William Falkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the story of Emily Grierson. It is told from the perspective of the townspeople. After the death of her controlling father, Emily slowly begins to show sign of craziness. The townspeople finally find out just how crazy she was when they find the body of her dead ex-lover in her bedroom after her funeral. The townspeople bare a lot of responsibility for what happened because they treated her like a child, gossiped about her, and allowed her to disobey the law. The townspeople treated Emily like a child. Emily’s father never allowed her any freedom during her adult life. She was always treated as a child. So when her father passed away, the town still saw her like a child and felt like she was a responsibility to them. By treating her like this, the townspeople allowed her to avoid adult responsibilities such as paying her taxes. They also did not allow her to have a romantic life. They felt that her relationship with Homer was a bad influence to the young teens in the town, so they called in her relatives to either convince Homer to marry Emily or to convince Emily to quit being with Homer. She needed the opportunity to live her life freely as an adult woman. …show more content…
Emily’s family was very known in the town so talking about her was like a tradition to the townspeople. They watched and judged her every move. When she began dating Homer, the people gossiped about her relationship. In the story, Falkner stated that the townspeople started whispering “Poor Emily” around the town because she did not realize that Homer was not going to marry her. Emily bought arsenic and without any explanation, the townspeople jumped to the conclusion that she was going to kill herself. The gossip drove Emily even more crazy and proved that the people did not treat her as a grown
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily tells a story of a young woman who is violated by her father’s strict mentality. After being the only man in her life Emily’s father dies and she finds it hard to let go. Like her father Emily possesses a stubborn outlook towards life, and she refused to change. While having this attitude about life Emily practically secluded herself from society for the remainder of her life. She was alone for the very first time and her reaction to this situation was solitude.
I believe it was with the help of her butler and how conservative society was at this time. People were nosy, but never pester the person about the subject. People just came up with their own conclusions when it came to rumors with not all the facts shown to them. When Emily bought the arsenic they all just believed she was going to kill herself. They never thought for a second she would kill someone else (725). People are funny that way. They will just think up something when they don’t know the real reason. The negro man helped a lot in her not getting caught. After the death of Homer he stopped speaking to everyone who even tried to get information on Miss Emily. He only went to grab her groceries and came back to the house until the day she got sick and died. The townsfolk didn’t even know she was sick (727). She was a very fortunate women to not have been caught in the murder. If it wasn’t for the Negro man keeping quiet or how society acted she would've been tried for murder no matter the
Emily father was highly favored in the town. Faulkner writes in his Short Story Criticism, “The Griersons have always been “high and mighty,” somehow above “the gross, teeming world….” Emily’s father was well respected and occasionally loaned the town money. That made her a wealthy child and she basically had everything a child wanted. Emily’s father was a very serious man and Emily’s mind was violated by her father’s strict mentality. After Emily’s father being the only man in her life, he dies and she find it hard to let go of him. Because of her father, she possessed a stubborn outlook on life and how thing should be. She practically secluded her self from society for the remainder of her life.
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.
When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173).
As time goes on Emily grows up, her mother criticizes and blames herself for the distance between the relationships. It is causing tension in their already rocky relationship. The mother is obviously suffering from guilt on how Emily was raised and the unpleasant memories of the past. Emily was also suffering. We see her shyness towards those who care for her. She was a very depressed teen. She had quietness in her daily duties, and her feelings of not being good enough towards herself. She always felt that she was extremely ugly and not smart compared to her younger sister, Susan. She thought she was perfect. She was the typical “Shirley Temple” image.
Miss Emily was part of the highly revered Grierson family, the aristocrats of the town. They held themselves to a higher standard, and nothing or nobody was ever good enough for them. Faulkner fist gives us the clue of Emily's mental condition when he refers to Emily's great-aunt, Lady Wyatt. Faulkner tells us that Lady Wyatt had "gone completely crazy" (Faulkner 93). Due to the higher standards they had set for themselves, they believed that they were too high for that and then distanced themselv...
Emily’s father rose her with lots of authority, he might had ruined her life by not giving her the opportunity to live a normal lady/woman life; but he build a personality, character and a psycho woman. Mister Grierson was the responsible for Emily’s behavior, he thought her to always make others respect her. Homer’s actions of using her as a cover to his sexuality was not respectful at all, Emily did not know any better and poison him to death.
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.
When a story like this comes about in the public, everyone can think of everything Emily did wrong or how atrocious the crime was but no many will understand why she would do such a thing. She was living in a town with people who took their religion for seriously and lived by it faithfully. Whatever was not done in the religion or around it was wrong and offended them easily. The community she lived in were not welcoming and carrying people that she could socialize with. Grierson did not have any friends throughout her life because of the way she was raised, by an overbearing father that took control of her mind.
Miss Emily’s refusal to change all started when her father had passed away and when asked about it she was in denial and “she told them her father was not dead.” She didn’t want to come to the realization that the only person in her life that loved her and protected her was gone. The fact that he was so controlling of her life and how she lived made Miss Emily afraid of what was going to happen next. She wasn’t used to making her own life choices.
By using strong characterization and dramatic imagery, William Faulkner introduces us to Miss Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily”. The product of a well-established, but now fallen family, Emily plays common role found in literature- a societal outcast, who earns her banishment from society through her eclectic behavior and solitary background. Often living in denial and refusing to engage with others, Emily responds to her exile by spending the remainder of her life as a mysterious recluse that the rest of society is more content to ignore rather than break social customs to confront her. Emily’s role as an outcast mirrors a major theme of the story, that denial is a powerful tool in hiding a secret, however, the truth will eventually emerge. The mystery surrounding Emily’s character and the story’s memorable imagery creates a haunting tale that lingers with the reader.
Although I do not agree with how Miss Emily Grierson behaved, but I do not blame her. Harbored from reality her entire life I can expect for her to do some unordinary things. I feel bad for Miss Emily because she was the center of attention in a modernized town where she still practiced her traditional values. Through the eyes the townspeople we get our views of Emily at a distance. Had the story been told from Emily’s perspective we could better understand her reasoning for her bizarre behavior.
As the story progresses, Emily interprets her life through forms of control, and this plays into her interactions with the town, and more specifically, her relationship with her suitor Homer Barron. She is prideful and reclusive, leading the townspeople to speculate on her life and to judge her based on how she interacts with Barron and
All in all, the story of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner represents a chilling and twisted story of a woman who used every option, even murder, to keep her state of happiness. Faulkner cleverly uses symbols, characters, and theme to fully illustrate the twisted mind of Emily Grierson and the communities never ending struggle between incorporating modern rules and keeping traditional values.