\Miss Emily Grierson, the main character in Williams Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” removes herself from society and becomes a total recluse, refuses to progress with the passing of time, murders her lover, but continues to sleep with his corpse until her dying day. The behavior presented in Emily is a sign of mental illness. Throughout the story, Emily’s mental instability becomes apparent through her character. The house that she was raised in and died in, and the love she had for dead bodies lead to her mental illness eventually causing her death. The slow-moving, old-fashioned, chivalric south has become the setting of the story. Miss Emily’s house is one dating back to the 1870s, and it is designed with “cupolas ad squires and scrolled balconies." The house rests on town’s “most select street”. Miss Emily surrounding house was taken over by garages and cotton gins. The rest of the town became more of a working class area than it once was. Emily’s house …show more content…
Growing up Emily was an all-around vibrant girl. Over time, she becomes a secretive old woman. In a “A Rose for Emily, “she was described as shuttered, dusty, and dark just like the outside of her home. She inherited mental illness from her father side. “She exhibits the qualities of the stereotypical southern “eccentric”: unbalanced, excessively tragic, and subject of a bizarre behavior” (SparkNotes Editors 2007, pg 4). When her father passed away, she refused to give up his body. In all, Emily is a scared soul whose loneliness and co-dependent upbringing let her to remain socially unfit, and unable to make healthy human connections (Enotes, 2016 pg 1). Her upbringing slowly affected her ability to function like the rest of the townspeople. The townspeople never labeled her with a mental illness, but she was constantly talked about because of the relationship she had with Homer, and curiosity of the way Emily was living got the best of the
Unreasonably determined to exert one?s own will is the definition of the word 'stubborn'. William Faulkner is a southern writer who focuses in his work on human experiences and behavior influenced by the South, the Civil War, and the post Civil War effects. In Faulkner's, 'A Rose for Emily', Faulkner constantly depicts Emily as a stubborn character, especially stubborn about changing her way of life. Faulkner uses subtle clues from diction and description as well as obvious statements through dialogue and direct actions to show this quality many times throughout the story.
Emily was having problems with her social skills per say. The story reads, “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Rose for
In the story A Rose for Emily I did not find Emily’s character to be fully twisted or grotesque. In my eyes I found her to be someone who took her fathers word very highly no matter what anyone says. Though she might have had some weird fantasy, she definitely went through a lot, which probably played a factor in some of her decisions in life. You definitely can find Emily’s character to be looked at as sympathetic. Faulkner says certain things to show sympathy for Emily. Not only just her father passing showed Emily to be a sympathetic character, she also gets sick and could never find love. Due to Emily taking her father words very highly, she couldn’t find love because her father felt as if know one was good enough for his daughter. Emily
Emily shows definite symptoms of having an mental illness. In the story, after Emilys fathers death her symptoms become more evident. When the ladies of the town visits Emily's house to offer condolences. They noticed that she had “no trace of grief on her face”(32). Her inability to feel or demonstrate affection shows she is suffering from depression. Many people suffering from depression often show signs of denial. Emily insisted to the visitors that “her father was not dead”(32). Her father was in the house for three days and the townspeople had to remove the body before s...
The short story, A Rose for Emily, took place in the southern town of Jefferson sometime in the beginning of the twentieth century. One could say that Miss Emily lived and died under certain circumstances that could compare to how the Confederacy lived and died as a result of the Civil War. Miss Emily could represent an extended metaphor for the Old South and its traditions and customs. Faulkner wrote her character and her appearance, the town, her relationship with the world, and even her home, to reflect the social background of the Old South, as defined as the time period between the Colonial Era and Reconstruction.
By the story’s conclusion, the reader can go back through the story and identify many episodes where Miss Emily behavior hinted at the fact she may be suffering from a mental illness. It can be seen that the town wanted to deny this fact and to keep her as a social idol. This information, in fact, could be used to support the claim that Miss Emily may have suffered from a form of schizophrenia as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV criteria. Miss Emily could have developed this mental illness in response to demanding conditions living as a Southern woman from an aristocratic family. This turn to mental illness would have occurred because she was unable to develop healthy coping and defense mechanisms so her mind decide what to process and what to leave unknown. Her community viewed her as having a “hereditary obligation” (Faulkner 150) to maintain certain traditions. Her father, who placed these traditions and values on Miss Emily, was rigid in reinforcing these expectations. By this point in the book we know also that Miss Emily “had grown fat and her hair was turning gray” (Faulkner 149). This fai...
Emily Grierson, referred to as Miss Emily throughout the story, is the main character of 'A Rose for Emily,' written by William Faulkner. Emily is born to a proud, aristocratic family sometime during the Civil War; Miss Emily used to live with her father and servants, in a big decorated house. The Grierson Family considers themselves superior than other people of the town. According to Miss Emily's father none of the young boys were suitable for Miss Emily. Due to this attitude of Miss Emily's father, Miss Emily was not able to develop any real relationship with anyone else, but it was like her world revolved around her father.
Faulkner’s short story reveals how a hereditary mental illness runs in the family. “People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner and Ange). An example that shows Miss Emily is mentally ill, is when she goes to a local druggist and insists she wants poison. "I want some poison. I want the best you have” (Faulkner and Ange). Then, she refuses to tell the druggist what she is going to use it for. Furthermore, Miss Emily’s lover Homer Barron was dedicated to his single status and did not want anything serious with her. The town barely saw the two together and did not hear from them until after Miss Emily’s death. When Emily’s cousins broke open a room that was not seen in forty years. They discovered, “The man himself lay in the bed. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay (Dilworth 251). This impression is only solidified by the later horrifying revelation, not only of how she murdered Homer Barron but of how she slept with his decaying corpse, then grotesque skeleton. Miss Emily’s refusal to accept that Homer did not want to marry her took a psychological effect on
The picture or “tableau” of Emily in her childhood gives us our first clue into her strange personality. She is “a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.” The scene almost blatantly reveals Emily in her youth, constrained by a wildly over-protective father. Her natural attempts to leave home and have relationship with the outside world are thwarted by a dark, mean, even evil-spirited father who refuses to let her leave.
As a woman born into nobility, many societal expectations are placed upon Miss Emily from the moment she was born. Miss Emily’s mother is absent, leaving her only with her father who was well known throughout the town. According to the narrator “none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily” (3) and her father often drove young men away (3) resulting in her social isolation from the rest of the
So she poisons Homer Barron and keeps him in a room upstairs. She sleeps with him every night, his body arranged in the "attitude of an embrace," clinging to the idea of a "marriage" that she never had. She is a sad, lonely woman, and if she cannot have this one last chance at happiness, then she will keep it by force. Throughout her life the town she lived in has been her "enabler," allowing her to continue in her unhealthy habits; Emily has no reason to think that what she has done is wrong. She is simply preserving what is rightfully hers; she is holding on to some semblance of happiness that has always been denied her.
The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is about the life of Miss Emily Grierson. Emily is a mysterious character who evolves from a lively and optimistic young girl to a secluded and secretive old woman. Throughout the story many other characters are introduced and assist with the stories progression and conveyance of Miss Emily. Many who have read this tale have given many different opinions about Miss Emily. Many say she is a twisted and demented old woman and others believe her to be a true tragic hero. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses characters such as Tobe, Mr. Grierson, Homer, the narrator, the town’s people, and even Miss Emily herself to make a truly haunting story.
Miss Emily’s isolation is able to benefit her as well. She has the entire town believing she is a frail and weak woman, but she is very strong indeed. Everyone is convinced that she could not even hurt a fly, but instead she is capable a horrible crime, murder. Miss Emily’s actions range from eccentric to absurd. After the death of her father, and the estrangement from the Yankee, Homer Barron, she becomes reclusive and introverted. The reader can find that Miss Emily did what was necessary to keep her secret from the town. “Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years” (247).
After all the tragic events in her life, Emily became extremely introverted. After killing Homer, Emily locked herself in and blocked everyone else out. It was mentioned, “…that was the last time we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time” (628). In fact, no one in town really got to know Miss Emily personally as she always kept her doors closed, which reflects on how she kept herself closed for all those years. Many of the town’s women came to her funeral with curiosity about how she lived, as no one had ever known her well enough to know. This was revealed at the beginning of the story when the narrator mentioned, “the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant… had seen in the last ten years”(623). Everyone in town knew of her but did not know her because she kept to herself for all those years.
After all the tragic events in her life, Emily became extremely introverted. After killing Homer Emily locked herself in and blocked everyone else out. It was mentioned, “…that was the last time we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time” (628). In fact, no one in town really got to know Miss Emily personally as she always kept her doors closed, which reflects to how she kept herself closed for all those years. Many of the town’s women came to her funeral with curiosity of how she lives, as no one had ever known her well enough to know. This was revealed at the beginning of the story when the narrator mentioned, “the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant… had seen in the last ten years”(623). Everyone in town knew of her but did not know her because she kept to herself for all those