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.
Miss Emily was the last survivor of a once very prominent family in her small town. She was raised by her widowed father, whom was said to be crazy himself. In fact, the story says the whole family was crazy. Her father was said to be both a generous man who donated money to the city and a strict man who ran
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After all, Miss Emily had slept with a dead man for over forty years. Miss Emily suffered from a very severe mental illness. She is simply described with one word, crazy; however, Miss Emily’s mental illness cannot be blamed solely on her, because the way she had been raised is what drove her to insanity. For instance, her father raised her by himself and kept her locked away from the world. He is said to of run off many men and claimed that no man was good enough for his daughter. Some also say that he was just a selfish man who was afraid of losing his daughter and housekeeper. So when he dies, Miss Emily does not know what to do because she has been locked away from the world for so long. Her father was the only person she knew along with the only person she had ever loved, so when he died, she was left completely alone. It is no surprise that when Homer Barron comes to town and becomes very close to her, she finds herself willing to do anything not to be left alone again. Even if it means killing him just so that he, unlike her father, could never leave her by herself