to transport his mother's putrid body (and get Anse some false teeth and Dewey Dell an abortion [191]).

Cash's concrete cast, surely a cure worse than the affliction (224).

Anse arriving with his new teeth and new wife after all his protestations about honoring the deceased Addie (260-261).

[Casey Levinson]