Emily Grierson In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner uses imagery to represent Miss Grierson’s confrontation to change by vividly describing her appearance. With the description given of Emily, readers might conclude that it symbolizes her inability to change. He describes

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.

Emily Grierson, a woman of stature and nobility of the once proud South; transformed to a mere peasant, through the fall of the Confederacy and the changes that ensued. Tragic in a sense, the story of her life as told from the author; William Faulkner, in his short story - "A Rose for Emily." (Faulkner 74-79). First published in the popular magazine of his time in 1930, The Forum; Faulkner tries to maintain her self image throughout the story through the narrators eyes as being repressed in nature through her upbringing in society prior to the war and the circumstances of the times as they unfold - while struggling to fill a void of emptiness inside.

Depression and isolation captivate the soul, causing every emotion, action, and thought to hold an individual in an unstable state of mind. William Faulkner’s introduction to the protagonist, Miss Emily Grierson, demonstrates the true damage that a parental figure can cause to one’s mind by keeping his or her child shut in from the outside world. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner characterizes Miss Grierson as a woman who suffered great loss in her years of life, and this is demonstrated by the loss of affection which was enforced by her father, the vast emptiness in her life, and her refusal to change. The life of Miss Grierson wasn’t full of roses like she had anticipated, and this caused her life to wilt away into darkness and heartache.

Mental illness is not an uncommon thing to come across when faced with traumatic or psychologically damaging events. It is a combination of both of these in the case of Emily Grierson within William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”. A strong reliance on her father due to his strict rule prohibiting her from seeing other men combined with his passing and initially denial of his death results in Miss Emily being both mentally unstable and completely disconnected from the world around her. The consequences for the stunted emotional growth of Miss Emily was that she could not let go of the dead which results in her keeping bodies of the dead from being taken away from her on two separate occasions, one of which was the product of her murdering her lover Homer Barron to make sure that he could never leave her. Some critics believe that all of these events ultimately stem from the initial control that her father had over her, and how he sheltered her from the world with a strong rule.

In the short story "A Rose for Emily" writer William Faulkner uses the town's' point of view to develop Emily Grierson's character. As a result, Emily remains a mystery to all, except her manservant, until she passes away. Throughout the story Faulkner hints that Emily could be clinically insane because she believes that Colonel Sartoris is still alive, she keeps her father's corpse, and she murders Homer Barron. Emily's first appearance in the story suggests that she is disconnected from the world outside her deteriorating house due to her lack of southern hospitality. Faulkner introduces her house first to parallel its deterioration with Emily's decline in mental health.

The promulgation of certain restrictions on the life of the female protagonist by controlling male characters demonstrates how the subjugation of a female’s thoughts and desires causes her to become isolated and shields her from exploring different opportunities. The characterization of Emily’s father in “A Rose for Emily” exemplifies that psychological suppression of a female by the most prominent man in her life leads to complete isolation of that female. Faulkner characterizes Mr. Grierson through the eyes of the society which had only one view of him: “a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip...framed by the back-flung front door” (4). This characterization of Emily’s father not only shows him suppressing

Jefferson, Mississippi was a moment town with southern cordiality and pride going through it. Emily Grierson is the last living individual from a honorable southern group of Jefferson. She is raised by her controlling father who passes away, which brings about Miss Grierson secluding herself from the subjects of Jefferson. Miss Grierson was once especially regarded and essential; "Alive, Miss Emily had been a convention, an obligation, and a care; a kind of inherited commitment upon the town" (Faulkner 91). Emily winds up being feared and hated. Emily's conduct starts to produce pressure among the townspeople since she declines to submit to the guidelines and tumbles beneath the town's desires of a man of her noticeable quality. Hence, in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily Grierson turns into a fallen landmark for the general population of Jefferson.

Love, Loss and Longing—three traits that many would agree Emily Grierson, the main character from William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily”, experiences inexorably. At first glance, one might be confident in one’s understanding of the story at face-value, claiming it to be a thrilling mystery with a mysterious ending. Another may try to analyze contextual evidence to answer some of the many unanswered questions this story proposes. Why does Emily sleep with the corpse of her late husband? Why does she kill him in the first place? Yet, I will not attempt to do so, at least not directly. I will instead turn to the perspective from which this story is told: that of the townspeople. The ways which they describe Emily will lead to tangential yet important realizations that they share more with the outlandish characters they describe than they realize, illuminating basic human tendencies that we all share along the way.

Emily Grierson from the story A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner is the character that I selected. I would say that Emily was blinded by desire and mental illness. She was blinded by desire because she wanted to be love. Everyone that she ever loved died or left her. Emily wanted to have someone to love her. She did not want to be by herself. Emily was blinded by mental illness because she was in denial of the truth. She kept her father’s dead body in her home for about three days. She told the people that visited her that he was not dead. She did not leave her home and did not communicate with the people in the town. She met Homer Barron and he was able to enter her home. Emily bought a ring and a complete outfit for a man. The people

According to the novel, A Rose for Emily is very vital since it makes the plot of the story easy to understand by clarifying all the functions since the story started. The characters in the story tend to everyone with the aim of defeating them the theme of the book makes Emily appear as a great fallen testimonial that tends to phony the upcoming generations. The story further mocks the townsmen who believed to have understood all the functions that took place in the market. Emily Grierson was a strong character. It was overwhelming how she stood for what she believed was right for her. She went through severe challenges to meet Homer, a man that she wished to marry. A large number of people in the town were against her decision, but she never

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, displayed a dark and gothic tone and theme. Miss Emily was not only mentally ill, but was an old lady that needed the help that she deserved instead of people talking about her. Emily Grierson exemplifies a psychotic nature by preserving deceased bodies and by inheriting her insanity from her own aunt. Instead of assuming her insanity and questioning about her, people should have actually been worrying for the reason behind this chaos. Society judged her and gave her labels based on her surprising and disturbing actions. Being insane was just a normal for Miss Emily

The story “A Rose For Emily” was an extremely bizarre story. The author manages to cover multiple decades throughout the story and takes you through several stages of Emily's life. Emily seems to be such a troubled individual since the death of her father. Although her father had passed away before this story takes place he still manages to play such a huge role in the plot of the story. I think Emily was so heart broken over the loss of her father and the fact that she had no one to love her or care for her that she kept to herself as a way to avoid those sorrows. When Mr. Homer comes along it’s as if she's found herself again. The end of the story is very disturbing to me. It leaves you with so many questions as to whether Emily was the one

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.

In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Miss Emily Grierson goes through a lot of grief. Her father and sweetheart, Homer Barron, died only within a few years apart and this caused her whole world to be turned upside down (323-327). There is some debate as to whether Miss Emily killed her sweetheart or not. When her father died, she was not willing to give up his body to be buried. Later, they found the body of Homer in her house and the town had no clue he had even passed away. According to Cornell Law School, the definition of first degree murder is the intentional killing of another person with planning involved. Miss Emily is guilty of first degree murder because of the smell that came from her house, the poison she purchased from the druggist, and the possibility Homer was only interested in men.