Comedys Adjoining Terror: The Ponder Heart Essay -- Michael Kreyling

Comedys Adjoining Terror The hypothesize HeartMichael Kreyling essay called, Comedys Adjoining Terror The Ponder Heart,opens with the tyro drawing a parallel between The Ponder Heartand FaulknersIntruder in the Dust. He warns us that if we look too hard into the serious gradient of ThePonder Heart, we may lose the humor.The Ponder Heart takes place in the Beulah Hotel in Clay, Mississippi and is toldwith all the characteristics of a dramatic monologue. According to Kreyling, Edna Earleis a troubled soul that is struggling for fulfillment and freedom while macrocosm trapped by the dictates of society and filling the role that society has dictate for her. The source of comedy in The Ponder Heartis this struggle between jest and outrage, and stability and chaos. The critic sees this struggle as smell that collides with external restrictions.This releases the rattling energies that exist in Weltys writing, whether she chooses to use two persons or conflicting natures in one pers on. Another way Kreyling illustrates this point is through the mythological personas of Apollonian and Dionysis. Edna Earle represents the Apollonian slipway of living which include order, knowledge and experience. Uncle Daniel represents the Dionysian side of life as he simply does what comes naturally. He listens to spontaneous impulses that rule his life.Michael Kreyling states that there is no winner or victor in The Ponder Heart. It isbasically moribund although time continues to move on. Time is the arch enemy of EdnaEarle. Through time, she moldiness face the fact that things are changing and what wasimportant in her introduction is not always very important to the new social set. The critic tells us that the result of the trail, while... ...re lady bike riders, the wrong element, speeding cars, and the Peacocks.These things realise home to Edna Earle the fact that she must change to survive in lifeand one is left with serious doubts as to whether she ever will.I lay do wn to agree with Michael Kreylingthat if one looks too deeply into The PonderHeart, one loses the genius of comedy that it first inspires. Im not sure this book should be delved into to a great extent. I prefer to see Edna Earle as a delightful, socialize person, and although I agree with Kreylings assessment of the characters, I prefer to concentrate on the humorous side of The Ponder Heartbecause I think that was Eudora Weltys main purpose. whole kit and boodle CitedKreyling, Michael. Comedys Adjoining Terror The Ponder Heart. Eudora Weltys Achievement of Order. Baton paint Louisiana State University Press. 1980.