When one faces a traumatic experience, his or true nature often reveals itself. Trauma forces its sufferers to cope. How one copes is directly linked to his or her personality. Some will push any painful feelings away, while others will hold onto pleasant memories. Both of these coping mechanisms can be observed in Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “A Rose for Emily,” the two protagonists’ prominent characteristics distinctly affect the way they cope with trauma and influence the short stories’ outcomes.To begin, Granny Weatherall is a prideful control freak. In contrast, Miss Emily is delusional and stubborn. To begin, Granny Weatherall …show more content…
She is worried that the unstoppable persona she has presented to her children will be demolished if they find those letters. This is further proven in the short story when she scorns her daughter, Cornelia, for “thinking she was dumb, deaf, and blind” (454) after she overhears Cornelia telling her husband that Granny Weatherall was acting like a child and they would have to humor her for the time being. She is already beginning to live out her nightmare. Cornelia, Granny’s least favorite child, pities and tries to humor her. It is only logical for someone with as much pride as Granny to try to control the situation. To elaborate, Granny Weatherall is also a control freak. She beats every threat that comes her way into silence and throws it to the farthest corners of her mind. For example, when faced with the thought of her demise, she rationalizes, “thank God there was always a little margin over for peace: then a person could spread out the plan of life and tuck in the edges orderly” (453). Though on her deathbed, she assumes she cannot die because she is not prepared for death. Metaphorically, she is telling God that she is in control of her fate. Therefore, she believes she …show more content…
Granny Weatherall is prideful and has a need for control. In contrast, Miss Emily lives in a fantasy land and is obstinate. Like anyone dealing with trauma, Miss Emily and Granny must find a way to deal with it. Their differing personality traits dictate how their coping mechanisms. Granny Weatherall pushes away the hurt, and Miss Emily denies it in favor of clinging to a fantasy. Granny Weatherall and Miss Emily may both have skeletons in their closets, but what they have done with them is what separates the
Emily was drove crazy by others expectations, and her loneliness. ““A Rose for Emily,” a story of love and obsession, love, and death, is undoubtedly the most famous one among Faulkner’s more than one hundred short stories. It tells of a tragedy of a screwy southern lady Emily Grierson who is driven from stem to stern by the worldly tradition and desires to possess her lover by poisoning him and keeping his corpse in her isolated house.” (Yang, A Road to Destruction and Self Destruction: The Same Fate of Emily and Elly, Proquest) When she was young her father chased away any would be suitors. He was convinced no one was good enough for her. Emily ended up unmarried. She had come to depend on her father. When he finally died, ...
The main characters in the stories ?The Jilting of Granny Weatherall'; and ?A Rose for Emily'; have several important similarities. Although the plots, settings, and themes are different, Granny Weatherall and Miss Emily share three distinct traits that make them much alike. These similarities, however, lead to very different outcomes for each character. The main similarities between these two characters are that they are both very stubborn, alone for an extended period of time in their lives, and left by their first loves. The way that each character deals with these similar characteristics and situations, however, is very different.
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter features an elderly woman named Ellen Weatherall who faces her last moments alive recounting her memories and regrets. "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner introduces the reader to Emily Grierson, a gothic southern belle who lacks charm and dies somewhat alone. Both Ellen Weatherall and Emily Grierson share traits, but they also contrast from one another throughout their stories. Each author's stream of consciousness writing style invites the reader straight into the different minds of Weatherall and Grierson. Comparing and Contrasting the two women shows their unqiue traits and eccentric ways.
Having been raised in the south has allowed her to believe that she must be catered to as a woman no matter how old she gets. The grandmother constantly refers to herself as a lady and has made herself a priority in her sons life and has a difficult time being considerate of other peoples feelings. At the beginning of the story she tries to convince her son Bailey to change the destination of their planned vacation to where she would like to go. In order for grandma to go see her old house in Tennessee she must convince Bailey that his family may be in danger after a
In a Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, we meet a young woman that is surrounded by death. As the story progresses we find more and more death and decay throughout Emily’s life. This leads to the theme of Death and Dying. Through-out the short story the theme of Death and Dying is represented through many symbols. These symbols include dust, the house and Emily herself. This essay will examine how each of these symbols represent Death and Dying.
Granny Weatherall is much like the Grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. Both women, the Granny and the Grandmother, are contemptuous towards their children, as shown by Granny with her shouting and dismissing of her daughter, Cornelia, and her fears. The Grandmother, however, is not just contemptuous of her son, Bailey, but is secretly defiant of him as well.
One may have heard the simple saying that “Love can make you do crazy things.” Many adults can confirm that the saying proves true; one could even spend a few hours watching CSI type of shows that portray the stories of two love-struck people becoming cold-hearted killers just to be with their significant other. Why would they be so desperate to be together that they would kill anyone who got in between them? Desperation so serve that they would even kill a loved one? It could be that as children they were deprived of love and nourishment that children normally receive. This deprivation of love led them to cling to anyone that made them think they were being love. In A Rose for Emily and Tell-Tale Heart a character murders someone who they love. The two works, share similarities and differences when it comes to the characters, the narratives point of view and reason for killing a loved one.
In Katherine Anne Porter’s short story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 11th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 286-294) the main character is Granny Weatherall. She has lived a long and very independent life, and now she is having a hard time trying to grasp onto reality. She is constantly worried about what she is going to do tomorrow, which makes it easy for the reader to grasp onto what is going on throughout Granny’s life. Granny Weatherall has spent most of her life trying to face the fact that she was never married to her first love, George. She has never been able to let go of what has caused her hurt, which turns it into something that is bitter and sour. Throughout the story Granny Weatherall shows her independent side, how organized and hardworking she is, and how she dealt with her broken heart.
Years ago, when she was sixty, Granny “had felt very old, finished” and thought that she was going to die so she went to see them all and said goodbye to her family. This time, however, seems different. Drifting in and out of the present and her physical exhaustion make her feel more uneasy than she had been with Cornelia and the doctor. When reminiscing, Granny seems surprised and sad that her life evolved from a time when she was vibrant and had young children. “Granny wished the old days were back again with the children young and everything to be done over.” However, not all of Granny Weatherall’s youth was enviable. She and her husband, John, lost a daughter, Hapsy. “There, wait a minute, here we are!” John, get the doctor now. Hapsy’s time has come.” Now, at the end of her life, Granny talks about how she sees Hapsy and indication that she is going in and out of heaven by reuniting with her dead daughter. This straddling of life and death makes Granny happy because she missed a lifetime with Hapsy and is now able to be with her and, “It was Hapsy she really wanted.” Hapsy loves Granny Weatherall, her mother, and tells her that she “thought you’d never come” and that she has not “changed a bit.” Unfortunately, the end for Granny
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily uses setting, characterization, and figurative language to show us how old money is selfish and responsible with their money and how new money is selfless, but uses their money unwisely.
In "A Rose for Emily" and "Barn Burning," William Faulkner creates two characters worthy of comparison. Emily Grierson, a recluse from Jefferson, Mississippi, is an important figure in the town, despite spending most of her life in seclusion. On the contrary, Abner Snopes is a loud, fiery-tempered man that most people tend to avoid. If these characters are judged by reputation and outward appearance only, the conclusion would be that Emily Grierson and Abner Snopes are complete opposites. However, despite the external differences, these two characters have surprisingly similar personalities.
William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” displays themes of alienation and isolation. Emily Grierson’s own father is found to be the root of many of her problems. Faulkner writes Emily’s character as one who is isolated from the people of her town. Her isolation from society and alienation from love is what ultimately drives her to madness.
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.
William Faulkner’s Southern background plays a constituent part of the creation of his story “A Rose for Emily”. With his creative mind Faulkner created a county in Mississippi called Yoknapatawpha. Like the southern town he was born and raised in, Faulkner peopled this story with both African American and Caucasian people of the late 1800’s. Faulkner’s idea of writing this story was to focus on the events causing destruction and suffering in one’s inner and outer situations.
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.