Sunday, October 13, 2019
War and Grief in Faulknerââ¬â¢s Shall Not Perish and The Unvanquished :: Faulknerââ¬â¢s The Unvanquished Essays
War and Grief in Faulknerââ¬â¢s Shall Not Perish and The Unvanquished It is inevitable when dealing regularly with a subject as brutal as war, that death will occur. Death brings grief for the victimââ¬â¢s loved ones, which William Faulkner depicts accurately and fairly in many of his works, including the short story ââ¬Å"Shall Not Perishâ⬠and The Unvanquished. While the works differ because of the time (The Unvanquished deals with the Civil War while ââ¬Å"Shall Not Perishâ⬠takes place during World War II) and the loved ones grieving (The Unvanquished shows the grief of a lover and ââ¬Å"Shall Not Perishâ⬠shows the grief of families), the pain they all feel is the same. When we first meet Cousin Drusilla, her fiancà ©e Gavin has already died at battle. Some Southern ladies may have handled their grief passively, retreating to their beds to sleep their pain away. However, Drusilla takes a different approach. She becomes a part of the war, actively saving her horse when the Yankees burn her family home and eventually joining her uncleââ¬â¢s cavalry. Drusilla refuses to passively grieve; she becomes a part of the war for which her lover felt so strongly that he was willing to die. In doing so, however, she becomes detached from the Southern life the men are trying to preserve. She thinks Gavinââ¬â¢s death has opened her eyes to a new world and that the old world in which they lived was pointless. ââ¬Å"Living used to be dull, you see. Stupid. You lived in the same house your father was born in and your fatherââ¬â¢s sons and daughters had the sons and daughters of the same negro slaves to nurse and coddle, and then you grew up and you fell in love with your acceptable young man and in time you would marry him, in your motherââ¬â¢s wedding gown perhaps and with the same silver for presents she had receivedâ⬠¦Stupid, you seeâ⬠(100-101). However, Drusillaââ¬âeven though she may not be willing to admit it, even to herselfââ¬âhad always wanted that kind of life. She easily fell in love with Gavin, and once he was gone, she decided to give up her dreams of that kind of lifeââ¬âshe wasnââ¬â¢t going to wait for the war to end so she could start the cycle of finding ââ¬Å"an acceptable young manâ⬠again. Drusilla was going to take Gavinââ¬â¢s spot in the war, out of love and grief and loyalty.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.