A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

Sigmund Freud began his private psychoanalytic practice near the end of the 19th century in Austria. Freud's theories of the unconscious, the libido, the oedipus-complex, psychotheropy, the defense mechanisms, etc have influenced disciplines typically removed from psychology. The goal of classical psychoanalysis is to use various methods of analysis, such as dream analysis or the analysis of a given parapraxis (a error that can reveal itself through mispoken, misread, or incorrectly written words, etc which is caused by the imperfect expression of a disturbing unconscious desire over a disturbed desire) via free association, in order to bring the unconscious material that is causing the neurotic behavior to light so that the behavior may be changed. According to classical psychoanalysis, the formation of neurosis mainly occurs while a child is progressing through the psychosexual stages of development (in the case of Emily, we will examine her development in the Oral stage through the Phallic stage (these stages cover from birth to about five years old)). Through classical psychoanalysis, we can pick up clues from the text to piece together Emily's childhood and link the problems in her early development (specifically her relationship with her mother) with her severe neuoris.

At the end of Part II we are told about the death of Emily's father. Emily refuses to acknowledge the death of her father and refuses to give up her father for burial for three days. Before the authorities "resort to law and force", Emily gives up her father's body. This event offers an insight into a few stages of Emily's development (we shall return to these later in the analysis). Along with the later desire to keep Homer's body forever, we may postulate...

... middle of paper ...

...es something like a phallic figure in her death, where she is described a "falling monument".

Works Cited

Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." A Rose for Emily. University of Virginia, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.

Felluga, Dino. "Introduction to Jacques Lacan, Module on Psychosexual Development." Introduction to Jacques Lacan, Module on Psychosexual Development. Purdue University, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Felluga, Dino. "Introduction to Sigmund Freud, Module on Psychosexual Development." Introduction to Sigmund Freud, Module on Psychosexual Development. Purdue University, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Felluga, Dino. "Terms Used by Psychoanalysis." Terms Used by Psychoanalysis. Purdue

University, 17 July 2002. Web. 16 Feb. 2014

Ilustre, Clarice L. "Psychoanalysis of "A Rose for Emily": Why Emily Is the Way She Is." Academia.edu. Academia.edu, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.