Whitfield Character Analysis. Next. Snopes. Whitfield is the local minister with whom Addie has an affair, and is the father of Jewel. He plans to confess to Anse about the affair before Addie's death, but upon finding out that she has already died without telling anyone, he decides not to, perceiving her death as a gift from God. There is no sweat stain on his shirt. I have never seen a sweat stain on his shirt. He was sick once from working in the sun when he was twenty-two years old, and he tells people that if he ever sweats, he will die. I suppose he believes it. Early in the novel, Darl introduces Anse Bundren as a character who shies away from hard work and Eula. Eula is one of Tull's daughters who visits with the Bundren family while Addie is dying. Gillespie. Gillespie is the farmer who gives the Bundrens a place to stay, and the owner of the barn Darl sets on fire. Gillespie boy. The Gillespie boy is Gillespie's son. William Faulkner (born September 25, 1897, New Albany, Mississippi, U.S.—died July 6, 1962, Byhalia, Mississippi) American novelist and short-story writer who was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature.. Youth and early writings. As the eldest of the four sons of Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Falkner, William Faulkner (as he later spelled his name) was well aware of his family In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner uses wood as a symbol to demonstrate the degree to which each character grows and changes over the course of the novel. On one hand, wood can be seen as a representation of rigidity and a refusal to change. On the other hand, due to the fact that wood exists in many different forms - as a vertically In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Anse Bundren believes that the roads are the source of his family's problems.Let's look at what he says about roads. First, roads bring bad luck right Often in literature a specific character is essential to illuminating the larger themes of the piece. In William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying, imagery and language are used to illustrate the fragility of existence and identity shown through his characters' consciousness. The story revolves around the Bundren family, who are poor country Death as a relief from suffering. Dewey Dell seeks an abortion, a death, as a relief from her worry of having a baby. Darl Bundren participates in the journey to Jefferson with his mother's Critics have approached this question from radically different perspectives. Some have argued that As I Lay Dying is primarily a satire of the rural poor, while others have made the case that it is a more serious portrait of psychological tensions in a family under strain. Perhaps the novel is best described as a tragicomedy, a work with elements of both tragedy and comedy mixed together. This causes Addie to lose faith in religious principles in general. As a result of the affair, Addie has another child— Jewel —her only non-Bundren child. To make up for her sinful behavior, Addie (and Anse) have two more children— Dewey Dell and Vardaman. Addie says: "I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. c5TZUN.