I liked the Dilsey chapter the best out of all the previous chapters. I liked it because it was actually understandable, maybe because of the way it was narrated. It was narrated in the sense that everything was happening at that time, it wasn’t a series of memories being recalled, and people dwelling in the past, it was in regular time.
I noticed that Dilsey seemed to be the patient one who sort of knew everything about the household, but kept her mouth shut. What I thought was weird was how when she and Mrs. Compson were on the stairs, Mrs. Compson said something that really brought Dilsey down. Dilsey showed her emotions on her face, but didn’t let Mrs. Compson see her. Not letting Mrs. Compson see her reaction to the comment shows that Dilsey is a strong woman regardless of how she is treated.
February 23, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I still don’t understand why Faulkner wanted this chapter to be narrated from an outside perspective rather than have it be first person again. It really threw me through a loop!
I understand that out of all of the people, Dilsey was one of the actual normal characters… why wasn’t this shown through her own first person perspective? Perhaps, she may be messed up in the head as well but that wasn’t what Faulkner wanted us to see?