The Loneliness of Miss Emily
There are many people that have been driven to insanity because of various reason. Insanity can cause numerous unwanted things to happen just to be somewhat sane again. For example, one could maybe murder a love interest because they do not want to be alone. In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner uses the symbolism of a tableau, gray hair, and a house to convey isolation, loneliness, and refusal to change.
The townspeople viewed the Gierson family as “Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door”(559). Emily’s father holding a horsewhip symbolizes his willingness to protect her purity and innocence which is shown by her wearing white. Emily’s father sitting with her back turned away while in the foreground while Emily is in the background could symbolize his obsession with physical protection rather than an emotional relationship with Emily. Him ‘protecting’ her also isolated her from any other person even after his death.
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The indention and long strand of gray hair shows that Emily was lonely enough to sleep with a skeleton of someone who did not reciprocate her love. Homer may have threatened to leave her which would have left her to be alone again. The feeling of someone leaving her reminded her of her father’s death. When her father died Emily refused to even admit he was dead, “for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” (560) This ultimately means that Emily was scared of being lonely and unwilling to