What happens in Chapter 40 of As I Lay Dying?
She begins by reflecting on her days as a schoolteacher, retreating to a spring where she could express her frustrations about her students and ponder her father's belief that life is about preparing for death. She remembers using a switch on her students, believing it created a raw connection, as words often failed to convey true intimacy.
She recounts how Anse drove four miles out of his way just to pass the schoolhouse, and how their courtship eventually led to marriage. After Cash is born, she comes to a profound realization: words cannot capture genuine experiences—motherhood, love, fear, and pride are simply labels created by those who have never truly felt them.
Darl's conception surprises her; she asks Anse to promise to bury her in Jefferson. As she reflects on a nameless lover she encountered in the woods, she views their affair as a sacred sin. When that relationship ends, she discovers she is pregnant with Jewel, whose birth brings her a sense of fulfillment and renewal.
Next, she reveals her arrangement with Anse: she gave him Dewey Dell to "negate" Jewel and Vardaman to replace the child she felt she had taken from him. With that settled, she feels prepared to face death. The chapter wraps up with a brief mention of Cora Tull praying for her, someone Addie dismisses as viewing sin and salvation as mere words.
Analysis
Addie's chapter is distinctive in the novel, featuring a dead woman who reflects on her life, blending past and present into a unified, contemplative narrative. The first-person perspective feels detached, leaning more toward philosophical reflections than emotional outbursts, creating an unsettling calm. She explores themes of hatred, infidelity, and mortality with the composure of someone who has made peace with her past.
The chapter's central theme revolves around the disparity between words and actions. Addie develops a philosophy around this idea, asserting that words are "just a shape to fill a lack," while actions connect to the earth, clinging to it, and words ascend in a thin, harmless line. This viewpoint shapes her disdain for Anse, her affair, and her scornful view of Cora Tull, whose fervent religiosity appears absurd when contrasted with the line, "Like Cora, who could never even cook." This pointed comment serves as a subtle yet effective moment of comic relief.
Blood imagery is prevalent throughout the chapter, with phrases like "the wild blood boiling along the earth" and "my blood and their blood flow as one stream," emphasizing authentic connections in contrast to the hollow vessels of language. Key moments—like the scene with the schoolchildren, Anse in bed, the lover in the woods, and Jewel's birth—all underscore that blood, not words, carries true meaning.
Additionally, the chapter features a stark arithmetic: Addie counts her children as if they were debts and payments. Jewel belongs solely to her, Dewey Dell rejects him, and Vardaman compensates for what she "robbed" from Anse. This financial language highlights her belief that true actions hold significance, while words do not. The recurring image of Anse's name as a jar filling with cold molasses symbolizes her sense of detachment—identity itself diminishes when subjected to her skepticism about language.
Key quotes from Chapter 40
“that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at.”
Addie states her central philosophical conviction after Cash is born and she first feels genuine connection.
“I would think: The shape of my body where I used to be a virgin is in the shape of a and I couldn’t think Anse, couldn’t remember Anse.”
Addie describes the late-night dissolution of Anse's identity into an empty word-shape after Darl's birth.
“I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. Then I gave him Vardaman to replace the child I had robbed him of.”
Near the chapter's close, Addie explains the arithmetic by which she arranged the births of her last two children.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter 40
- circumspection
- Careful, cautious behavior that considers all consequences before acting, especially to avoid drawing unwanted attention or judgment from others.
- voicelessness
- A state of complete silence or the absence of spoken words; here suggesting a darkness beyond language where actions replace words.