Faulkner was fascinated by several facets of normal life. He was so intrigued, in fact, that nearly all of his literary works take place in a fictional county created by him, a county that mirrors normal life. Faulkner was especially curious about the lives of once rich families and their downfall due to internal corruption. The main source of this corruption? Woman. In at least two of his major novels, a female plays a predominant role, and it is usually a sexist one at that. In The Sound and The Fury, Caddy Compson, who is seen as a very promiscuous girl, is a poignant example of how far the once great Compson family, a family whose members included a judge and a civil war general, has fallen. In As I Lay Dying Dewey Dell is pregnant, a fact that Faulkner uses to portray her in both a negative and a positive (which I will come back to later) light. Dewey Dell seems a little crazy. In one scene, she imagines killing Darl with a knife she used to cut a fish earlier in the novel. As Dewey is the only living female in the novel, her craziness is more obvious than Darl's. Furthermore, when the Bundren's make it to Tull's farm, Tull repeatedly feels like Dewey Del is giving him a look seems like she is warning him to stay away, even though Tull has never had any intention to harass her in any way. These two examples paint women in a negative light and make them seem like intricate but paranoid and delicate creatures.
Faulkner also uses Dewey's Pregnancy as a commentary on the treatment of pregnant women. Dewey is afraid to tell anyone about her pregnancy, which might be why she imagines killing Darl, the only other person who knows. Dewey is afraid to tell the doctor, the only one capable of giving her an abortion. The fact that she cannot tell anyone shows that Faulkner believed that pregnancy should not be seen with as a harsh a light, whether good or bad, as it was at the time.
I agree that there is a lot of sexism in this novel, but Dewey Dell I do not think is the symbol of weakness or delicacy given the justification you did. This is a male dominated book and Dewey Dell, being the only female character is strong as anything given her situation. Dewey Dell going crazy and wanting to kill her brother, Darl, is not shining a negative light on females. Sure, she is crazy but I do not think the act of asserting dominance over men through an act of violence could be seen as a weak woman's activity. Normal sexism is when women are passive, shown as subpar to men, and abide by every command a men throws in their direction. Dewey Dell by wanting to kill her brother is not being passive and is just as bad as the men in this novel. Now to your second point, Dewey Dell by shooting Tull a look is not a sign of weakness but strength. Actions are said to speak louder than words and Dewey Dell here is not letting a man even think of touching her. If this was a symbol of sexism, it would be the other way around where Tull would be looking at Dewey Dell in a provocative way and she would respond in submission. It seems to me that those two examples make her out to be anything but delicate; paranoid she may be, but are not all the Bundren family members paranoid about something?
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