In addition to the impact of her family on her mental state, it is also through the relationship Miss Emily has with her community, that helps to foreshadow the fateful ending. It is through the words and actions of the community that this relationship is shown, such as how they even distance themselves from her. In the beginning of the story in Act I, Faulkner describes Miss Emily’s position in the town as “a sort of hereditary obligation”. Since the death of her father, the town is aware of the struggle she is having while being alone, so that is why they see her
Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal
Emily comes from a family with high expectations of her a sort of “hereditary obligation” (30). Emily has been mentally manipulated by her as so indicated in the line of the story “we did not say she was crazy then we believed she had to do that we remember all the young men her father had driven away” (32). There is already proof of mental illness in the family “remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great aunt, had gone completely crazy last” (32).
An important idiosyncrasy of Emily's that will help the reader to understand the bizarre finale of the story, is her apparent inability to cope with the death of someone she cared for. When deputies were sent to recover back taxes from Emily, she directed them to Colonel Sartoris, an ex-mayor that had told her she would never have to pay taxes, and a man that had been dead for ten years. Years before this incident, however, after her father had died, she continued to act has if he had not, and only allowed his body to be removed when threatened with legal action. Considering the fate of her lover's corpse, one suspects she would have kept her father's corpse also, had the town not known of his death.
Emily's father suppressed all of her inner desires. He kept her down to the point that she was not allowed to grow and change with the things around her. When “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated…only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Rose 217). Even when he died, she was still unable to get accustom to the changes around her. The traditions that her and her father continued to participate in even when others stopped, were also a way that her father kept her under his thumb. The people of the town helped in
The very beinning of the story is extraordinary. It begins with the burial of Emily, the residents around her coffin did not feel anything, most of them were curious. There were neither friends nor relatives, nobody who was in mouring for her, only inquirers. The readers can ask, what kind of person was Miss Emily? Why the others did not feel sadness? Perhaps there is a bigger question: what was the reason that nobody went to her house more than ten years (except her slave, Tobe).
This reality sends panic and fear through her because now she has nowhere to turn and no one to tell her what to do, no one to command her life. Not only is she stricken with the loss of her father but now she is cut off to the outside world, because her only link has passed on. Emily immediately goes into a state of denial; to her, her father could not be dead, he was all that she had and she would not let him go.
Secondly, Emily Rose changes socially in the story. In the beginning of the piece Emily is described as being a recluse towards the townspeople. (pg. 32). Emily's father did not like loneliness; therefore he kept her beside him until his death. This fear of being alone was transmitted to Emily, who first would try to keep
Additionally, because of Miss Emily Grierson isolation from the community by her totalitarian of a father and as a result, she is basically disconnected from the society, in which she is supposed to have been in contact with or socially connected. Moreover, the result of her father’s death causes Miss
Emily is a character surrounded by mystery, leaving a mark on the influence of others, causing them to create their own scenarios about her life. It happened when she met Homer, when everyone hoped she will marry him, or when she bought poison and everyone thought she would poison herself. Her high wealthy status and respect were emphasized when she kicked out the people who
One of the themes that can be noted from the novels is the theme of death. The short story starts with the death of Emily and her funeral scene is captured. It’s worth noting too that Emily is depicted as a woman from the aristocratic class and following her father’s death, she still continues to behave in a boastful manner. The short story is divided into five different sections with each and every section pointing at different character traits and themes the author used. People turned up in large numbers to attend Emily’s burial ceremony and most women had an intention of seeing her house that she did not want anybody
The decline of Emily’s sanity began when her father died. She refused to believe that her father passed and she rejected the thought of isolation. “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors trying to persuade her to dispose of the body.” Emily was never in denial that her father passed, she refused to experience the isolation that would soon retain her soul and dwindle her chances of finding love again. The indication of her recognition that she will be alone is evident when she refused to dispose of her father’s body. Although his soul is no longer a part of her life, the satisfaction of him physically being near her brings her a sense of relief and comfort.
In the story the narrator is very sympathetic towards Miss Emily Grierson. The narrator refers to Emily as an object or an “idol”. Most people who describe Miss Emily as a fierce, stubborn, lady who has certain stands and never backs down from her perceptions. In this story, they focused on the concept of death. Miss Emily is especially has a fixture with death. In fact essentially she even gives into death. Most people feel bad and sympathetic with Miss Emily because of the lack of love that she gets from her father. Which is probably one of the reasons she becomes obsessed. Miss Emily tries to control her future but she's stuck within the past. Another reason why people feel sympathy is because her father often sheltered her. In the story,
The story is about a spinster: Miss Emily, who is described as an undefeated maiden, she was motherless and was raised by a restricted father who did not allow her to communicate with other men. When her father died, she tried to keep his corpse at home, which later
During this stage, the townspeople feel as if Emily takes a step forward in her life conforming to the confines of the environment she is brought up around. The townspeople feel they can open their hearts, pity and accept Emily as one of their own. They even comment on their happiness by saying, "Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less." Although Emily appears to become humanized in the eyes of the townspeople, she does not follow through with what they might have expected out of her for the rest of her life.