Unspoken Tensions In Trial By Combat

When you think of mental illness, you don’t always think about all the ways it can affect you or your loved ones. Even if you do, you don’t realize how much a mental illness can change whoever it is affecting. “The Brain on Trial” by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, is an article about mental illnesses and our legal systems. He explains the various effects mental illnesses can have on people and how the legal systems don’t always take this in to account in court. He also talks about the changes in your brain and personality when you have something such as a tumor or dementia. His stories are true and provide real world examples of some of the effects he has seen in people who have developed a mental illness.

She cannot not let go of the man that has monitored her every move.  "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her."  She refuses to bury her father, not because she cannot bear to part with him, but because she refuses to let go of the man that she now has complete control over.  When Emily is forced to part with her father's body she sets off to find his replacement.

The information that we do have about Miss Emily's genuinely mysterious life was obtained through her prying neighbors. They did everything possible, without disrespect, to find out more about her. They knew where she had been, with whom, and when. The secrecy of Miss Emily's life fascinated everyone that knew her. The more that time went on and the more that neighbors pried, the less Miss Emily appeared until soon she was hardly seen at all and let no one into her home. Even at Miss Emily's funeral the whole town came to satisfy some of their curiosity. Miss Emily seemed to enjoy being secretive and did her best to be so.

She, Emily, is physically living but not in the present; she is stuck living in her past. We first see this when her father dies, “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 let them dispose of the body.” (Faulkner). This depicts that she is enamored of the dead which is why she resists in letting them bury her father. Emily did not want to kept denying her father’s death so she decided to hold onto him. By the description Faulkner gives, one may say Emily just did not know how to adapt to change. With that being said, she feared change so she did not want to let go because she was so dependent on her father and now he was gone. Once Emily passed on and was buried, people from her town go into her house and discover a decomposed corpse along with the strand of gray hair on the pillow next to what was formerly Homer Barron. Faulkner explains in detail yet again what was found, “…What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt…Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head…we saw a long strand of iron-grey hair”. With this being said it is discovered that she, Emily, had been sleeping next to his dead body for years. These two examples are prime reasons one could conclude that she had an issue letting go of her past. Throughout the short story Emily seemed to not want to

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).

Her controlling issues are very unhealthy. Miss Emily is so controlling that she is keeping dead bodies in her home. She got the controlling issues from her father. When she was young he used to control her and watch her every move. She does not want to feel lonely or hopeless. It is like she had to have these two men in her presence at all times. "What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding

Emily was obsessed with holding on to the past and to avoid change. When her father dies she is really sad. She then meets a man named Homer Barron. She is afraid she will lose him too because he is not the kind of guy to settle down. So if she kills him she could at least still be able to see him after he is dead because she will keep his dead body in her house. By her keeping the body in the house it shows she had a hard time of letting go. Emily kills because of her extreme love.

In Chamberlain’s speech, “Why we Fight,” the appeal of pathos is most effective because it creates a sense of inspiration for the audience to keep fighting for those cannot defend themselves. Chamberlain delivered “Why we Fight” in the year 1836 to 120 war weary mutineers longing to return home; however, they were desperately needed to fight in Gettysburg. Chamberlain addressed his speech to motivate the men to continue fighting for justice. Chamberlain uses pathos by addressing the crowd to argue that “[they] are an army to set other men free,” (Chamberlain 11). This reminds the mutineers that there are those in America without freedom and that those individuals are the reason to keep fighting. Appealing to the men’s emotions by referencing

Faulkner states that Miss Emily would tell the other people 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 let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly,'' (Faulkner 804). This part of the story foreshadows another incident where Emily again refuses to let go of the deceased. Instead of Emily not being able to let go of her father, this time she couldn't let go of her close friend, Homer. The hint of Emily not being able to let go of her father in the beginning serves as an indication for the reader that Miss Emily is very isolated and will do anything to prevent that. Emily’s suspicious actions causes the reader to anticipate certain happenings and wonder what will happen next.

The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” states, “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up” (Faulkner 734). This quote is an explanation of the reaction Emily has when the druggist asks what she needs to buy the arsenic for. She chooses to keep her reasoning quietly to herself, leaving his mind in a state of looming curiosity. Then the narrator adds, “Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows- she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house…” (Faulkner 734). Emily stays in her home, letting no one know of her reasoning or of her sickness. Also, she closes-up the upstairs, which is another secretive action that the towns people do not understand. Similarly, in A Doll House, Doctor Rank is concerned with Nora’s well-being, and she replies, “It’s only some- it’s my new dress” (Ibsen 1476). She lies to Doctor Rank, adding that she is bothered by her new dress. She is truly thinking about the calling card that the maid had just handed her. Additionally, Nora tells Kristine Linde, “…I’m telling you: nobody else has known about this…” (Ibsen ). She talks to her about the secret she has kept from every person she is acquainted with. This secret is about forging her father’s name on the loan she received from Krogstad. This secrecy builds suspense on what each character will

Emily concealed many aspects of her life from the eyes of the public. She was much like a recluse in her home and could easily have planned all of her deeds in that solitude. The townspeople were aware that, for some reason, Miss Emily had locked up the entire upper floor of her house (326). Having found the body in the upper floor of her house, witnesses believe that Emily had locked that part of her

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

Emily lives in self isolation or what was perceived to be isolation. The only person Emily came in daily contact with was her servant. Isolation exacerbated the reality that Emily was truly alone. When left to themselves in isolation, many killers, often live out their world in a fantasy. Fantasy serves to relieve anxiety or fear and most people have them to one extent or another (Douglas, J.E., Burgess, and Ressler, R.K. 1995.) We may not know what really fed Emily's behavior, some theories are that she could have suffered from separation anxiety due to her father's death, others suggest that she was suffering from a form of neglect. This can be concluded by her longing for a companion.

She knew Homer was homosexual and still flaunted him throughout town like an accessory in trying to convince both herself and the townspeople she could move on from her father’s death. However, her relationship may have got into deep with Homer and she had to kill him to make sure he didn’t leave her side as her father did. After Emily kills Homer, “a window that has been dark was lightened and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her” (p.395). This image shows Emily has now become her father in a way and took dominance in her life by murdering someone else, which causes an internal self satisfaction. She keeps the corpse of Homer almost as the resemblance of a trophy for her work. Emily was wealthy woman who appeared to have it all however, she never accomplished close to anything in her life except for taking the life of Homer. The lost of her father signified the lost of herself, in an attempt to find herself emerged a dark character who became mentally and physically consumed by her pain that she was left to fight alone.

Another indicator of Emily?s necrophilia is pointed out at he end of the story. After Emily has died, the people of the town go into her house and break into her boarded up room, where