Essay Comparison of A Rose for Emily and The Possibility of Evil

What are characteristics of two women from different stories have in common. Each lady lived in different geographic area from one another, but both stories had shown the similar reflection of their lives style back to that early century. Miss. Emily from “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner was a single woman who grew up in a wealthy family and was the only child of Griesons. However, Emily was unlucky person. She did not enjoy her life that much as the family’s business was in trouble and the father died too soon. As he left her alone and with nothing, petty Emily was heartbroken and afraid to face with some of her father obligation. At that time, she also found the lover that people thought he could help her

In ‘’The Possibility of Evil’’, Miss Adela Strangeworth is depicted as a villain. Miss Strangeworth in fact is similar to a rose, a rose is a simple flower that looks angelic but has thorns that can prick someone and cause harm. Miss Strangeworth gives the illusion of a 71 year-old lady that can cause no harm and has a heart of gold that cares and worries for everyone. But behind the pretty picture, is a villainous woman who is controlling, bullies the other townspeople, and is jealous of others success.

     In the short story A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner there is a very interesting character. Her Name is Emily Grierson and she is a rich southern gentile. All her life it seems that she was raised at a standard that was above the rest. By living such a secluded and controlled life it set her up for the happenings in her future.

People aren’t always who they seem to be. In ‘The Possibility of Evil,” by Shirley Jackson, this idea is explored in story form. One character, Miss Strangeworth, is the literary representation of this idea; She is polite and nice in person, but at the same time, she anonymously writes hurtful letters that spread false rumors to the whole town. Firstly, Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she says and does.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, Emily, the protagonist, is shown as someone who’s life is falling apart and brought down by society. Emily in this story could be described as a victim to society and her father. Emily Grierson’s confinement, loss of her father and Homer, and constant criticism caused her, her insanity.

In William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” his main character Miss Emily Grierson’s deranged behavior leaves the reader questioning her mental status.

In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.

Meyer, Michael. "A Rose for Emily." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Ninth ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 84-90. Print.

William Faulkner is a well-known author, whose writing belongs in the Realism era in the American Literary Canon. His writing was influence by his Southern upbringing, often setting his stories in the fictional Southern town, Yoknapatawpha County. “A Rose for Emily” was one of Faulkner’s first published pieces and displays many of the now signature characteristics of Faulkner’s writing. The short story provides commentary through the use of many symbols. In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, the author uses the townspeople as a representation of societal expectations and judgments, Emily and her house as symbols for the past, and Homer’s corpse as a physical representation of the fear of loneliness.

The main symbolism running throughout A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, is the theme of how important it is to let go of the past. Miss Emily clings to the past and does not want to be independent. The Old South is becoming the new South and she cannot move forward. The residents of the South did not all give in to change just because they lost the Civil War. In A Rose for Emily time marches on leaving Miss Emily behind as she stubbornly refuses to progress into a new era. In the story, symbolism is used to give more details than the author actually gives to the reader. Symbolism helps to indicate how Emily was once innocent but later changes, how her hair, house, and lifestyle, helped to show her resistance to change. The story is not

Udolpho’s ruined state and general gloom provide an atmosphere of crepuscular terror to which Emily’s sensibility is finely attuned, further provoked by her perception of threats to her innocence and chastity, portending murder, violent rape, or at least forced marriage.” (Ellis

Emily is a woman who goes against all norms of her society: she takes a lover, a Northerner no less, she does not marry him, and she even commits murder. As she goes through these events in her life, the townspeople make certain assumptions about what she is doing. They assume that she has married Homer Barron, they assume that the arsenic she purchased is so that she can kill herself, and they constantly assume that she is “Poor Emily,” a woman who is ruled by her father and unable to make decisions for herself.

Emily behaves the way she does for numerous reasons. She is born into an aristocratic family. Emily is brought up as a Southern belle by her father and is placed on a pedestal by the townspeople. The Grierson’s are known in town for being extremely wealthy and having the nicest house in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County. Due to the fact that her father, Mr. Grierson, keeps her isolated and socially restricted as a child, she behaves abnormally. Emily feels as if she is pressured to live up to her father’s expectations. Because Emily is kept away from everything, she is not yet exposed to the real world.

Undoubtedly Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. He was an influential thinker of the early twentieth century who elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex energy-system and the structural investigation of which is the proper province of psychology. Freud articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression and he proposed tripartite account of the mind ‘s structure, all as part of a radically new conceptual and therapeutic frame of reference for the understanding of human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions. Freudian approach can be

“And she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to her” (Jackson 1). It is these words that start to depict who Miss Adela Strangeworth really is. In the short story, “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson, there is an older woman who has some secrets no one knows about. When reading the short story, the newly revealed details of her life may come as a surprise, considering that she is seventy-one years old. She constantly shares anonymous secrets to keep order in town, and she loves to see the drama unfold. Miss Strangeworth sees nothing wrong with what she does, as she views the situation as simply sharing the truth. Miss Adela Strangeworth believes the town is hers, but she does not expect the karma coming to her. It is visible through her ironic thoughts and actions that Miss Strangeworth spreads evil around the town through anonymous letters, while really, attempting to terminate it.