Darl’s relationship with Dewey is similar to that with Jewel, but on a different level. Again, Darl has been able to project himself into another character’s consciousness and senses all the implications concerning Dewey Dell’s pregnancy. Her first comment to Darl is: “Are you going to tell Pa are you going to kill him [Lafe]?” But Darl again refuses to take any definite action; as a result, tension mounts steadily between Darl and Dewey Dell until she attacks Darl even more violently than does Jewel.
There is, however, no conflict between Darl and Cash, or between Darl and Vardaman. Darl is the only one who is able to project himself into the vegetative world of Vardaman, but no conflict arises since Darl lives on a level far above that of either Cash or Vardaman. Darl and Cash are the only ones who feel a close kinship to one another. This comes mainly from Cash, who thinks that, after all, Darl was probably right in trying to burn the barn but that it should have been he (Cash) who performed the action. But Cash’s reasoning is not intricate enough to reach any definite conclusions since he lives only in the world of one-level actions.
As we progress through the novel, it becomes increasingly evident that Darl is the key figure to the solution of the complex interrelationships of characters. Darl’s importance appears not only in his complex thought processes and his ability to perceive and sense everything, but also in the fact that most of the important action is presented through his eyes. Before leaving with the wagon to earn three dollars, Darl projects himself into the character of Addie. He later senses and tells of Addie’s death in beautiful, heightened, poetic language.
It is through Darl that the reader learns of the loading of the coffin, of Jewel’s purchasing of the horse, of the loss of the coffin, of the recovery of the tools from the water, and of the burning of the barn. It is even Darl who prevents Jewel from becoming involved in a fight with one of the Jefferson townsmen. It is evident, therefore, that Faulkner wrote into the character of Darl a key to the Bundren family. Darl is portrayed as the sane and sensible individual pitted against a world of backwoods, confused, violent, and shiftless Bundrens.
As the journey with Addie’s rapidly decaying and odorous body progresses, the animosity between Darl and Jewel, and between Darl and Dewey Dell, heightens swiftly and rapidly approaches a climax. Jewel becomes more and more antagonistic after he is forced to sell his horse—the living symbol of Addie, on which he had lavished his love and violence. As the tension mounts, Darl’s perceptive ability becomes keener and more sensitive. It is Darl, and Darl only, who senses the futility of the whole ridiculous procession. In the beginning of the journey, seeing it in its absurd perspective, he is forced to laugh. Then as the body gradually gives off its odors, it is Darl who first senses this new absurdity, and it is Darl who first perceives the buzzards hovering overhead in all their horrible significance.
As the odors become stronger, as the buzzards increase in number, and as the journey becomes a ridiculous farce, Darl—sensitive, perceptive, and intelligent—realizes that something must be done to put an end to this grave injustice to his mother. Just before Darl sets fire to the barn, he senses the presence and desires of his mother: “She’s talking to God. . . . She wants Him to hide her away from the sight of man . . . so she can lay down her life. . . . We must let her be quiet.” Thus Darl decides to end the futility and injustice by giving Addie a cleansing escape from the sight of man through cremation.
The barn burned, but Addie, still odorous as ever, was, in spite of Darl, saved by Jewel in fulfillment of her earlier prophecy. This one act, mature and intelligent, performed by Darl, was the basis on which the Bundren family decided to send him to Jackson’s insane asylum. There was never an actual question of whether Darl was insane or not: that had nothing to do with the decision. But as Cash put it: “It was either send him to Jackson, or have Gillespie [the owner of the barn] sue us.” Cash realized that what Darl attempted to do was the right thing, but still, the Bundrens must call him crazy or pay for the barn, and it is much easier to declare Darl insane. Of course, Darl has always been considered queer by the other people in the novel, but this is because he is superior, and in being superior he is different, and therefore, in their minds, queer.
Anse and Cash therefore declare Darl crazy for financial reasons; Jewel accepts it violently and anxiously out of the heightened enmity between them. And Dewey Dell, responsible for Gillespie’s knowing that Darl burned the barn, is the one most pleased in disposing of Darl, thereby insuring the secrecy of her pregnancy.
Thus, Darl’s supposed insanity is imposed upon him, and a close reading of the novel suggests that Darl did not go insane. A study of Faulkner’s methods in his other novels indicates that if Darl had gone insane, the reader would have been made aware of his regression toward insanity. In the “Darl” passage immediately following the barn-burning, it is only Darl who is intelligent and sane enough to prevent Jewel from getting into a fight. As Jewel prepares to attack the town observer, Darl handles the situation with perfect sanity, composure, and equanimity.
Faulkner presents several objective views of Darl which create at least a doubt as to the validity of sending him to the insane asylum. Dr. Peabody looks upon the act of sending Darl to Jackson as a blundering episode typical of the acts of Anse. He compares the foolishness of this act with the foolishness of Anse’s putting concrete on Cash’s leg. Likewise, Gillespie, another objective commentator outside the Bundren world, looks to Darl as the only sensible Bundren capable of rational actions.
If Darl became insane, it is necessary to regard that as an instantaneous stroke of insanity; but this was not the case. What probably did occur, in that moment of clear and instant illumination when he began to laugh, was a complete comprehension of the absurd situation through which the family had just passed, and a thorough perception of the animosity between him and the others. This realization left him only one thing to do—to laugh loud and long at the ignorance of the Bundrens from whom he is escaping.
In his last passage, perhaps for a moment he even doubts his own sanity. He has never lived in a sane world, but only in the insane and incomprehensible Bundren world. When he refers to himself in the third person, he is merely reflecting to himself that he knows now what others have been thinking about him. He understands now all their hatred and envy of his superiority. A Darl Bundren in an insane asylum is in a much better position than an Anse Bundren in the outside world.
One of the great ironies of the book, consequently, comes from the fact that Darl, the only person capable of reaching an awareness of the complexities of life, is sent to the insane asylum while the rest of the Bundrens, who should probably be locked up, roam freely.
