Mary

The biblical mother of Jesus is mentioned in two fictions. In The Sound and the Fury Rev. Shegog mentions Mary in his Easter sermon, emphasizing her sufferings as a mother, "de pangs" of childbirth, her "weeping en lamentation" as she fears for the life of her newborn child and her grief at the scene of the crucifixion (296). In "Miss Zilphia Gant," she appears in Zilphia's fantasies as the mother who gave birth to a child miraculously: lying in bed, Zilphia whispers to herself that "Mary did it without a man," and announces to the darkness that "I will make myself conceive!" (379).