As I Lay Dying Cora Tulll Character Analysis

During the 16th century people believed that their sense of purpose came through a form of faith or belief in God. Throughout this novel, William Faulkner uses Christ like figures and Biblical characters to describe how religion has changed in Modern times. This impacts people’s lives because in the beginning of the 16th century people believed they had to live a certain way.

First we’ll start with one of the characters, Cora Tull, who is a neighbor to the Bundrens. In the novel, she is not portrayed in a positive way, although she is described as being “holy” and “perfect” in her chapter. Cora Tull is a type of character, who wields her Christian faith as a weapon, like someone who uses scripture to condemn and judge the people around her. She is also presented as a hypocritical. For instance, she believes, “Riches is nothing in the face of the Lord, for He can see into the heart,” but then follows this by wondering if someone could buy one of her cakes. (7) You can see that Cora says that having money is nothing for God but he looks into the heart. However, she is contradicting

William Faulkner used irony to represent the Christian characters as pharisees or as a Christ figure. Since As I Lay Dying, was written in Modern times, religion had changed. Many people did not base their existence on faith, but rather by just living. The characters in As I Lay Dying are in conflict with themselves. They are searching to find meaning within life and to understand religion and sin. William Faulkner reveals how many during this time faced issues and conflicts that dealt with making their lives more meaningful. He also shows how women during this era were expected to be pure. They were expected have kids and be strong in their faith. While, men were more hypocritical in their faith. For instance Jewel, who questioned if God really existed and Reverend Whitfield, the most hypocritical character who had