We learn many things through experience as we grow older, and these experience lessons make us who we are in life. In William Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for Emily," Emily Grierson was among the higher class of people in her community, and her family acted as if they were above the other classes. Her family demanded the respect and fear of many yet, "behind their hands" (Faulkner 78) the same many scrutinized and judged Emily. This crowd grew very conscious of Emily since she became a recluse. Emily's upbringing by her father, the death of her father, and the disappearance of her sweetheart were all of the factors that contributed to her seclusion. Initially, Emily was taught by her father to stay home and was not taught self-esteem, self-confidence, self-worth, or self-dependence by her father. Emily was restricted from courting by her father; her father would claim that none of the young men she was interested in were good enough for her or the family (Faulkner 77). Emily's father made her dependent on him by not allowing her to be confident in herself and "thwarting her woman's life" (Faulkner 79). For example, there is a picture in the minds of the townspeople that Emily is in the background, and her father is in the foreground holding a whip (Faulkner 77). This gives an image of her overly dominant father demanding and threatening her to stay behind. As you can see, Emily was taught to remain isolated. Then when Emily's father died, she became more detached than before. Since she had only her father to rely on, she did not want to admit that he was dead at first. Until it came down to the law and force, she did what was to be expected when she had nothing left: she "[clung] to that which had robbed her" (Faulkner 77). Once they took the body, Emily had to face the fact that she was truly alone. She then got a manservant to depend upon and support her. The manservant was seen "going in and out with a market basket" (Faulkner 76) but she hardly came out of the house herself. Her father's death left her to become more concealed. Finally, the disappearance of her sweetheart, Homer, was the final event that made Emily a hermit. Emily had her manservant to rely on, but he was not enough.
She didn’t socialize much except for having her manservant Tobe visit to do some chores and go to the store for her. Faulkner depicts Emily and her family as a high social class. Emily did carry her self with dignity and people gave her that respect, based from fear of what Emily could do to them. Emily was a strong willed person especially when she went into the drug store for the arsenic.
Kirchdorfer indicates that very few of Faulkner’s characters are happy with their lives. He even goes as far as saying that those characters often become troubled adults. Emily is a perfect fit for this statement. She grew up with a very strict father who yields a whip as a symbol of his dominance. It is not known that if Emily has a mother or not, but it is assumed that she does not, for there is no reference made to one. Ulf Kirchdorfer describes to us that there is a motherly figure in
One can clearly imagine the timid Emily standing behind her towering father. "Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip." Emily's father not only dominates the portrait but dominates Emily as well. Emily's father controls her every move. She cannot date anyone unless her father approves, yet he never approves of any of the few men that do show interest in her. "None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such." Unable to find a good enough suitor, Emily has no choice but to stay and care for her governing father.
For that reason, it is easy for readers to assume that Emily has separation anxiety. In this story by William Faulkner, she takes what modern day society would consider drastic measures to make sure the two never leave her. An example of this is offered when Emily Grierson’s father passes away due to old age. Emily is so attached to her father that she keeps his body in the house for several days after his death, pretending, most likely for her own sake, that he is still alive. In fact, the townspeople proclaim, “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom, Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face.
The protagonist of this story is Miss Emily Grierson, an old maid spinster without family who becomes a “tradition” and a “sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 299). The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, so I will rearrange my analysis of the character to begin with what we first know about Miss Emily.
life and looked for a way to gain her freedom. Emily must endure her fathers
He was a controlling figure to her. As the narrator was telling us the story, I noticed in a few lines things that her father used to do to keep her home. Looks like he would scare guys away interested in Emily. He did this stuff because he wanted her to stay home and take care of the house. From my point of view he would have more control over her actions and would not let her out of the house.
When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173).
Emily had a servant so that she did not have to leave the house, where she could remain in solitary. The front door was never opened to the house, and the servant came in through the side door. Even her servant would not talk to anyone or share information about Miss Emily. When visitors did come to Emily’s door, she became frantic and nervous as if she did not know what business was. The death of Emily’s father brought about no signs of grief, and she told the community that he was not dead. She would not accept the fact that she had been abandoned because of her overwhelming fear. Emily’s future husband deserted her shortly after her father’s death. These two tragic events propelled her fear of abandonment forward, as she hired her servant and did not leave the house again shortly after. She also worked from home so that she never had a reason to leave. Emily did not have any family in the area to console in because her father had run them off after a falling out previously. She also cut her hair short to remind her of a time when she was younger and had not been deserted. Even though people did not live for miles of Emily Grierson, citizens began
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily tells a story of a young woman who is violated by her father’s strict mentality. After being the only man in her life Emily’s father dies and she finds it hard to let go. Like her father Emily possesses a stubborn outlook towards life, and she refused to change. While having this attitude about life Emily practically secluded herself from society for the remainder of her life. She was alone for the very first time and her reaction to this situation was solitude.
Emily’s isolation is evident because after the men that cared about her deserted her, either by death or simply leaving her, she hid from society and didn’t allow anyone to get close to her. Miss Emily is afraid to confront reality. She seems to live in a sort of fantasy world where death has no meaning. Emily refuses to accept or recognize the death of her father, and the fact that the world around her is changing.
In “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, Emily Geierson is a woman that faces many difficulties throughout her lifetime. Emily Geierson was once a cheerful and bright lady who turned mysterious and dark through a serious of tragic events. The lost of the two men, whom she loved, left Emily devastated and in denial. Faulkner used these difficulties to define Emily’s fascinating character that is revealed throughout the short story. William Faulkner uses characterization in “A Rose for Emily”, to illustrate Miss Emily as a stubborn, overly attached, and introverted woman.
From the beginning of Emily's life she is separated from those she needed most, and the mother's guilt tears at the seams of a dress barely wrinkled. Emily was only eight months old when her father left her and her mother. He found it easier to leave than to face the responsibilities of his family's needs. Their meager lifestyle and "wants" (Olsen 601) were more than he was ready to face. The mother regrettably left the child with the woman downstairs fro her so she could work to support them both. As her mother said, "She was eight months old I had to leave her daytimes" (601). Eventually it came to a point where Emily had to go to her father's family to live a couple times so her mother could try to stabilize her life. When the child returned home the mother had to place her in nursery school while she worked. The mother didn't want to put her in that school; she hated that nursery school. "It was the only place there was. It was the only way we could be toge...
Emily lived a very sheltered life. She was very restricted in what she could and couldn’t do, because of this she had no friends, no social life, or a life at all. Any man that came her way interested in an event with her or a date her father would have the say so if she could go or not. His answer was always no, no one was good enough to date his precious little girl Emily.
Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal girl with aspirations of growing up and finding a mate that she could soon marry and start a family, but this was all impossible because of her father. The father believed that, “none of the younger man were quite good enough for Miss Emily,” because of this Miss Emily was alone. Emily was in her father’s shadow for a very long time. She lived her li...