Obsession In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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As I read A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner I was engrossed from the first paragraph. Granted I tend to find stories that have a morbid theme interesting. Obsession seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout this short story. The town’s people’s obsession with Emily throughout the years is one; also, Emily’s obsession with holding on to people in her life. There can be times that obsessions can be unhealthy and actually be a precursor to a serious mental illness. People viewing from the outside may not realize the severity of the fascinations until it is too late. I believe that A Rose for Emily is the best short story of the four stories I was assigned because of Faulkner’s ability to take a macabre obsession and set it within a small town story. The story starts off with the obsession of the town’s people with Emily and her family. Even stating that they attended her funeral “out of curiosity to see the inside of her house” (Mandell, 1930), not out of any …show more content…

Norman Bates was able to show a public face, just as Emily did, even though he seemed strange. He was a victim, same as Emily, of a domineering parent. A further similarity between the two is the fascination with the dead. Norman too kept a body, refusing to let go of the only structure he had ever known. When his mother who had berated him his entire life dies Norman has a mental break and he not only taxidermies her body in order to preserve it, his personality splits into two people. One was being himself, and the other becoming his dead mother. Norman Bates like Emily is an example of when obsession can take over a person, sometime literally, and becomes unhealthy. In the case of Norman, his dual personality, his other self, killed anyone that stayed at the motel. The motel and house representing the self-inflicted prison Norman has sentenced him to, just as Emily did with her

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