The Effects of Male Domination on Female Characters: William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Emily, from a Rose for Emily, is a noteworthy woman character. She had three prominent male character counterparts. The men in the story have different personalities, and each one has an intriguing effect on Emily. They each affect her differently, both emotionally and psychologically. All the male characters are dominant over the female character; however, they utilized their dominance in varying ways, which has a negative psychological effect on Emily.

In a Rose for Emily, Emily’s father is a vindictive controller, and his actions have negative effects on Emily’s entire life: “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her”(Faulkner). The narrative of the people shows that men had come to see her, and her father would not permit any of them to court Emily because of his ego. He used his power to drive the men away. Faulkner uses a lot of negative diction to describe Emily’s father. He controls her life and then leaves her broken with no idea how to control her life. His actions robbed her of love, of her own choices, and her life. A joke you hear a lot in the South is daddy’s little girl going on a date, and daddy is sitting in a chair cleaning a gun. People laugh when someone says that, but the whole idea is ridiculous. Fathers are protective, but there is a point where things are taken to far. Emily’s father had so much power over her, and Faulkner knew that power could lead to awful consequences.

The town’s people assumed that after her father had died Emily would “cling to that which had robbed her”(Faulkner) because she had nothing left. The way Faulkner wrote this could imply a couple of different things. At first, it imp...

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...fect on their children, and even if that was not Faulkner’s main point, he understood their influence. Young women can become psychologically damaged and distraught from debauched male domination. Women felt the repercussions of it then, and it may be a little better now, but women still struggle with men’s power over them. It is not something that will change over night, and it will probably still be a problem in the future. Once someone has the feeling of power, it is hard to give up. In five to ten years, women may be less affected by male domination because of more equal opportunities. But nothing will change if people do not start looking around to see the negative affects a male dominated culture has.

Works Cited

Faulkner, William. Rose for Emily. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2013. .