Being A Woman By William Faulkner

Gender defined roles are continuously adapting to the new societal norms of the era. There is a surplus of historical events that have reimagined the traditional expectations of a man or women.

Patriarchy or a silent feminist, in the 1931 short story by William Faulkner patriarchy was the way of life, men are the dominate gender and women submissive. According to Sweeting-DeCaro patriarchy is “most men and (some) women believe that anyone who violates traditional gender roles in some way is unnatural, unhealthy and even immoral”. (2016) Emily is among some of them, but this is a feminist waiting to challenge the social, traditional, perception of gender roles. She is seen as the traditional women in her role prior to her fathers’ death, but then a short time after according to the narrator she begins to transform into a progressive woman. The ideology of feminism is “the ways in which our personal identity is formed by our

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” employs indirect characterisation to create a detailed picture of not only Emily but also of the narrator. While she is described in seemingly direct ways, the comparison between the vision of her in the past and her present appearance reveals further characterization than the descriptors themselves. When she is young and pure to the town, she appears as “a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background” (page 767). She is almost granted an angelic aura by her virginity, and when the town believes she has lost it her image it is turned entirely on its head. They see her as tarnishes and no longer consumable or fit to find a man. She is no longer svelte and desirable, but a “small, fat woman in black” (page 765). The transformation of Emily from slender to fat, and a white dress to a black dress mirrors that of the marriage set’s tarnishing. Emily’s

In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner employs a narrator to describe Emily Grierson, a recently deceased old woman. Apart from her manservant, she does not interact with others, save for a short period of time in

In “A Rose for Emily” Miss Emily Grierson live a life of quiet turmoil. Her entire life has revolved around an inexplicable loneliness mostly characterized by the harsh abandonment of death. The most vital imagery utilized by Faulkner demonstrates Miss Emily’s mental condition. She, being self-improsened within the confines of her home, is the human embodiment of her house; Faulkner describes it as “... stubborn an coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps--an eyesore among eyesores.” (Faulkner 308).

In “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, the story starts out with a distinctive split between the motivations of men and women: “The men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity” (Faulkner 121). At the funeral of Emily, the narrator appoints men in the category of attending out of respect, and women attending simply because they are curious and nosy. The immediate

Gender roles describe the normative expectations of a culture group regarding the position that both sexes should hold in society. It also refers to the division of labor tasks, differences in behaviors, preferences, abilities; personalities that society expects of specific genders, (Kaiser, C. R., & Miller, C. T. 2009). It concerns the processes of how gender roles socialize and interact with each other in society as a whole and as an individual, (Stockard & Johnson, 1980; Thomas, 1986). Gender role deals with identity and at times are conceptualized as the acceptance and identification with social roles and behaviors associated with

Faulkner’s use of southern gothic writing style helps the reader build a mental depiction of Miss Emily. When the town sent their ambassadors to discuss the taxes that were owed, Faulkner described Miss Emily as “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (2182). This description gives the reader the sense that the character is not well. Faulkner’s description that Miss Emily looked bloated achieves the desired effect on the reader to show how hideous she appears. This graphic description, combined with the author’s depressing description of the parlor (2182), makes the reader think of death. The reader gets the sense of being in a funeral parlor which helps to strengthen Faulkner’s narrative.

To give the readers a visual representation of Emily’s house, one of the sentences that Faulkner used to describe the house is, “It smelled of dust and disuse— a close, dank smell.” (Faulkner 129) Usually, when there is dust found in a house, it can mean that the house is old and unkempt. It can also indicate that a great amount of time has passed because the objects in the house have had to remain untouched for it to collect dust. The dust refers to Emily’s appearance. “Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.” (Faulkner 129) Comparatively, in The Cask of Amontillado, Poe paints us a haunting image of the last scene. “A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a moment I hesitated, I trembled.” (Poe 222) This helps put an image in the readers head and makes the story more vivid. Faulkner incorporates something similar within “A Rose for Emily” by describing the inside and outside of the house. “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.” (Faulkner 129)

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", a woman of noble origin, Emily Grierson, finds herself alone isolated in a small town in the Old South. The isolation is not only a result of the townspeople's perception of Emily's status in the community, but also as a result of their pity towards her. Emily, herself, is also to blame for the separation she experiences from the rest of the town. This ominous alienation that some individuals encounter can sometimes lead to horrible, and even, disgusting behavior, as in Emily's case. In "A Rose for Emily", Faulkner shows how the alienation felt by Emily Grierson caused by the townspeople, the death of her father, and her own self, enables her to commit an act of grotesqueness.

Arguably one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, William Faulkner was plagued with a crisis of identity from a young age. Inadequate in nearly every aspect of his life, Faulkner projected his personal shortcomings onto many of his characters, such as with Miss Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily” and Wash Jones in “Wash.” However, instead of victimizing these characters within his works, Faulkner chooses to rely almost exclusively on the lowborn or outcasts, such as Wash and Miss Emily, as examples of heroism. Unconventional characters like Wash Jones and Emily Grierson pose a test for Faulkner’s readers. If the reader judges these characters with a conventional eye, seeing one other as a murderous

Within the stories,” A Rose For Emily and Greenleaf” there are many different southern ideas presented, but they have a different approach to them. In “A Rose for Emily”, one of the southern ideas that Faulkner uses, is the idea of having the main character, Emily, keep up her good image. O’Connor also uses this idea, with her main character, but she approaches it differently. Faulkner starts off in the beginning, by saying that Miss Emily is dead and the whole town went to her funeral. “ When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one has seen.” This leads to the description of the house, that she lived in, before her death. “It was a big, squarish framed house that had once been

Both men and women support patriarchy, men and women can both be equally hurt by patriarchy, but individually men and women are hurt in different ways. Patriarchy is a system in a society where the father, or the oldest male or even the husband, is the head of the household, also the family’s descent is traced back through the male’s line. Although patriarchy can still be found in today’s day and age, it is a subject that is argued about often. Both William Faulkner and Charlotte Perkins Gilman address this issue in both their stories “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, respectively. William Faulkner gives a depiction that Emily needed the feeling of control, whether that is being controlled or by controlling someone, which may not be the case. Whereas Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows that Jane goes insane due to the fact that her husband and brother treat her as if she is just depressed and can overcome her depression. Similarly to these stories, history has taught us that the men have held the burden of being responsible for their family, which may be coming to an end due to the rise of strong independent women. Gilman depicts how women are enslaved under the ruling of their husband portraying patriarchy in a negative light, whereas Faulkner’s story is not represented negatively, but more as a cautionary tale.

Over the years men and women have been given gender roles that they are pressured to follow. According to Amy Blackstone, “gender roles are based on the different expectations that individuals, groups and societies have of individuals based on their sex…” (2003). In other words, gender roles are social norms and expectations, created and accepted by society, based on a person’s gender. There have been different gender roles throughout the different time eras and in some eras the gender roles have been strongly enforced. Today, many people believe that gender roles do not really exist in society anymore; however the pressure on gender roles given by society is present now more than ever, even if it is subtle. Individuals are still given expectations by society based on their gender. For boys or men, they are expected to be more masculine, aggressive and strong, while women or girls on the other hand, are expected to be feminine, calm, friendly and caring (Wood, 1994). These gender roles given by society to men and women must be removed because they do not allow a person to express their identity.

In my opinion, gender roles are being challenged today to a certain degree, but in order for us to become more open-minded, it is imperative to find a central path between the two extremes. While it is important for us to maintain our physiological differences and fulfill certain individual responsibilities, it is equally important for women to assume more significant roles outside the household and to realize their full potential.