Isolation In A Rose For Emily

In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily,” the townspeople view Miss Emily Grierson as a social outcast. Being isolated and oppressed by her father, Miss Emily suffers from what is considered abandonment issues. For Miss Emily, the fear of being alone not only causes problems for herself but also the people around her. Throughout the story, Faulkner further reveals Miss Emily’s character through the emotional, physical, and psychological changes she undergoes after the death of her father and her isolation from town. The death of Miss Emily’s father causes her to change drastically. At the beginning of the story, Miss Emily seems like the normal, old-fashioned town elder. We do not catch a glimpse into the true life of Miss Emily until her

Throughout the story, we notice that the Grierson family name also plays a major part in Miss Emily’s separation from society. Because “the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were,” the town began to view them as such (223). The Griersons were considered town royalty. Rarely did the town get to see members of the family being vulnerable. The death of her father was the only time Miss Emily was publicly humbled to where the town felt that “she had become humanized,” (223). However, this conclusion was short lived. The townspeople begin to notice that “after her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all,” (222). When the townspeople come to collect taxes, Miss Emily does not know that “Colonel Satoris had been dead almost ten years,” (222). When the narrator states this, it further proves that the fact that Miss Emily has not been out of the house for so long has caused her to miss monumental town events. The only thing that remotely keeps her connected is her manservant, Tobe. Even though Miss Emily was given plenty of opportunity to reintegrate herself back into society, she refuses. For years and years, Miss Emily remains content with remaining a lone wolf. However, after being alone for so long, Miss Emily opens her house in order to teach china painting classes. After teaching for a while, Miss