The Female Role in William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm.”

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily becomes a minor legend during her lifetime. After her death, when her secret is revealed, hers becomes a story that no one can forget. "A Rose for Emily" is the story of the old maid who fell in love with a northerner, but resisted being jilted once too often. And only after her death, "When the curious towns people were able to enter her house at last, did they discover that she had kept her dead lover in the bed where she had killed him after their last embrace." (Kazin 162) . "In her bedroom, Emily and the dead Homer have remained together as though not even death could separate them."(Kazin 162) . Even though her lover had

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” starts out at Emily’s funeral and then goes onto a story about taxes, which Miss Emily is exempt from paying for life by Colonel Sartoris. During her life, Miss Emily’s father kept her isolated and ran off any potential suitors with a horsewhip. When her father died, Miss Emily refused to acknowledge the fact for three days. Soon after, Miss Emily met and started dating Homer Barron, “a northerner and a day laborer.” The town goes from being happy about the relationship to thinking of it as indecent. Homer seemingly deserted Miss Emily shortly after she bought poison. All is quiet for the next 40 years until Miss Emily’s death when Homer’s corpse is found sealed in an upstairs room (Faulkner 323-327). This paints a picture of a lonely, desperate woman. Miss Emily was isolated with just a butler for company. That does not make her a murder. Emily Grierson is innocent of murder because any evidence is circumstantial or illegally obtained, Tobe cared for Miss Emily enough to kill for her, and Miss Emily is legally insane.

An important aspect in “A Rose for Emily” is the narrator's gender is left a mystery; this allows the reader to openly interpret the story from a different aspect, more specifically, through the mind of a feminist. Emily is subtly portrayed as an admirable woman who defies society's expectations of gender roles. Faulkner's use of the nosy women and the respectful men at the funeral, without further inquiry, may seem like it is in favor of a patriarchal society. However, Faulkner's main goal was to encourage the reader to understand that a woman, Emily, was capable of controlling her own behavior without society's influence.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” it is clear how Emily’s gender affects how the individuals in the town perceive her. Emily’s gender particularly affects how men understand her. Throughout the whole piece Emily is seen as a helpless individual who is lonely and has suffered losses throughout her life. When the reader reaches the end of the story the actions that Emily has taken is unexpected because of the way she is perceived by the narrator. In the beginning of the story, when the whole town was at her funeral and the men were discussing her life, none of the townspeople ever say anything negative about Emily. The men went to the funeral because they saw Emily as a fallen monument to the town. The narrator discusses how the town felt that Emily had become a tradition for them to take care of her. The narrator even points out how she did not have to pay taxes. This clearly shows how women are perceived in this town. Women are seen as unable to take care of themselves and as innocent humans. The way the narrator talks about Emily gives the reader the idea that Emily could never hurt anyone, because of this idea the reader is shocked at the end of the story. The feminist view of Emily allows the reader to be shocked by the ending of the story and it also allows the reader to see the way masculinity is understood in this piece.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a very chilling story that opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson who is an old widow. Her father died when Emily was about thirty and she refused to accept that he was dead for three days. Mr. Grierson choked Emily’s social ability. After a life of having potential husbands rejected by her father, she spends time after his death with a newcomer, Homer Barron who is a northern laborer. Emily buys arsenic from a shop in town for no

In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, both authors introduce female protagonists that are confined by men’s authority. By displaying the protagonist's transformation, Glaspell and Faulkner highlight the repercussions of gender roles, to show that when women are trapped, they will go to great lengths to retaliate against their oppressors.

From a feminist point of view, we are able to observe the portrayal of female characters in literary works, which exposes the patriarchal ideals set many centuries ago. In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, we see the struggles Edna Pontellier finds within herself as a woman of the Romantic Era. She finds herself vexed between living the life someone of her time and age is imposed to, or gaining freedom through the exploration of life outside of the stereotypes her society has inflicted upon time period. By analyzing how literature represents both men and women, we can observe similar traits in this novel as gender roles are strongly enforced in the life of Edna Pontellier as well as that of those around her.

Reflecting upon their role in society, women in literature are often portrayed in a position

A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner. Its plot focuses on Emily Grierson, a representative of the family of previously rich Southern aristocrats. The woman obviously had inherited mental problems, which resulted in the murder of Homer Barron, Emily’s first and only mentioned potential bridegroom. After the crime she turned into a complete anchoret and spent many decades in the house with Barron’s body. There were many factors that contributed to the tragic fate of Emily Grierson. Besides obvious class-specific and psychiatric issues, the list includes the perception of gender roles in the society of the time. Women played second fiddle despite their

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a unique piece of literature. It has a plot which seems somewhat bland, and it is not particularly exciting. However, the ending is quite suprising, and for me it made the story worth reading. I think there are some interesting aspects of this story if you look at it from a feminist point of view. The feminist movement has attempted to elevate the status of the woman to a level equal with men. Feminists have fought for the right of women to be free from the old social restraints which have been in place for so long. A feminist believes a woman should be strong and independent. In some ways the main character, Emily, is this kind of woman, but for the most part she is

Throughout the American Literature course it has been evident that gender issues are always a topic. No matter the movement, it appears that gender can be seen as a major focus. Women in these movements have always been seen as being inferior to men. Women with their intelligence and work ethic have been put in a place that is under men. Women were treated as if they were just complements to men and that was all they were useful for. However, apparently that is just the men’s point of view because these women are individuals who are just as great as men. In literature women were put into the category of being weak and stupid. This being the way people thought, authors continued to write with this sort of perception, that women were always inferior

Females are portrayed in Literature I many ways. Some females are considered as strong, wanting to bed independent. On the other hand, some women are portrayed in literature as weak, obsessive and depressed for men. In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily” women are portrayed as obsessive, where as in Kate Chopin’s “Story of An Hour” women are depicted as wanting to be independent.

All men and women are created equal and deserve fair treatment from the opposite sex. However, since the beginning of history, sexual equality has not been a virtue that was closely followed. Men tend to falsely assume that since they are physically more capable than women, they are inherently also more important. Obviously that is not the case and this sexism tends to create a powerful barrier between males and females. Thankfully, modern day culture has vastly diminished the discrimination of women while resorting to more politically correct viewpoints. Though in the early 1900s when “A Rose for Emily” was set, the Deep South still considered women as major inferiorities to men, which is made

The fight by feminists for gender equality started in the nineteenth century and has only continued to grow over the past decades. Countless authors have been voicing their concerns about this injustice through their written literature since this battle first began. Earlier in history a majority of known

In literature the image of women in fiction has undergone a change during the last four decades. Women writers have considerably moved away from traditional portrayals of enduring self-sacrificing women, towards conflicts, female characters searching for identity, no longer characterized simply in terms of their victimized status.