As I Lay Dying characters

Appears from the start

A perceptive son of Addie and Anse Bundren and the novel's first narrator. He observes his family with unusual precision and often seems able to understand what others leave unspoken. As his mother lies dying, he agrees to make a short wagon trip with Jewel to earn money for the household.

Appears from the start

One of Addie's sons, physically powerful, guarded, and quick to anger. He works beside Darl but keeps apart from him emotionally, and his silent intensity makes him difficult for the rest of the family to read.

Appears from the start

The eldest Bundren son, a skilled and methodical carpenter. He builds his dying mother's coffin beneath her window, concentrating on the angles and workmanship even while the sound of his tools carries into her room.

Appears from the start

The Bundren family matriarch, gravely ill and watching from her bed while Cash constructs her coffin outside. Her approaching death has drawn neighbors to the isolated farm and placed the family under pressure to honor her wishes.

First appears in chapter 9

Addie's husband and the father of the Bundren children, a poor farmer given to explaining his troubles as the result of bad luck and other people's actions. He intends to carry out Addie's request that she be buried with her relatives in Jefferson.

First appears in chapter 2

A neighbor of the Bundrens who visits Addie's sickroom. Proud of her cooking and firm in her religious judgments, she interprets the family's behavior through her own ideas about duty, pride, and salvation.

First appears in chapter 2

Cora's husband, a neighboring farmer who repeatedly gives the Bundrens practical help. More restrained than his wife, he witnesses key moments at the farm and reports them with a mixture of concern and disbelief.

First appears in chapter 7

The Bundrens' only daughter, seventeen and privately distressed by a pregnancy resulting from her encounter with Lafe. She believes Darl knows her secret and urgently wants to reach a town where she might obtain help.

First appears in chapter 7

A farm worker who impregnated Dewey Dell. He does not accompany her, but gives her ten dollars and tells her to seek a medicine in town, leaving her to manage the danger and secrecy alone.

First appears in chapter 11

The local doctor summoned to the Bundren farm as Addie nears death. Heavy, direct, and experienced, he recognizes that the call came too late for him to change the outcome and is impatient with Anse's explanations.

First appears in chapter 13

The youngest Bundren child. He has just caught a large fish when his mother dies, and his attempt to understand the difference between a living person and a dead body takes the form of literal, unsettling associations.

First appears in chapter 41

A local minister who once had an affair with Addie and is Jewel's biological father. On hearing that Addie is dying, he hurries toward the Bundren farm intending to confess, but her death lets him preserve his public reputation.

First appears in chapter 43

A farmer who shelters the Bundrens after their disastrous river crossing. He and his family feed them, tend Cash, and watch Anse obtain a replacement team through a bargain that costs Jewel his horse.

First appears in chapter 45

A Mottson druggist whom Dewey Dell approaches in hopes of ending her pregnancy. He recognizes what she is asking for but refuses to provide it and warns her against trusting anyone who claims to offer an easy remedy.

First appears in chapter 50

A farmer who allows the Bundrens to put their animals and Addie's coffin in his barn for the night as they near Jefferson.

First appears in chapter 55

An assistant at a Jefferson pharmacy who falsely presents himself to Dewey Dell as a doctor. Knowing she is desperate for an abortion, he uses the promise of treatment to isolate and sexually exploit her.