Mental Illness In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

The short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner tells the tale of an old and seemingly unstable woman named Emily Grierson who has apparently just passed away. The short story reflects on her role in the community and the somewhat strange events that occurred throughout her life. Through the telling of the events, by the end of the story the reader has been able to witness something that could be described as a slow descent into madness. It would be difficult to argue that Miss Emily does not show symptoms of mental illness; there is evidence that supports that the roots of her problems are caused by the circumstances she has no control over such as childhood, society, community, and personality, and it is these circumstances

Emily shows very anti-social tendencies and is said to have become more of a recluse in society as time passed. Eventually, after her father’s passing, she completely shuts herself off from the rest of the world, and the narrator states that “the front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good,” (7). Emily is also very stubborn and refuses to do things like pay taxes and allow the community to put her up a mailbox, which in turn leaves her with very few relationships with the people around her and causes them to look at her negatively. Because of this lack of relationships, another personality trait for Miss Emily is loneliness. This loneliness is especially portrayed when the townspeople knock down the door and find the rotted corpse in the bed. “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him,” (9). After finding the lock of “iron-gray hair” on the pillow next to the body, it is implied that Emily herself was the one embracing the corpse, which shows how she was just longing for love and companionship while also bringing about the climax of her symptoms of