Research Paper on “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a short story that explores the life of a woman named Emily Grierson, who lived in the town of Jefferson in the Southern United States. The story is a tale of tragedy and mystery, as it delves into the complexities of Emily's life and the events that led to her eventual demise. "A Rose for Emily" touches on several themes, including love, death, and the decline of the Old South. The story has been widely analyzed and interpreted, with many readers finding parallels between the narrative and real-world issues. "A Rose for Emily" explores several themes, including tradition versus progress, isolation, and the effects of the past …show more content…
Throughout the story, Emily has mental health issues. She is described as "sickly" and "frail," and she becomes increasingly reclusive as she ages. Her behavior is erratic, and she is living in her own world, detached from reality. The townspeople view her as a curiosity, and they are fascinated by her strange behavior. However, they also fear her, and they are quick to gossip about her behind her back. This fear and gossip can be seen as a reflection of the stigma that surrounds mental illness in our society. People with mental health issues are often viewed as dangerous or unpredictable, and they are stigmatized as being different or abnormal. This stigma can prevent people from seeking help for their mental health issues, and it can make it difficult for them to reintegrate into society. According to Lauren Jett from Harvard, “on top of stigma, lack of availability and options for treatment add to …show more content…
He refuses to allow her to seek help for her mental health issues, and he keeps her isolated from the rest of the world. This lack of access to healthcare and support services is a real-world issue that affects many people with mental health issues. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), over 60% of adults with mental illness did not receive mental health services in the past year. This is due in part to a lack of access to affordable healthcare and a shortage of mental health professionals. In rural areas, like the town in "A Rose for Emily," access to mental health services can be even more limited. In addition to the lack of resources available to Emily, her mental health issues are also exacerbated by the trauma she experiences in her life. Her father's controlling behavior and her isolation from society leave her vulnerable to emotional and psychological abuse. Her relationship with Homer Barron, which ends in tragedy, can also be seen as a reflection of the way that people with mental health issues are often victimized and exploited by others. This exploitation can take many forms, from physical and emotional abuse to financial exploitation. People with mental health issues are
The townspeople never say that miss Emily is crazy nor is she ever diagnosed with a mental illness, but she shows symptoms and behavior that imply that she is crazy and is mentally ill. Her father isolates her from the whole town, so her father’s actions are what drive her crazy and mentally ill. One reason why people may see Miss Emily as crazy is because she tried to hold on to her father’s body and tried to convince everyone in the town that he wasn’t dead. Faulkner says, “She did that or three days with the ministers calling on her and doctors trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.
When she lived in the convalescent home, “The parents stand below shrieking up to be heard and the children shriek down to be heard, and between them the invisible wall ‘Not to Be Contaminated by Parental Germs or Physical Affection.’” The wall stopped parents showing love to their children and prevented children from feeling love. It is hard to think what a child will be if she is in serious illness and can’t get caring from parents. Finally, she became cynicism that she said that she didn’t care about the homework and coming test because people will be likely to die of bomb blast in following years. In general, the social situations forced Emily’s mother made choice and the choice lead to the formation of Emily’s
The Battle of Mental Illness The battle of mental illness is something that does not cross the mind of many. The unseen fight that someone goes through in their mind could be worse than any physical struggle anyone could face. In A Soldier’s Home, Krebs was facing the challenge of PTSD after coming back from war, while Emily in A Rose for Emily is dealing with the need for power, and possible necrophilia tendencies. These are two completely different internal fights, but both take a toll on their emotional state.
A rose for Emily Starts off with Emily Grierson's funeral, later on in the story it goes back to show Emily’s childhood and her relationship between her abusive father and her. In the short story, Faulkner uses irony, metaphors and other literary devices to show how emily is mistreated by her father, as well as her loneliness. After her father’s death, she doesn’t want to accept it which puts her at a mental breakdown. Even though she had an awful relationship with her father, when he passed away she still couldn’t believe his death which only made her isolate herself, almost depressed. People thought she was getting ill.
Emily is mentally separated from the townspeople, and is stuck in the time period of when she was once beautiful. Because of her isolation and her actions that followed, the people around her portray her as mentally ill. The isolation from society causes people to think of them differently. As for themselves, they become unknowing to what is happening outside their mental or physical separation and grow lonely and
Rather than noting that his wife looks and feels best when she is socially or creatively engaging, he continues with the rest cure. Therefore, “while the narrator is clearly suffering from some kind of psychological distress at the beginning of the story, her mental state is worsened by her husband's medical opinion that she confine herself to the house” (Witalic). Due to the fact that she was forbidden from leaving the house, she began to find an interest in the wallpaper in her bedroom and detached herself from reality. As the hallucinations begin, it is evident that her mental state is completely unstable as a result of a lack of emotional support from her husband and the rest of her family. On the other hand, in A Rose for Emily, Emily began to isolate herself because of a change in her mentality following the death of her father.
Readers can suggest, based on his aggressive nature, some sort of abuse could have occurred. The mother was not around and all he had was his daughter, Emily, so Mr. Greison could have developed a fear of losing what he loved so dearly. Bachelor's coming into Emily’s life was the last thing he would have wanted because he develops a serious attachment to her which sticks with her after his death. In the article, “The Structure of ‘A Rose for Emily’” by Floyd Watkins states, “In later life, however, she withdraws more and more until her own death again exposes her to the
“A Rose for Emily” is a dark, suspenseful Gothic tale in which a young girl is put on a pedestal by a town who sees her as haughty and scornful. Miss Emily Grierson’s father controls her and her love life, pushing away all people until he dies and Emily is left alone. As her life goes on the townspeople watch her and judge Emily, almost turning her life into a spectacle to be talked about. At her death, a gruesome sight is unfolded when her lover of over forty years ago is found decomposed in her upstairs room. William Faulkner effectively builds epic suspense in “A Rose for Emily” by the unchronological order of the story, the treatment of Emily’s father towards her, and her family’s history of mental illness.
This pushed poor Emily over the edge of insanity and led her to commit the heinous act of murder. In the back of her mind, she probably had only one thought if she couldn't have him, then no one else ever
Emily was isolated by her father, isolated her from men and let Homer Barron isolated her permanently. Emily was sick for a long time, her hair was cut short and looks like a girl, she had grown fat also and her hair was turning grey. Emily's love story is not a traditional romance because their relationship is shrouded in mystery. And they met but are not destined to be together. The relationship ends abruptly, instead of spending more time with Emily, but what Emily perceives as romantic interest is merely platonic from his
He can not handle all the trauma he went through and commits suicide to finally make them stop. Emily is not any different since she also suffers from depression. Due to being left alone all her life she became isolated to the point that, “she went out very little… people hardly saw her at all” (Faulkner 1). A key point in depression is isolation. The sadness she felt had accumulated to the point where she could no longer face people anymore.
Even speaking her mind with her husband, he believes he knows better with all of his training and ignores what she is trying to tell him. Likewise, Emily was a social outcast in her town. She suffers from abandonment issues. Faulkner writes, “After her father’s death, she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (528). Her father was oppressive, and Emily longed for a sense of belonging to other people.
She is mentally disturbed, and driven to her act by insanity. Miss Emily kills her victim, Barron, to keep him around because she truly loves him and she does not want to let go. Both protagonists have a distorted perception of
Emily is judged for loving a man who is less fortunate than her . In the following line the townspeople’s reactions to their relationship is obvious, “’Poor Emily’, the whispering began. ‘Do you suppose it’s really so?’ they said to one another” (102). The townspeople did not to much care for the relationship between the two because of the barriers set up by social class saying poor date the poor and rich date the rich.
At the end of the story, we find out that Emily murdered Homer Barron and dressed him up and laid down with him whenever she wanted to. If someone took this story at face value, they would call her a sociopath because murder is outrageous. However, when taking a closer look at Emily’s background, the reader can see that the circumstances in her life lead her to such rash decisions. She believed she was doing the right thing by killing Homer, but she went about the situation the wrong way. She just didn 't want to lose another, probably last, loved one in her life.