Emily Grierson Isolation

There are many instances throughout the story that infer that Emily has some sort of mental disorder and these two disorders could very possibly be the ones she is suffering from. PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is one of the possible disorders Emily could be suffering from. PTSD is a disorder that people who have faced dangerous, scary, or shocking events develop. This disorder can also develop after suffering

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

     Emotional support also plays an important role of Emily’s well being. The idea mother suppose to care, support, and value their children needs. Emily needed this nourishment. She needed her mother to smile at her in order for her to feel a connection with the person that she supposed to be able to depend on. Emily’s mother did not know how to communicate with Emily. The mother-daughter relationship has an element of coldness, it lacks warmth. “There were years she did not want me to touch her” (Olsen 262). Emily’s mother inability to interact with her, leaves Emily unloved and in return, she shall not express any love toward her mother. Emily’s mother feels her “wisdom came too late” (Olsen 262). With this thought in mind, Emily’s mother shall never show communication or love to Emily, therefore the relationship shall continue to be doomed.

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.

Throughout this tale, she changes mentally, socially, and physically. According to Nicole Smith, One part of her that changes is her need to be social and “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away people hardly saw her at all” (Faulkner 324). In this quotation, it shows that because of losing two men in her life, it added to her want to live in solitude. According to Nicole Smith, “Kinney has argued that Miss Emily’s delusions, especially

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 isolated herself even more from everybody because there was gossip around town that

Then, two years after her father’s death, Emily had a lover who passed away. Most people believed this man would marry Emily, but he ended up passing away. When the townspeople tried to come to her door and send their condolences, Emily would deny her father’s death. At first, when Emily’s father had passed away, Emily barely left her house. When Emily’s lover then passed, people in her town never saw her. Emily had then refused to pay her taxes and said she didn’t have any to pay. Since Emily never left her house, she did some very weird things. Emily was never normal before these two deaths that she had to deal with. Towards the end of the story, Emily then dies in her house and after her death people go into her home. A symptom of PTSD is having communication problems. Emily has bad communicating problems with her town and everyone else because she never leaves her house. The only communication that Emily has outside of her home is the market man that goes in and out daily.

William Faulkner was an American author of a unique time period and grew up in the Civil War South (Meyer 51). He wrote many novels and short stories, all in the same setting as he grew up to know (Meyer 51). One of Faulkner’s most famous short stories, “A Rose for Emily,” exhibits the common theme of a resistance to accepting change. The life of the main character, Emily Grierson, is constantly changing and she refuses to move on with her life and remains to live in the past. The narrator gives many examples of Emily’s static character in her persistent refusal to accept the many unpleasant experiences in her life.

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a melancholic depiction of a woman’s isolated life that ended tragically. Faulkner explores the complexities of social expectations and the human mind through the character of Emily Grierson. Emily becomes a symbol of the loneliness that can come from holding on to tradition, mental illness, and opposing change in a rapidly evolving world. Examining Emily’s character in “A Rose for Emily,” it is clear that her solitude, mental deterioration, and rejection of social norms played a significant role in her tragic outcome. Emily lived an isolated life, refusing most social contact and holding tight to her father’s traditions.

Isolation can deteriorate the mentality in ways that are traumatizing and overall damaging. Loneliness never fails to destroy even the brightest of souls. William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily displays that social, physical as well as emotional isolation can drive someone to the point of severe depression and extreme loneliness. The resolution Emily arrived at during her period of grief and loneliness was heavily influenced due to the isolation she experienced from the townspeople and her father’s passing. Firstly, Isolation is displayed throughout A Rose for Emily.

Emily is an isolated woman who lives by herself, does not like

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).

The story, “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner in 1930, shows the gothic elements of how isolation influences the mind. The main character is Emily Grierson whose mental state of mind focuses on her home and town. There is a dark setting in this story that highlights the impact of how isolation prohibits one from being mentally healthy. Miss Emily 's home appearance is desolate, rugged, and dingy which demonstrates her mindset. Similar to today’s society, Miss Emily is resistant to change and stuck in tradition. The setting of isolation resulted in Miss Emily’s thinking of being privileged, causing her to fail in seeking a normal life with love and affection.

I believe it is because she lost her father. This gave her a loneliness that could not be cured. For when she met who she loved Homer, she had a fear to lose him. When he said “I can’t see myself getting married” Emily was scared to lose Homer like she lost her father. which is why she bought the arsenic to kill him, to preserve him and keep him forever.