Mental Illness In A Rose For Emily

"A Rose for Emily" is a fictional short story written by 1949 Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is about an aristocratic woman who lived a very secretive and unusual life. Miss Emily had always been very sheltered by her father. He was the only man in her life and after his death, her behavior became even more unnatural. However her father's death cannot be seen as the only cause of Miss Emily's insanity. Miss Emily's behavior was also influenced by her own expectations of herself, the townspeople's lack of authority over her, and her neighbor's infatuation with her.

A Rose for Emily was Faulkner 's first short story to be published in a national magazine. It was then published in a collection entitled These 13 in 1931 and went on to become one of the most collected American short stories. This short story is a Gothic horror and a tragedy. It is about a lonely Southern woman who has become mental ill after having an unfortunate childhood and being isolated from reality. We can see in the quote from William Faulkner about how “you can be more careless, you can put more trash in [a novel] and be excused for it. In a short story that 's next to the poem, almost every word has to be almost exactly right.” that Faulkner had mixed feelings about the short story as the best form for his narrative. A Rose for Emily has a complex plot and good pacing. Faulkner only gives information needed to foreshadow the murder at the ending or to allow the audience into Miss Emily’s life, so that we could further understand her.

According to the Unite for Sight organization, “In 2002, of the estimated 450 million people worldwide living with mental or behavioral disorders, 90 million were drug or alcohol dependent, 25 million suffered from schizophrenia, and 150 million had depression” (Unite for Sight). Mental illness is something that today’s media and government does not want to address, which is seen repeatedly in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. More and more people are being diagnosed with a mental illness and this trend needs to come to an end. People need to understand the various aspects of mental illness. While treatment of mental illnesses has improved over time, the effect they have on the individual and the people around them has not.

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a short story with third party narration, centered on the main character, Emily Grierson. She is suppressed by her father, life expectations and community interest in her life. The reader gets a sense that Emily cracks under all the pressure and they soon realize after her death, when she is in her seventies, that she did in fact have a mental disorder.

My ultimate take is that Faulkner portrayed her to have a dark soul. Emily lived in disgust for someone who held themselves to such a higher standard than most people. He portrayed this not only by her actions but also on the description of her home inside and out. The people in the town felt sorry for her quite possibly because she was alone, perhaps this is why they put up with her in the manner they

After all these years of being controlled and sheltered, Emily wanted to live her life on her own terms, Rather than living by her father’s rules after he died. Emily wanted more than anything to be in control of her life, although she struggled with depression and was mentally unstable from being restricted from the outside world around her, she didn’t want to ever be alone and wanted to be in control even if it meant hurting someone she loved dearly.

Mental illness affects millions of people each and every day. Mental illness can range from minor setbacks, to larger, more significant issues like insanity. The underlying theme of many American literature often deals with what causes mental illness. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the authors both assert a similar theme. In Faulkner’s short story, a woman goes through a psychological change as her isolation from the rest of her town increases over time.

Emily’s father, being a man of wealth, proudness, and domineering widower, he kept Emily close to himself and cut off from most social contact and courtship attempts (Spencer). Growing up Emily only knew the love and caring for her father and that love she received from her father. This seclusion rendered Emily lonely after her father died. She is not quite ready to accept his death, and this is where Emily first reveals signs of severe mental disturbance when she refuses to allow his body to be taken away after three days (Spencer). The dilapidated old mansion and Miss Emily herself seemed to occupy a state of suspended animation in which "the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man…going in and out with a market basket" (Faulkner, 629). Emily's

“A Rose for Emily”, written by William Faulkner, tells the story of a lonely woman who is stuck in her own timeframe. Miss Emily refuses to adapt to the new ways of the South and keeps her own traditions instead. The town she lived in spread much gossip about her, they pitted her lost soul. “A Rose for Emily” highlights the traditions of the Old South vs the New, which is told through the life of Miss Emily who refuses to change.

Emily is very vulnerable mostly because of her appearance. "She tormented herself enough about not looking like the others, there was enough of the unsureness, the having to be conscious of works before you speak, the constant caring-what are they thinking of me? Without having it all magnified by the merciless physical drivers" (Olson 603). Emily is a skinny, fragile, and sick child, and in the outer world, other kids without values would point her out. Emily is always insecure about what she says, or does in front of others. The insecurity of not being able to be her own person is always on her mind.

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.

The townspeople often gossip and whisper about her, and there are many things they do not know about Miss Emily. They whisper, “‘Do you suppose it’s really so?’ they said to one another. ‘Of course it is. What else could…’” (Faulkner 4). There are many more examples of the townspeople making assumptions about Miss Emily, because she is a complete shut-in and speaks to quite literally nobody. Throughout the entire story, there is almost a veil between Miss Emily and the rest of the townspeople and the reader. It is only somewhat dropped at the end of the story, when the murder and body are discovered. Nobody really even knows Miss Emily’s feelings and emotion. The reader only knows her actions, and that is not enough to assume most of her feelings. However, if the story was written in the first person point of view of Miss Emily, by the very nature of the narration, the reader would be clued into every emotion that passed through her mind. This way, they would be able to understand her, and maybe why she did the things she did, like staying confined within the walls of her home for most of her life. This may also make the ending more predictable. Instead of the reader’s initial reaction being shock, horror, and disgust, it may now be a grim reality that only slightly shakes the reader. Miss

William Faulkner wrote A Rose for Emily to entertain his audience. It is a mysterious read which keeps the reader interested and wanting to know more. Throughout the text Faulkner hints about the misfortunes that surround Emily. The biggest problem that was seemed to be low key addressed is to not judge what you think a person may have or go through because you could be wrong or you could be entirely right. The biggest misfortune that happens to Emily, is that she dies and then the writer gives background and flashes back to what Miss Emily’s life through a third person view to show how the townspeople assumed about Miss Emily’s life. (insert resource #2 thesis part)

One thing to notice in A Rose for Emily is the sort of underlying sense that Emily may have a mental illness. She has rather disturbed and crazy behaviors that leave the town wondering about what she was up to. One example of Emily showing her mental ill behaviors is when she refused to acknowledge her father’s death. She kept him in the house for 3 days, refusing to admit that he was dead. “…Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the minister calling on her and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” (Faulkner). She had lived with her deceased father in her house without a bother; she even resisted the people that were trying to help her. It seems as this may be her first sign of mental illness, and foreshadowing for the way she reacts to problems in the future.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” the story is revolved around the character Emily Grierson. The story is told by the townspeople where Emily lives. These people are attending her funeral and pitching in memories and tales they remember from Emily’s life. It is through the collective voices and opinions of the crowd that the reader is able to interpret Emily’s struggles. With Emily Grierson’s choices the reader can tell that she is a dependant woman, with psychotic tendencies, and does not take the thought of change and rejection lightly.