I Lay Dying Coffin

In As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, the coffin is an important inanimate object. After the death of Addie Bundren, the Bundren family embarks on a 40-mile journey to Jefferson to respect her wish to be buried there. Cash Bundren builds the coffin while Addie is dying, the coffin goes through many obstacles with the Bundrens during the journey, and the overall objective of the journey is to bury the coffin. Although the coffin literally serves as a box that contains the corpse of Addie, the coffin also serves as the central symbol of the family's love and gratitude towards her as well as their instability.
One of the purpose that the coffin serves is as a container to hold Addie Bundren. Cash builds the coffin right under Addie's window so that “it will give her confidence and comfort.” Before she passes away, she calls out to Cash to see the coffin since she wants to see it during her final moments.
Another purpose of the coffin is that the coffin serves as the symbol for the family's love and gratitude for Addie. Cash shows his appreciation by building the coffin. Since the coffin is his final parting gift to his mother, he makes sure that the coffin is perfect and “lifts the board for (Addie) to see, (…) shaping with his empty hand in pantomime the finished box.” Furthermore, he carefully places the coffin's planks “as if any movement might dislodge them,” and “bevels the edge of it with the tedious and minute care of a jeweler.” The image of Cash delicately constructing the coffin signify his determination of perfectly making his symbol of gratitude towards his mother. Likewise, the coffin symbolizes Vardaman's gratitude when he drills holes on the coffin “so she can breathe.” Even though his mother is dead, Vardaman do...

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...ce to get rid of Darl, who knows about her “female trouble.”
Also, the purpose of the coffin serving as the symbol of the Bundrens' gratitude to Addie leads to the coffin's purpose of serving as the symbol of the family's instability. Darl, the most perceptive and observant one in the family, realizes that the coffin is causing the family to destruction and that the journey is absurd. Darl desperately tries to burn the coffin at Gillipsie's barn to properly cremate her and “so she can lay down her life.” After he fails, because of the Bundrens' dysfunction, they prioritize burying the coffin over Darl and have him sent to the mental institution instead since, “it was either send him to Jackson, or have Gillipsie sue (them).” Darl's act of burning the coffin for his gratitude for Addie leads to him falling into the instability of his family, in which he goes insane.