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

Comedys coterminous Terror The hypothesize brassMichael Kreyling essay called, Comedys Adjoining Terror The Ponder Heart,opens with the critic design a parallel between The Ponder Heartand FaulknersIntruder in the Dust. He warns us that if we look too hard into the serious side 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 affect soul that is struggling for fulfillment and freedom while being detain by the dictates of society and filling the role that society has prescribed for her. The root word of prank in The Ponder Heartis this struggle between laughter and outrage, and perceptual constancy and chaos. The critic sees this struggle as life that collides with external restrictions.This releases the vital energies that constitute in Weltys writing, whether she chooses to use two persons or conflicting natur es in wholeness person. Another way Kreyling illustrates this point is through the mythological personas of Apollonian and Dionysis. Edna Earle represents the Apollonian ways of hold 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 stagnant although time continues to move on. Time is the arch enemy of EdnaEarle. Through time, she must lay out the fact that things are changing and what wasimportant in her world 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 bring situation to Edna Earle the fact that she must change to survive in lifeand matchless is left with serious doubts as to whether she e ver will.I have to coincide with Michael Kreylingthat if one looks too deeply into The PonderHeart, one loses the sense of comedy that it first inspires. Im not sure this book should be delved into to a spacious extent. I prefer to see Edna Earle as a delightful, entertaining person, and although I agree with Kreylings assessment of the characters, I prefer to concentrate on the seriocomical side of The Ponder Heartbecause I think that was Eudora Weltys main purpose. Works CitedKreyling, Michael. Comedys Adjoining Terror The Ponder Heart. Eudora Weltys Achievement of Order. Baton Rouge lah State University Press. 1980.