Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Woman is the source and sustainer of virtue and also a primordial source of evil. It can be one or the other; because it is, as man is not, always a little beyond good and evil. With her powerful natural drive and instinct for the concrete and personal, she doesn't need to worry about her decisions. There is no code to master, no initiation to follow. It is for this reason that she has access to a wisdom that is veiled from man; and man's codes, good or bad, are always, in their formal abstraction, a little absurd in his eyes. . . 1In “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner, all roads lead to Addie. As Diane York Blaine rightly observes: "The title informs us that this is his story." » It is therefore very surprising that Addie, the center of the novel, was so offended by the lack of criticism of her in the first half of the century. . The reason for this thoughtfully relates to Addie's dilemma in the book. Just as Addie is incapable of defining herself by anything other than words that represent the oppressive patriarchal society she is opposed to, early reviews only evaluated her in these terms, focusing less on Addie's attitude . first-person narrative, and more about what the other characters in the novel (the men) had to say about him. However, the social and political changes of the 1960s and 1970s gave rise to a feminist critique, which succeeded, at least in part, in moving away from the patriarchal infrastructure and evaluating it according to a new set of values, thus giving a new insight into his character. thus, to the novel as a whole. There is a distinct lack of early criticism regarding Addi...... middle of article......(Beyond) SexualDifference (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press) 1990, p. 154.Trinity Papers '02-'03 7/24/02 12:40 PM Page 8788 Alice Affleck25 Diana York Blaine, “Addie's Abjection and Other Myths” MississippiQuarterly, vol.47, summer 1994, p. 403.26 Mark Hewson, “'My Children Were Mine Alone': Maternal Influence in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying,” Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 53, Fall 2000, p.551.27 Doreen Fowler, “Matricide and the Mother's Revenge” The FaulknerJournal 4: (1-2), Fall 1988-Spring 1989, p. 113.28 Jill Bergman "'That Was the Answer': Sexuality and Motherhood in As ILay Dying" Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 49, i. 3, summer 1996, p. 393.29 Mark Hewson, "'My Children Were Mine Alone': Maternal Influence While I Was Dying" Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 53, fall 2000, p. 551.30 Ibid., p... 553.