Who Was Responsible For Emily's Downfall

An important idiosyncrasy of Emily's that will help the reader to understand the bizarre finale of the story, is her apparent inability to cope with the death of someone she cared for. When deputies were sent to recover back taxes from Emily, she directed them to Colonel Sartoris, an ex-mayor that had told her she would never have to pay taxes, and a man that had been dead for ten years. Years before this incident, however, after her father had died, she continued to act has if he had not, and only allowed his body to be removed when threatened with legal action. Considering the fate of her lover's corpse, one suspects she would have kept her father's corpse also, had the town not known of his death.

So, once he dies she is left even more alone than before. Emily refuses to acknowledge that he is really dead. “When he dies, she refuses to acknowledge his death for three days. After the townspeople intervene and bury her father, Emily is further isolated by a mysterious illness, possibly a mental breakdown.” (Mosby).

The day after her father's death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was "dressed as usual" and had "no trace of grief on her face (Perrine's 285)." Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to hold on to her father, "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrine's 285)." The town's people tired to justify Miss. Emily's actions, by saying that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy.

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

When Emily was ill, her mother believed that the best place to get care for her child was in a special home. This contradicted the real needs Emily had. Soon after the last child was born, Emily became very ill with red measles, and once again the mother had to send her away to a convalescent home in the country where she could be cared for until she was well enough to return home. The mother thought to herself, "She can have the kind of food and care you can't manage for her, and you'll be free to concentrate on the new baby" (602). For the first six weeks, Emily was not allowed any visitors. The child sat in this strange home for six weeks not knowing anyone at all until her mother could visit her every other Sunday. When her mother did visit, there was an invisible wall "not To Be Contaminated by Parental Germs or Physical Affection" (602). The wall represents the distance between Emily and her mother, which has always been and continues. Emily had told her mother one day "They don't like you to love anybody here" (602). She wanted to love and to be loved so badly. It didn't seem that there was anywhere she could go to

Miss Emily is also decaying, but it is subtle and internal--the awful smell that begins to permeate from her dwelling is a reflection of the withering woman within rotting. Perhaps most tragically, Miss Emily’s isolation is far from self-inflicted. Her blind devotion to the ones she loves; her father, her husband, her home; only serves to further condemn her actions. Her neighbors disregard toward her inabilty to let go of her father after his death, despite the delicacy of her being, caused for her madness to fester. “She told them her father was not dead.

Emily's father suppressed all of her inner desires. He kept her down to the point that she was not allowed to grow and change with the things around her. When “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated…only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Rose 217). Even when he died, she was still unable to get accustom to the changes around her. The traditions that her and her father continued to participate in even when others stopped, were also a way that her father kept her under his thumb. The people of the town helped in

This reality sends panic and fear through her because now she has nowhere to turn and no one to tell her what to do, no one to command her life. Not only is she stricken with the loss of her father but now she is cut off to the outside world, because her only link has passed on. Emily immediately goes into a state of denial; to her, her father could not be dead, he was all that she had and she would not let him go.

“What was left of him, rotting beneath what was left of the nightshirt”(727) were the only remains of Emily’s lover, whom she killed because of her inability to cope with the absence of another loved man in her life. Her father’s control of Emily’s future kept her as a housekeeper, lacking experience in a world outside her immediate family. Her father turned down every

     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.

Her father’s wisdom makes her react in a way she would if her father was still with her. One’s absence can leave a mark on an individual's soul in choosing the right direction to follow with one's emotions and feeling. Earlier in Emily’s life she was able to obtain knowledge on parenting from her father, so after his death emily was able to take care of her mother while she is ill. In doing so emily knew how to care for herself and others during the absence if her father. While emily learned how to care for her mother on her own at an early time in her life she stands up for herself as she’s belittled to her capabilities by saying, “I can’t have you ordering me around like I’m a child.

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.

Emily is isolated from her mother’s touch; she does not get the reassurance she needs that her mother would return for her. Nurseries in this time were very stale and cold; her mother describes it as “…lacerations of group life.” (Olsen) The mental pain is like physical pain that she could feel throughout her little body. The separation of feelings between mother and daughter are so severe that Emily feels as though her heart is torn in two.

In this time period, it was expected for women to make the transition to the different life stages from daughter to wife to mother but Emily never moved past the first stage making her a pariah in her community. This lack of change in Emily’s life is edified by her home as the progression of the other houses made the Grierson home appear to be an eyesore in the community. This desperate desire to hold on to the past inhibits Emily by making her unable to handle the reality of the happenings around her. This inability to face change is relatable to readers as it is easier to ignore changes that cause pain and hardships for us. For Emily, the reality of her father being dead and no longer being able to control aspects of her life was disheartening and the only way she could deal with that was through denial.

Emily became crazy without company after her father died and her sweetheart “had deserted her” (219).