Emily Grierson in the story “A Rose for Emily” is a lady who has been through a lot and is constantly criticized by the people in her neighbor for many different reasons. Everyone feels pitiful towards her because she’s not your typical girl. Emily didn’t get to live her life like other people. Emily had to take care of her father for many, many years and wasn’t able to interact with anyone or waste any time because she had to be him. Emily’s role in this story predicts the consequences of society’s idea of the role of a woman through the isolation of Emily. One of Emily’s biggest social problem was with her father. She suffered a lot throughout her life because of the way her father was. Her father was one of those old fashioned men from the South who was always proud …show more content…
“None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (Faulkner). Emily was unfortunately secluded from many things because of him. She had to take care of her father her whole life, basically wanted her as his own personal nurse. “… who was brow-beaten and kept down by her father, a selfish man who didn’t want her to leave from because he wanted a housekeeper, and it was a natural instinct” (Faulkner). Emily didn’t have any interaction with people, not even people from her own neighborhood. No one had even been to their house. They all wondered how the place looked when they had to attend her funeral because no one had ever been inside. The time she did get to interact with people was when her father had people over at their house. Emily didn’t talk to anyone. She didn’t have her mother or a sister she could possibly open up to because it was just her and her father. “Her tragedy was, she was an only child, an only daughter” (Faulkner). When Emily’s father passed away, Emily didn’t know how to handle it. She had never been away from him or never been alone without someone telling her what not to do. I believe the reason why
One can assume her marriage was not a good one. Miss Emily Grierson was abused at a young age by her father Mr. Grierson. Emily grew up under the shadow of her father and it haunted Emily for a long time. Many people grow up differently, and the way they grow up could affect the person they become
Since Emily is so off from the world, this makes the understanding of what she is dealing with even harder. If she was more outspoken with the people of the town, rumors would have not grown about her, and caused even more
Miss Emily Grierson, the main character in William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, is a very unusual character. She has an extremely unhealthy relationship with her father causing her to deny his death. Miss Emily constantly staying locked up in the house she grew up in alone, feeling forced to live in the limelight of her father and never attempting to get over his death causes her to mentally and physically withered away and become a sad, pitiful, and bizarre human being. Faulkner describes Emily’s desire to be alone by saying, “People hardly saw her at all” (Faulkner II). The only times she was seen was sitting in the window “with the torso of an idol”
Both Emily and Robert are prematurely judged by the narrators in both stories, and the assumptions are so far fetched from the reality. Miss. Emily is perceived to be a lonely old woman, whom nobody ever spoke with. Since they never talk with her or learn anything about what is going on in her life, the townspeople begin to gossip to make up for this. They knew her father had driven away any man from becoming close to her, and they just thought to themselves, “ poor Emily” (32).
Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.
She was alone, she was humiliated by the town, she had to hide away because she was not able to cope. In Tim O’Brien’s article he states, “After her death, Emily is reunited with the other members of her southern class …”, which means, in death, with the people she loved she will no longer be alone” (O’Brien
It is clear that in her era, Miss Emily was seen as traditional American Southern women, who lived to become an inferior women to man but was later a burden to her society. She was a lady who was secluded from society, lived a psychopathic life, which at the end, and was no secret for the town’s people. While Miss Emily was alive, she lived in a secluded home of a single father, thus leading her to be dependent upon him. She did not have much of a socially engaged life, for her father drove men away. When he finally died, Miss Emily told the townspeople that he was not dead, and finally, on the third day, let the town’s people buried him (William Faulkner 1105).
In many situations, the people within the town notice Miss Emily’s odd behavior, but they choose to maintain peace with her instead of helping her when she clearly needs it the most. However, this need to preserve the respectful image of Miss Emily ultimately leads to her emotional breakdown of isolation and
The story is set right after the civil war. Emily and her father are high class people who owned slaves to do all the things around the house. Because of her social status everyone in the town would never think of Emily as someone who would sleep with a dead body. When everyone found out about Emily’s secret it was a shock to everyone. Necrophilia is not something someone who was first class would do.
To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,
William Faulkner is a complex writer who knows how to set a great pace in his stories. He is also a very flexible writer which allows the openness of many topics to write on because of his unconventional style. In his short story, "A Rose for Emily", you can interpret how times are so different from today. Although it was not during slavery times, things were not much more advance than that. The dominance of gender or social roles shown on women, particularly Miss Emily, may be seen as harsh or unfair.
At a young age, Miss Emily had a great quantity of pretendants, but her father though that none of those man were sufficient for his only daughter, or that is what the narrator let us know. “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily […]” (Faulkner, 4); this quote real meaning is that because of his overprotection she would not get married during her young years and by consequence would not form a family, this being analyzed from the perspective of the time the story was written. It is for this reason that she was dependent of her father and all that he possessed that she did not worked at all. Although it is mentioned that on her last years she gave china-paint lessons, it is not mentioned if she did it for money or for
The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, discusses the south in the 1900’s as it is rapidly changing while still trying to keep respect for long held traditions. Much of the older generation refuses the change and stands tall on their beliefs, while the young generations are heavily pushing for new traditions. This tension causes a separation between the generations, leaving some to feel pushed out and isolated; such as Emily Grierson, a complex woman who suffered many horrible losses in her life. Emily Grierson is a symbol of the old southern ways, as she holds tightly to her traditions in the quickly changing world she lives in. Emily Grierson was a woman of the old traditions who refused to abolition her ways.
From a very young age, she found herself being confined in her home with her father and their butler. There is no mention of her mother, so one can only assume that the mother was absent in Emily’s life. Emily’s father isolated Emily away from the outside world, thinking that no one would ever be good enough for her. This is where the reader begins to see the dependent and possessive nature. Being that she was sheltered away from the outside world, she had no friends, thus becoming dependent on her father.
After reading the short story “A Rose for Emily”, the reader will discover that the main character, Miss Emily, is one very strange woman. Of course, any reader will find themselves wondering just what in the world was wrong with Miss Emily. As the reader searches for the answer to this question, they find themselves thinking back to the things that could have very well affected Miss Emily’s mental state. These events include Miss Emily’s father, her suspected lover, and the rest of the community.