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Miss Emily Grierson's Behavior

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Miss Emily the Enchanted Rose Miss Emily Grierson, the main character in William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” is an abnormal Southern woman by any audience’s principles. “Emily Grierson’s history, from the time of her father’s death to her own death at the age of seventy-four, is the focus of Faulkner’s narrative.” (Arnsberg, 126) Throughout the story Miss Emily’s inconsistent and peculiar behavior has left readers questioning her mental state. “The problematic of Miss Emily’s mental state is her failed interactions with the male characters.” (Arensberg, 127) The most important male characters are first her father and second Homer Barron. The townspeople also are seen as a problem by enabling her behavior by being in denial …show more content…

“Homer Barron, a Yankee- big dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face,” took the lead in this sidewalk project. (Faulkner, 312) The townsfolk began to see Miss Emily again while she went out with the Yankee man. At a first glimpse the ladies of the town were happy to see Emily out and about taking curiosity in a man but that was short lived. “Of course, a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northern, a day laborer.” (Faulkner, 312) Based off Southern traditions Miss Emily dating Mr. Barron is frowned upon. The women of the town were concerned that bad examples were being set forth to the younger generation. The ladies did not want this relationship to work so they call in Miss Emily’s kin hoping they could put a stop to this affair, after their plan for the minister to end the relationship failed. The townsfolk believed their idea of having the cousins stop the relationship was unsuccessful due to Miss Emily buying items from the store that showed signs of a married woman. They were ready for Mrs. Emily’s cousins to leave. They disliked the cousins due to their “I’m a proud, rich, Southern woman that is better than you attitude.” Once they left Mr. Barron’s made one final appearance and then never seen again causing Miss Emily to become reclusive like before when her father had

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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

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1217 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.

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624 Words | 3 Pages

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).

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299 Words | 2 Pages

Miss Emily was an aging old lady that took creepy to a whole new level. In the story, "A Rose for Emily", a lonely old lady went to extreme and murdered a man because she was so desperate for company, even if the person was lifeless. Throughout the story, Faulkner used extreme sensory detail, elements of setting, and structure of plot to create suspense. During the story, Faulkner used excessive sensory detail to make the story mysterious. He says Miss Emily was always dressed in black.

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985 Words | 4 Pages

On April 1865 General Lee surrendered his army of Northern Virginia and the American Civil War came to an end. This marked the beginning of the reconstruction era and a time when the northern social structure began to have major influences on southern societies. The South, however, struggled to retain the social structure they took for granted in the Antebellum period. In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner uses the townspeople, Miss Emily, and Miss Emily’s home to show this pervading idealistic society of the Old South, within the reformative society of the New South.

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1852 Words | 8 Pages

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

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806 Words | 4 Pages

Telling the story in an irregular order, Faulkner develops a sense of suspense by adding details to the mysterious Miss Emily. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care: a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (451). The reader learns that Miss Emily had been seen as an eccentric woman that the people of the town had to take care of and overlook, ultimately overlooking her as a suspect in Homer Barron’s disappearance. Miss Emily often disappears into her house for months and years at a time,

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

As the story goes on, Faulkner describes Emily’s death: “When Miss Emily Grierson died the whole town went to her funeral: the men out of respectful affection for a fallen monument and the women mostly out of curiosity” (Faulkner). Faulkner emphasizes that while men are caring and respectful women act only based on curiosity. Indeed, the role of women in the southern society is less significant than the role of

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1088 Words | 5 Pages

It didn’t seem out of the ordinary until Miss Emily was seen less and less around town. Many people began to talk about how her father had driven away many of her potential husbands so it was assumed that she acted that way because of his death, not that she had gone crazy. Following her father's death, “She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows — sort of tragic and serene.” Having been sick and isolated from the people in her community, she divided herself from them and the changes made in the world.

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691 Words | 3 Pages

When her father died we can see that she is controlling of him and would not release the body for burial. After she loses her father, it is as if she loses her sense of reality. It is as if maybe the old white house is beginning to represent the attitude and ways of Emily. The house is old, dark, and very dusty just as the townspeople think Emily is. Homer Barron is a construction worker from New York.

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729 Words | 3 Pages

The townspeople felt Miss Emily’s father dying and being lonely caused her to cling to Barron desperately. The unknown narrator explains how Horner Barron tells the men he is not the marrying kind. This leaves the townspeople disgraced in Miss Emily’s relationship and they find lost relatives of hers to come take hold of the matter. Once more, exposing more decay in Miss Emily’s life.

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531 Words | 3 Pages

“A Rose for Emily” written brilliantly by William Faulkner, is a Southern, Gothic story that tells a tale of drama, love, and grotesque horror. Written in a first person narrative, the readers get an inclusive look into Emily Grierson’s life through the eyes of the townspeople and the generations that came before her. The narration of the story goes beyond its fictional characters; it tells a tremendous amount about not only the author’s background but of his values in addition to a thematic setting. Like in Faulkner’s childhood, the story takes place in Mississippi, the setting and era (approximately from 1880 to the 1930’s) offer an accurate historical background in sexism, racism, and southern tradition. The rather insensitive use of

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793 Words | 4 Pages

Kierrah Edwards ENGL 201 9/20/15 Character Analysis: Emily Grierson The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner depicts how seclusion can certainly impact one’s life. Throughout the story, Emily gives off this “insane” impression. However, after fully reading the story, the reader can fully understand why Emily was the way she was. Emily Grierson was a very dependent person.

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865 Words | 4 Pages

“Behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: “Poor Emily” (102). All Emily wanted was to find the love she never received, but because of her high social class, the town refused to accept it. Still stuck in the traditional ways, ladies of the town saw her relationship with Barron as a disgrace and resorted to calling her family up in Alabama. And thus, she had blood-kin under her roof again. They forced her to buy all sorts of goods for Barron, such as the toilet cover seat and clothing.

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