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Character Analysis Of Miss Emily Grierson

Decent Essays
Upon reading “A Rose for Emily,” penned by William Faulkner, one discovers several colorful characters, including one Miss Emily Grierson, who may be best described as a wilting violet in a time capsule. As the daughter of a colonel who was once the respected town mayor, Miss Emily met a much different fate than one might have expected of someone with such a high societal status. In keeping with the idea that humans are flawed beings, a tragic hero is often described as an individual with immense potential who meets a horrific end due to flaws within themselves, and the main character in Faulkner’s short story undeniably meets these criteria. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily Grierson suffers an unfortunate fate due to her lack of willingness to evolve as the times changed, her intense need to keep up appearances, and her withdrawal from society which leads readers to accept her as a tragic hero.
Throughout the course of the story, it becomes evident to readers that Miss Emily lived her life as though time was on pause, and nothing was allowed to be altered within the confines of her reality; in regard to this realization, one notes that this is where she first began her long fall down the well. In retrospect, she held fast to the days when she fancied herself a symbol of the flourishing south and became stationary in an antiquated period of life when the times began to change. She made it known that she wanted no part of change, and she never chose to
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