I Stand Here Ironing Essay

Emily’s Mental Deterioration After getting over the initial shock of finding out that the mysterious woman that everyone was talking about was going to sleep each night with a decaying body next to her, it makes sense for the reader to question her mental state. If the reader took a closer look at the town’s description of her, they will realize that as time went on, Emily’s will power began to deteriorate. When she was young, she was the topic of everybody’s conversation, however, she did not let that bother her and walked down the streets with her head held high. Emily took over the old house after her father’s death and kept a few servants around to keep the house tidy, nonetheless, the outside of the house was not kept in the best of conditions.

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.

Many people, when they are depressed, want distance to just be alone. Sadly, a lot of these people do end up taking their lives. This was the fear for the towns people because Emily had become such a figure for the

Developing into a young woman while living under strenuous conditions and being raised by poor role models, played a part in her mentality and the relationships she formed throughout the entirety of the book.

Also, from dying at such a young age, she never got to grow old with George and see her kids grow up, fall in love, and have children. Emily took what little time she had alive for granted and never really realized it until she passed

But we don’t know why Emily was the way she was or why she did what she did. Emily is like any woman or girl who feel insecure or not sure how she feels and is just confused on how to handle things going on in her life. Emily didn’t live the life like any other woman in her town. Being in the situation she was in was, what choices would you make? There are some things we can’t explain like why Emily kill Homer Barron and why she kept her father's corpse before letting anyone know that he was dead.

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

When she was young, her father forbade any male suitors. Though she had limited relationships with men, Emily still socialized with the other townspeople ever so often, even holding pottery classes on some days. However, “After her father's death she went out very little” (Faulkner 2). Since her father was a dominant figure in her life, she could not cope with having to live by herself and adjust to life itself. Furthermore, because her father did not let her

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.

Because her family was prominent in the town of Jefferson, Emily Grierson was watched her entire life and wondered about by everyone. The townspeople had a lot to do with Emily’s changing mental condition because they constantly gossiped about everything that happened in her life. It generally

UPS AND DOWNS. The nature of Emily's journey is in a . Emily's pain is caused by the lack of her mother's attention. At the beginning of the mother's reflection over Emily's life she is remembered as chubby cheeked joyful little baby. When Emily was little she had to stay with other people because her mom had to work.

She was alone, she was humiliated by the town, she had to hide away because she was not able to cope. In Tim O’Brien’s article he states, “After her death, Emily is reunited with the other members of her southern class …”, which means, in death, with the people she loved she will no longer be alone” (O’Brien

Combined with the loss of power when her husband left her to mother four children all alone, this leaves the narrator feeling awful and guilty about Emily’s childhood. Later on, she is convinced to send Emily away so that she can have better care. Losing her child takes a toll on her and lets her think about all the things she could have done to give Emily a better childhood. Olsen uses her own life experiences to influence the story and send the message of guilt.

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.

From a very young age, she found herself being confined in her home with her father and their butler. There is no mention of her mother, so one can only assume that the mother was absent in Emily’s life. Emily’s father isolated Emily away from the outside world, thinking that no one would ever be good enough for her. This is where the reader begins to see the dependent and possessive nature. Being that she was sheltered away from the outside world, she had no friends, thus becoming dependent on her father.