by Meesha Meserole

Created on: May 16, 2008   Last Updated: June 04, 2008

Dilsey: Strength Among Weakness, Endures to the End

A few people in this world are gifted with the ability to stay strong, no matter what they face in their lives. Novels such as William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury accurately reflect the realities of life, and few characters in these books, as in real life, receive the strength to endure. One of these characters, an elderly woman named Dilsey, has many strengths and a few weaknesses that can be seen through her actions toward others in the story. She is a motherly woman, who does not judge others (without cause), who is patient to an extreme extent, and who is the only stable force in a household that is disintegrating quickly. Dilsey, however, is a human, and she does have weaknesses and barriers: she is an old and creaky black woman in the South, she has an official job as well as numerous other responsibilities around the house, and she is slightly biased about whom she likes among the household members.

Dilsey is kind to Benjy and Miss Quentin, loving them despite their faults, as only a mother can. On April Eighth, 1928, among other things, Dilsey talks sweetly to Benjy, saying, "All right, honey. Here yo breakfast." She "stroked Ben's head, slowly and steadily, smoothing the bang upon his brow." In her description of Benjy, she describes the color of his eyes as being "the pale sweet blue of cornflowers." As a mentally retarded man, Benjy is difficult to be around at times, for he becomes upset over small things and is very loud when he "bellers." Dilsey, however, still shows him simple motherly kindnesses, overlooking the adult body and seeing the child within. Dilsey was willing to raise Quentin from infancy because she "raised all of them and I reckon I can raise one more." Quentin is rude to Dilsey at times; for example, on April Sixth, 1928, Dilsey simply puts her hand on Quentin, but Quentin "knocked it down. 'You damn old n-,' she says." But Dilsey stands up to Jason for her all the same, saying things like "I aint gwine let him. Dont you worry, honey." and "Hit me den, ef nothin else but hittin somebody wont do you." She gets angry at Luster when he mistreats Benjy, because she feels protective of the boy/man she sees as a son.

As for Luster, he brings out one of Dilsey's weaknesses. Dilsey hits Luster sometimes, when he sasses her, and is often quick to assume that Luster has done something to aggravate Benjy or has caused some mischief ("'Whut you done to him?' Dilsey said. 'Why cant

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