Compare And Contrast Miss Brill And Emily Grieron

Compare and Contrast the Characters Miss Brill and Emily Grierson

The short stories A Rose for Emily and Miss Brill have two characters Emily Grierson, the

daughter of a civil war hero and Miss Brill, an old English teacher. Although the stories are

written at different times in history, the authors present a common theme in both characters.

They both suffer from the pain of solitude brought about by lack of companionship and isolation.

The protagonists contrast in their relationships with the society in that Emily is more of an indoor

(less social) person while Miss Brill is an outdoor (social) person. The essay seeks to compare

these two characters by analyzing how they both bring out the theme of suffering. The essay also

This can be seen from her perception and description of the man who shares her

“special” seat as a “… fine old man” and the woman as “a big old woman” (101). Her

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remembrance of the previous Sunday’s patient Englishman and his nagging hard to please wife

whom she wanted to shake also shows her envy for women with male companionship.

In Faulkner’s story A Rose for Emily, Emily is seen as a person who suffers from

isolation from her community, by tradition and by law. Her isolation from the community and

love is what seems to perturb her most; she is unable to accept the idea that her father is dead and

she remains in denial. When her father dies, Emily suffers from isolation to the extent that she

cannot let go of her father’s corpse. The author also brings out the theme of suffering from

isolation when he uses descriptive words to show the reader how Emily is separated from the

modern society. Some of the words the author uses are “coquettish decay” and “tarnished gold”.

“Miss Emily’s house was left. Lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton

wagons” (Faulkner 32). When Emily’s father dies and shortly after Homer’s disappearance

follows, we see a depressed and a lonely Emily who never leaves the