Essay Comparing A Rose For Emily And As I Lay Dying

Faulkner's works, “A Rose for Emily” and As I Lay Dying, exploit the traditional, primitive roles of female sexuality as a subject imprisoned to male dominance. “A rose for Emily” uses a community narration style to depict societies beliefs in correspondence to Emily's intimate life. Likewise, Faulkner drew a negative force around the sexual orientations of females in As I Lay dying. The two works of writing reflected one another in the terms and ignorance to women's rights with the occurrences of female vulnerability and male dominance. Societal norms illustrating female roles and sexual expectations were elicited through the community style narrations in “A Rose for Emily.” From the start, the town openly mocked Emily for her dependence on male

From Emily's father's death, she was seen to be psychotic in terms of her grief and lack of independence following the life of the late man. As soon as she lost her male superior, she lost her will to live a healthy life. Emily was left desperate and vulnerable “when her father died, it go about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily” (Faulkner 11). Emily’s reliance on male figures reflects women's dependence on the male gender. Contradicting the commonality of male dependance during this time, the community in the story mocked Emily of this trait. In current days, women are encouraged to be self dependant and strong in the eyes of men, contrary to this text. The time period of this short story confirms the conflicting norms that have changed since. Emily’s reliance on male presence guided the audience to characterize her as an unjust woman, contradicting her correspondence to the majority of female figures at the time. Unfortunately female inferiority and dependence of males were wide spread issues of societal