Bayard Verbena Quotes

The freedom of choice is humanity’s defining characteristic. Man possesses the ability to prioritize and manage, the conscious effort to ignore or to focus, and the foresight to plan for the future. Limit or constrain man’s ability to freely think, and one destroys the very nature of humanity itself, that is, unless that limitation derives from tradition. Ever since the early days of human civilization, some traditions have been facades, excuses to hide more sinister motives and practices; customs such as human sacrifice, genital mutilation, and child brides continued on for civilizations, largely accepted by the populace due to the belief that such practices “ran in their blood.” Similarly, in the 19th century, family feuds and revenge killings
Faulkner exemplifies this break from custom through his analysis of Bayard’s character, especially during the garden episodes, his description of Drusilla to embody the remnant of Southern tradition, and the moral significance behind Bayard’s refusal to shoot Redmond. In “An Odor of Verbena,” Faulkner first analyzes the role of Bayard’s pursuit of personal fulfillment in sequestering him from avenging his father’s death through highlighting his moral opposition to his father’s accomplishments and the ideals he represents as the primary factor for his rejection of his patrimony. For example, despite the fact that Ringo is African American, Bayard treats him as a best friend, and even concedes how he “would never be
For example, in direct contrast to Bayard, who attempts to reject traditional, social pressures in the pursuit of true happiness, almost every action that Drusilla performs in “An Odor of Verbena" is tainted with formality, as even when seducing him, it was "as if she were repeating the empty and formal gesture of all promise," at a "rigid curiously formal angle" (155). Unlike Bayard, who uses the Civil War as a medium through which he transitions from wide-eyed innocence to steadfast will, the Civil War forces Drusilla to transition from a lifestyle free from traditional gender roles back to the social norm which had "tried to stamp all the women of her generation and class in the South into a type," (155). But rather than rebel against such societal expectations and traditions like Bayard, Drusilla merely accepts her fate, and consequently, becomes a perpetrator of hindsight bias, continually stuck in a loop where she attempts to justify her decision although she knows she made the wrong choice. Subsequently, this capitulation to the bounds of tradition clearly influences her actions, as in the end of the novel, rather than accept that