The Loneliness of Miss Emily There are many people that have been driven to insanity because of various reason. Insanity can cause numerous unwanted things to happen just to be somewhat sane again. For example, one could maybe murder a love interest because they do not want to be alone. In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner uses the symbolism of a tableau, gray hair, and a house to convey isolation, loneliness, and refusal to change. The townspeople viewed the Gierson family as “Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door”(559). Emily’s father holding a horsewhip symbolizes his willingness to protect her purity and innocence which is shown by her wearing white. Emily’s father sitting with her back turned away while in the foreground while Emily is in the background could symbolize his obsession with physical protection rather than an emotional relationship with Emily. Him ‘protecting’ her also isolated her from any other person even after his death. …show more content…
The indention and long strand of gray hair shows that Emily was lonely enough to sleep with a skeleton of someone who did not reciprocate her love. Homer may have threatened to leave her which would have left her to be alone again. The feeling of someone leaving her reminded her of her father’s death. When her father died Emily refused to even admit he was dead, “for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” (560) This ultimately means that Emily was scared of being lonely and unwilling to
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.
From an early age, her father had a possessive nature over Emily, and he developed an unhealthy attachment towards her. The narrator states, “We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the backflung front door” (Faulkner 476). He is portrayed as a threatening figure who has a weird obsession with his daughter to the point that she is to stay in the house and not entertain other male figures. He scared away all the love proposals that Emily received so that he could still control what she could and could not do. However, Emily is portrayed as this innocent and frail young lady who could not speak for herself in her father's presence.
The fear of losing the ones she loves around her is the biggest defeat to her, forming the purpose of the short story “A Rose for Emily.” There have been multiple instances throughout that would indicate what Emily’s next measurable moves would be for her unforsaken falling decline. Faulkner’s use of symbolism and foreshadowing would tie into effect of Emily's motives in the impending future of not completely changing after her father’s death, as well as the catastrophic murder of her lover Homer. The lead up to Homer’s tragic suffering would also play into effect of the literary genre gothic literature being used throughout the short story, as well as literary genre regionalism to show the person Emily once was before her decline of mental health of losing the people around her. It’s never easy letting go of someone we care and love about greatly, especially when we know ourselves that the time may be coming that we’re going to have to.
A Rose for Emily ESSAY What makes someone to live an isolated and antisocial lifestyle? What are the causes? What are the reasons that people are in the edge of madness when a great life with many opportunities are in front of them? We are able to find some possible answers in the writing A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner.
“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.
In like manner, another form of symbolism in this short story is that of the moral representation of death for Emily which parallels to the existence of the old south. Foreshadowing that the south had been defeated in the Civil War, Emily 's life ends the same way, contrasting against the loss of her father. As a result of her father running out the many men that came to court her, there is no other male authority left in her life that will take care of her. Leaving Emily to grow as one with her decaying house. Emily basically lives through the interpretation of others while meaning nothing to herself.
The inclusion of a first person point of view in A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, demonstrates how the narrator, and townspeople, isolated Emily and were the ultimate factors that lead to her downfall. As Emily began to find interest in Homer Barron, many of the townspeople were also interested in their relationship. However, the differences in social class lead many to start saying “‘Poor Emily.’ She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen” (Faulkner 33).
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
This can be seen from her perception and description of the man who shares her “special” seat as a “… fine old man” and the woman as “a big old woman” (101). Her Surname 2 remembrance of the previous Sunday’s patient Englishman and his nagging hard to please wife whom she wanted to shake also shows her envy for women with male companionship. In Faulkner’s story A Rose for Emily, Emily is seen as a person who suffers from isolation from her community, by tradition and by law. Her isolation from the community and love is what seems to perturb her most; she is unable to accept the idea that her father is dead and she remains in denial.
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.
One way that Faulkner furthers the theme of isolation throughout the short story is through the interactions Emily has with the people of the town. At the beginning of the story, Faulkner paints a sad story about the life of Miss Emily Grierson. Faulkner stated, “When Miss Emily died, our whole town went to her funeral… the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant---a combined gardener and cook had seen in at least ten years” (1.730). This quote is significant because it illustrates that Miss Emily was isolated from her community for quite some time. This opening scene paints a picture of unwavering loneliness experienced by Miss Emily.
The long that Emily has for love took control of her and in the process she turned into a totally different
In “A Rose for Emily,” the protagonist, Emily displays the obsession through her isolation. Equally important, the theme of obsession works as a preeminent role through the protagonist. Emily was never allowed to be autonomous growing up, and she goes beyond the lines on maintaining a strong intimacy through her isolating lifestyle. In essence, Emily develops a mental illness from severe isolation due to the actions of her father.
This ultimately characterize women as having less decency. During the life of Emily's Father, he doesn't allow her to date. Emily father thinks their family is