Discrimination In A Rose For Emily

Honors English III

Research Paper Rough Draft Female discrimination or the basic negative overall view on women has been around for centuries. Relating back to the time period when women did not have rights, women were often forced to follow social norms. These norms, known as the acceptable behavior in a group or society, dictated women’s roles in families, society, and politics. Before the turn of the century, women did not have any rights and were forced to have only few responsibilities. Women were discriminated due to their sex, which made them less equal than man. In the story, "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, Miss. Emily, being the main character is faced with the changes that came along during the turn of the century.

In "A Rose for Emily", Miss Emily is judged throughout the entire short story for being a women. In the short story, other take pity on her because of her father's death leaving her all alone to take care of. "Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it" (Faulkner 8). This quote explains how Colonel Sartoris took pity on Miss Emily because she was alone and had no man other than her father who had past to take care of her. Which lead him to create a lie in which meant she would not have to pay taxes. The way the authors writes only a man of that certain generation and thought would come up with such a thing explained how some people continued to have the old views. “So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized" (Faulkner 14). This quotes points out the way in which society was judging Miss Emily due to her lack of being married or being engaged to a man, who would take care of her. Some still had the views in which the man was the head of the entire family, and with Miss Emily having no one else than her passed father, she was all alone. “Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people" (Faulkner 19). Since Miss Emily, was still dealing with views and judgements from society many started to believe she was a disgrace because she was a women without a man. Miss Emily was considered a second class women who had no one to take care of her, which brought others to think she would disgrace the following generations. Miss Smily did indeed face the harsh judgments from society due to stereotypical and social Norma's which had been created so long ago, which roves of how "A Rose for Emily"