Category: A Rose For Emily

Emily’s House and the Social Hierarchy

The Antebellum society had clear status demarcations. On the top were the aristocrats, the slave owners, and the masters of large plantations. They formed the cream of society and did not associate with the working middle class, who were usually considered as ‘commoners.’ The lowest rung of the society was occupied by the slaves. The description of Emily’s house, a once grand and imposing edifice, and the fact that she still employed a slave bear testament to her aristocratic origins. Also, her proud and haughty demeanor throughout the story also shows that she was brought up believing that she belonged to the top level of society and everyone else was beneath her.

Emily’s Complex Relationship

Emily’s entire life appears filled with conflicts. The first to appear is her relationship with her father. It is clear from the story that they were very close, and as per Southern tradition, the father needs to approve the person that Emily wishes to marry. The inflated pride that the father has for his family is the main reason for Emily to stay unmarried, as he keeps rejecting each suitor. Faulker describes this state of affairs beautifully – “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 back-flung front door” (Faulkner, II, para 12).

Emily is slender and dressed in white, which is suggestive of her youth and virginity. Her father, on the other hand, is described as a guardian who is literally keeping her captive. Faulkner describes Emily’s father as a silhouette, something that is faceless or in the shadows. This is suggestive of the father’s influence and holds on Emily, and her values, throughout her life. Scherting, in his analysis of the short story, declares that Emily had an Oedipus complex (Scherting, 397).

Her heavy dependence on her father causes Emily to suffer a psychological setback when he dies. The climax comes when she tries to prevent the town from burying her father for three days in an attempt to keep him with her. Emily could have honestly loved her father, but he was definitely a huge influence in her life. She feels empty without him and becomes sort of a recluse and a subject of pity among the townspeople until Homer Barron arrives, and her conflict is resolved, albeit temporarily.

Love, Conflict, and Poisonous Secrets in Emily’s Life

The next major conflict is between Emily and her family over Homer Barron. Homer breezes into town as the foreman for the construction company that is charged with paving the sidewalks. His big voice and gregarious nature soon make him the life of any gathering in the town. When Emily and Homer begin to be seen around town, the townspeople are relieved that she might finally marry. Emily’s motives are not evident behind seeing Homer, who is a “Northerner, a day laborer” (Faulkner, II, para 3), and therefore beneath her socially.

It is possible that Emily felt desperate and needed a male companion to fill the space that her father’s death had vacated in her life. It is also possible that she saw a little of her father’s domineering and ‘take-charge’ attitude in Homer (Gray; Dilworth, 251). Either way, it is clear that she wanted to marry him. However, Homer professes homosexual tendencies, and the townspeople, in an attempt to dissuade the alliance, write to Emily’s cousins in Alabama to talk to her.

However, Emily, in her usually haughty, headstrong way, continues to see Homer and her cousins finally leave. The conflict of the matter reaches a climax when Emily buys poison from the town druggist. She does not disclose her purpose behind buying the poison but stresses that she “want[s] the best you [the druggist] has” (Faulkner, III, para 9). Her old-South attitude and haughtiness manage to completely bowl over the druggist who issues the poison even though she does not give a reason as to why she needs it.

The townspeople, after hearing of this purchase, believe that Emily is going to commit suicide. However, when nothing happens for a long time, they forget about this incident, and the conflict in this matter gets resolved only after Emily’s own death several years later and the finding of Homer’s dead body. This is when all the mystery becomes evident – the bad smell, the poison, the absence of Homer, and the social reclusiveness of Emily. It is because of her old-South attitudes that the town considers her a relic and allows her strange behavior. And it is for this reason that she was able to get away with murdering Homer Barron.

Conclusion:

A Rose for Emily is a widely read and critiqued piece of literature that portrays the struggles of a woman with firm roots in old-South traditions in the post-Civil War period. Emily hails from the aristocratic class and hence has all the self-importance and haughty behavior that goes with her origin. The townspeople clearly feel that even after her father dies and she sinks into poverty, she shows all her old-South habits and values.

From Emily’s viewpoint, it may be said that she was heavily controlled by her father, and after his death; she seeks to fill the void by trying to romance Homer. When Homer declares his homosexual tendencies, her upper-class upbringing helps her secure poison with which she kills him. Her desperation to cling to her old-South traditions and the attitudes of the townspeople allows her to get away with her crime. Her conflicts are ultimately resolved with her death.

References:

1. Dilworth, T. ‘A Romance to Kill For: Homicidal Complicity in Faulkner’s ‘a Rose for Emily’.’ Studies in Short Fiction, Newberry, vol. 36, no. 3, 2009, p. 251, https://search.proquest.com/openview/e82b682a5ec8a58adaff3731f486f8da/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=48008.
2. Faulkner, W. ‘A Rose for Emily.’ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html. Accessed November 20, 2018.
3. Gray, K. L. ‘Comparing Faulkner’s a Rose for Emily and Porter’s The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.’ Inquiries, vol. 5, no. 3, 2013, p. 1, http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/750/comparing-faulkners-a-rose-for-emily-and-porters-the-jilting-of-granny-weatherall.
4. Scherting, J. ‘Emily Grierson’s Oedipus Complex: Motif, Motive, and Meaning in Faulkner’s ‘a Rose for Emily’.’ Studies in Short Fiction, Newberry, vol. 17, no. 4, 2000, p. 397, https://search.proquest.com/openview/f8716ea3c301da4268ad4ce91e9ce86e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1820858.

Subdued Lives: Echoes of Isolation and Tragedy

A woman not seen by neighbors for 30 years has been found dead with her daughter after complaints of a pungent smell coming from their dilapidated house. Similar to “A Rose from Emily” when she isolated herself in the house for years. Police who broke into the property found the body of Caroline Jessett, aged in her 50s, but were forced to flee amid fears the house would collapse on them. When they returned, they discovered her mother, Pauline, who was aged in her 70s.

Neighbors say they haven’t seen Pauline for over 30 years. The daughter was a bit strange, but I thought that was a bit about her upbringing. ‘The curtains in the house were always pulled, and you couldn’t see in,’ said the neighbor stated. You never saw anyone take the bins out or anything like that, they were not normal neighbors. An incident similar to Emily when she was found dead in her own home, then they discovered a locked room with her dead lover that Emily laid next to for years. This article relates to Emily’s situation so well because it shows that people deal with tragedies in their lives in different ways, and some do not know how to deal with them at all.

Denial’s Cloak: The Isolation of Emily Grierson

They think the best way to deal with them is to act like it never happens. William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’ revolves around the lives of townsfolk fixation on a southern lady named Emily who has closed herself out from her town. Despite the fact that her generation has profound roots in the town, she is definitely not an ordinary neighbor. Ruled by a controlling dad, the unexpected passing of him extremely affected Emily.

She is so in denial of his death she leaves him at the kitchen table where he died and still proceeds to eat dinner as if nothing happened. Emily distant herself from the town by having constrained contact with the outside world for the rest of her life. The townsfolk does little to constrain Miss Emily out of her constrained detachment. The townspeople see Miss Emily more as an exhibition than a real individual endeavoring to discover satisfaction throughout everyday life. Emily acts the way she begins with the denial of her dad, not letting her find her lady’s satisfaction, and isolating her from the outside world.

Escaping Reality: Emily’s Isolation and Struggle with Change

Her exploitation, and extreme segregation, are a consequence of the townsfolk’s failure to see Miss Emily as anything other than ‘self-important” Grierson, who turned into a ‘disrespect to the town’ when the common laborer’s Northerner, Homer Barron, started pursuing Emily. Emily’s detachment is clear on the grounds that the men that thought about her left her, either by death or essentially abandoning her. In fact, the townsfolk obviously plays an absence of thoughtfulness, for Miss Emily is simply the motivation behind why she escaped society and didn’t enable anybody to draw near to her.

Emily does not realize or want to acknowledge the death of her father and understanding that her surroundings are changing. Emily endeavors to recover her past by getting away from the present. Emily distances herself from everybody when the two individuals she has cherished most in her life leave. She ends up hesitant to develop near anybody in dread of losing them once more. She lives in this imagination where passing in the real world doesn’t have any significance. Emily is reluctant to go up against the real world. Literary critics from ‘A Rose for Emily’: Against Interpretation by John Skinner states, “A Rose for Emily” is conventional piety of criticism. Also, states Faulkner divided the story based on incidents of isolation and intrusion.

Unraveling the Narratives of Emily and Society

The division of these stories has a perfect symmetry that is encountered in the contrast between Emily and the townsfolk and between her home and surroundings carried out by the adherents of the new town. As each antagonist visits Emily, the movement in the overall plot is a contributing element to the excellence of the story. A crisis in its own particular division of the story. Joseph Garrison dismisses the fair cliché observations about the implications of time in “A Rose for Emily” is a critique of the kind of narration that is naively assumed the possibility of an omniscient presentation of the truth and, in the naivety, fails to see the contours of its own biases.

We must understand there is all kind of people in the world who deals with life tragedies. There are some tragedies in Emily’s life, and the way she handles them maybe be strange to us, but that is how she has learned to manage them. Emily appeared to be a sheltered girl, so when she became a woman, she only did what she knew, and that was not much because she was always controlled by her father. Emily feels after the men that thought about her left her, either by death or essentially abandoning her. It shows that people such as Emily deals with tragedies in their lives in different ways, and some do not know how to deal with them at all. To them, the best way to deal with tragedies is to act like it never happens.

References:

1. Smith, J. (2023, July 15). Woman and Daughter Found Dead After Decades of Isolation. Daily News, pp. A1-A2.
2. Faulkner, W. (1930). A Rose for Emily. In Collected Stories of William Faulkner (pp. 120-135). Random House.
3. Skinner, J. (2005). Against Interpretation: Revisiting “A Rose for Emily.” Critical Analysis, 25(2), 78-91.
4. Garrison, J. (2010). Time and Narration in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” Literary Insights, Inc.

Feminine Confinements and Societal Pressures

A Rose for Emily” is a story written by William Faulkner, published in a paper in 1930. It shares a story from the perspective of Miss Emily, a daughter of a rich man who lives in Jefferson, a city made up for the purpose of the story located in Mississippi. One day she meets a man and falls in love. His name is Homer Barron, a poor Yankee who came down from the north to work on their streets and doesn’t want to marry her.

It is presumed that because Home does not want to marry her, Miss Emily poisons him with arsenic and keeps his body for the next forty years. Not only does he kill him, but she decides to sleep with the corpse of her lover. While reading this particular piece of literary work, most interpreters pay attention to the unique form of narration and the way William Faulkner plays with time. However, this short story can’t be read as just an experiment with narrative chronology. The author when very deep into the minds of the characters.

“A Rose for Emily” is a specific social commentary that perfectly presents the roles and demands of women during the early 20th century. The pressure of society and the ways in which it can tear people down. So, I think if we analyze the story further, we can find a very interesting aspect of the story. Looking at the story through a feminist lens, this piece of writing depicts Puritan womanhood as well as society’s perception of the female.

Patriarchal Dominance and the Struggle for Autonomy

I would like to talk about the issue of extreme partisanship, which seems to triumph throughout the story. Faulkner shows the South to be a powerfully traditional area that is centered around a family that has clearly defined social rules. At the beginning of the 20th century, women, mainly in the South, were discriminated against due to the amount of power men were given. It was the men, most often the father, who held the most power and was the most unwilling to change.

Miss Emily lived in her father’s shadow and continued to do so after he died. “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 long back front door.” (Faulkner, 11). This quote shows how the author wants the reader to see Emily in comparison as small and frail.

Also, the horsewhip in the father’s hand can depict a form of strict and threatening, almost like he’s treating his daughter as a possession. With this interpretation is not shocking that he removes her from society and takes them away from potential suitors. “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (Faulkner, 11) Her father doesn’t take into consideration her desire to be fulfilled as a woman. Emily refuses to get rid of Mr. Grierson’s body due to the fear of being left alone.

Religious Dogma and Subjugation

Another big aspect is the understanding that the Bible Belt is located in the South, where the story takes place. The Southerners considered religion to be one of the most influential factors in their lives. With that being said, men in the story follow a Biblical conviction that a woman is the cause of all evils in the world. Because of this belief, the women’s situation is made worse by default. Women were prohibited from sticking out or being independent.

Miss Emily can be considered a victim of Puritan womanhood. She is dominated completely by her strict and barring father, and she never experiences independence which in turn trains the rest of her life. Even after her father’s death, she continued to conform to the norms of society. After a while, she caves and starts an affair with a man named Homer Barron, a Yankee. Such behavior is frowned a upon by society. Therefore the shift in her actions could be seen as a protest against tradition. At this point in the short story, Miss Emily takes on a true feminist role and rebels against limitations, gender biases, and social classes.

Society’s Constraining Gaze

The last aspect I want to examine in “A Rose for Emily” is society’s perception of females. Every community is different and is influenced by traditions and principles. Jefferson’s community feels obligated to take care of Emily and control her life through the eyes of the townspeople. Emily is perceived as a weak and dependent woman.

When the man that once cared for her passed, the town council decided not to enforce taxes. The locals offer her accommodations by offering help and sympathy. This depiction of the townspeople taking care of Emily shows the roles of women during the time period. Basically saying that a woman without a man is helpless. Emily is not able to make a living and remain mentally sound while functioning properly in society. That explains why she locked herself away in her house.

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner perfectly represents Southern society and its faults. It is captivating and is a marvelous representation of the female position. Women remained in the shadows of men and were perceived by their society as weak. The woman remains in the shadow and does not go beyond her scope of work. All the elements discussed above are perfectly represented in “A Rose For Emily.”

References:

1. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Published in 1930.
2. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Nina Baym et al., W. W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 100-107.
3. Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. “Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South.” Oxford University Press, 2007.
4. Anderson, Sherwood. “Winesburg, Ohio.” B.W. Huebsch, 1919.
5. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The New England Magazine, vol. 5, no. 3, 1892, pp. 647-656.
6. Foucault, Michel. “The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction.” Pantheon Books, 1978.
7. Hooks, Bell. “Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.” South End Press, 1981.
8. Cullen, Jim. “The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation.” Oxford University Press, 2003.

Tradition vs. Progress in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, revolves around the theme of tradition vs. progress. The story of Emily Grierson can be depicted as a gothic story that depicts prejudice and small-town attitudes in the South a century ago. Faulkner utilizes the scene of a funeral to help unveil the grim enigma enclosed in the house of a psychopathic woman. Faulkner focuses on Emily’s childhood, the death of her father, her brief affair with a man named Homer, and Homer’s death to bring to light the overlying theme of time in this short story. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson is foreseen as demented with an ongoing need for approval, as well as severe attachment issues, which is a symbol of the rose.

Mr. Grierson’s Influence on Emily’s Life

Many people can conclude that most of Emily Grierson’s issues began in her childhood. Emily’s mother is never mentioned in the story, so her father is the main person to decide her life, which will be an important factor later in her young adult life. Growing up, especially in a town in Mississippi in the early 1900s, Mr. Grierson always made sure that Emily was following the social values and Southern traditions set before her. He is a very dictatorial, strict presence who stifles Emily’s growth as a strong female.

When it came time for her to be courted by young men, Mr. Grierson wanted Emily to be with a man who could take care of her the way he did since she was such a daddy’s girl. He wanted a man who would give her love and attention after he was to pass away. No man was ever good enough in Mr. Grierson’s eyes, so in turn, Emily was never courted. Mr. Grierson believed she would never get courted after his death because her looks would be diminished. He ended up passing away when Emily was twenty-seven years old. Mr. Grierson had a lasting impression on her life.

Emily’s Pursuit of Connection and Controversy

Within the days following his death, Emily held onto her father’s body rather than sending it to be buried. She did not want to accept the fact that she lost her father, who was her everything. This is evident within the house, as a portrait of him was hung above the mantel. Whenever the ladies of the town went to bring their condolences to Emily, she had no trace of anguish in her facial expression. It took the authorities about to knock on her door before she finally had a breakdown and agreed to let go of her father.

The town realized how much Emily, who had no social skills, depended on her father after that moment. She depended on her him emotionally, socially, and financially. Emily inherited the house, the money, and the servant who had been in the house before his death. Within a few years of inheriting the assets, Emily ran short of money and could no longer afford to pay the monthly bills for the house. She was given a pass on paying by the Sheriff because he felt bad that she had no job, social skills, or money left.

After years of being with a male companion, except for her male servant, Emily met Homer. Homer Barron was a Yankee and a lower to middle-class construction worker who was commissioned to be building a new sidewalk in front of the Grierson home that would be part of the remodeling of the town. Through the construction, Emily spotted Homer and found an interest in him. Emily had a previous unknown boyfriend and was hoping to get Homer to possibly court her. Homer was believed to have been a player who was against getting married. He was often spotted at clubs with his guy friends, this is what lead to rumors of his homosexuality.

Tragic Secrets and Obsession in Death

Emily and Homer had a hidden fling following their uncanny meeting. Following a night with Emily, Homer was never seen again. In the beginning, much of the town believed that he had skipped town. A few months after his disappearance, a strong smell permeated the house, which could be smelt from the street. So one night, the men of the town went to the house and sprayed lime juice around the foundation of the house to try to eliminate the pungent odor.

Over time, the town got used to the smell. Emily ended up passing away at the age of seventy-four. When it came time for her funeral, the men and women of the town each had a reason for attending the funeral. The men went out of genuine sorrow over the passing of Emily Grierson. The women attended in hopes of discovering the dirty, hidden secrets being held within the Grierson residence. At that time, people were finally able to enter the house, where they found Homer’s decomposed corpse.

Upon finding his body, the town finally started to connect the dots of how he died. Emily had bought rat poisoning a few days before the disappearance, but everyone thought it was because the house was old and possibly infested with rats. Emily found out that he had been informing the town that he was sleeping with her, which would have ruined her reputation of being a Southern lady.

She decided to use rat poisoning because she considered him a rat, and the only way you can kill a rat is with poison. After killing him, she realized that he was the only guy willing to give her the love and attention she longed for, so Emily kept him in her bed, still underneath the seat, in the same position he died in. There was an indentation in the space next to Homer’s body, which the women of the town believed was because Emily was still sleeping in the bed with the corpse for many years.

Love, Obsession, and the Haunting Legacy of Traditions

The actions taken by Emily portray a woman with severe attachment issues with slight psychopathic tendencies, which can be seen in her father’s death rolling over into Homer’s death. Emily had a need for love and attention, which began at a young age. Following her father’s passing, “…she went out very little;…” (Faulkner Act II. line 18), and she would cling to whoever was willing to fulfill her want and desire. Homer was the person she believed could do that for her.

Unfortunately for Homer, Emily’s wanting to keep the traditions her dad taught her during her childhood would lead to his death. She wanted to have a perfect and pristine image within the town, and the gossip about her sleeping around would have been detrimental to that want. The psychopathic tendencies were present following her father’s death, in that she didn’t want to release his body to authorities because she believed he was still alive, but this became more evident after Homer’s death. She kept Homer’s body in the bed she slept in, which shows she was still attached to him.

A rose can be given to someone as a symbol of love, empathy, and much more. The story, it could have a wide range of possible meanings. Each character embodies an aspect of one of the rose’s meanings. Emily’s would-be love is due to her consistent want for love and someone to court her in her older age.

References:

1. Faulkner, W. (1930). A Rose for Emily. In Collected Stories of William Faulkner (pp. 120-135). Random House.
2. Hines, T. S. (2002). Southern Gothic Literature. University Press of Mississippi.
3. O’Connor, F. (1955). A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
4. Johnson, T. (2010). Tradition vs. Progress: An Analysis of Themes in Faulkner’s Works. Journal of Southern Literature, 35(2), 45-58.
5. Smith, E. P. (1998). Small-Town Attitudes in American Literature: An Exploration of Prejudice and Isolation. American Studies Journal, 42(3), 112-129.
6. Thompson, L. M. (2005). The Symbolic Use of Roses in Literature: Love, Loss, and Longing. Symbolism Studies, 20(1), 27-42.
7. Jackson, M. R. (2012). The Psychological Portrait of Emily Grierson: Attachment Issues and Psychopathy in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” Southern Psychologist, 67(3), 189-204.
8. Abrams, M. H., & Harpham, G. G. (2014). A Glossary of Literary Terms (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.

To be lonely is often an easy thing to deal with, but being alone is another matter in itself. To understand this, one must comprehend the difference between loneliness and isolation versus being alone. Being alone means you are not in the company of anyone else, you are the only one present. Loneliness is a complex and unpleasant emotional response of feelings of isolation, and can happen at anywhere, anytime. Feelings of isolation affect all types and ages of people, targeting the elderly and adolescents. According to many texts we have read in class such as: Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathon Safran Foer, loneliness is caused by feelings of not being able to escape and reach freedom and feelings of isolation. These novels deal with isolation, by forcing the main characters to abandon their own ideals and learn who they are without their family to guide them. People being forced to abandon their faith and ideals, without guidance from others, pressures them to either gain freedom by facing their isolation and grief, or they risk loosing their sense of reality by never coping with hardships life brings.

Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is a powerful story about a woman, named Louise Mallard who has just received the news that her husband has passed away in a tragic train wreck. Mrs. Mallard reacts like any grieving widow, she is clearly upset and rushes to her bedroom to escape the people around her. At first, she doesn’t consciously allow herself to reach freedom without her husband. The knowledge reaches her symbolically by repetition of the word “open”. The open window and the open square in front of her house emphasizes opportunities and lack of restrictions without others to help her. While in her room, the readers get to see a completely different side of her. Louise in some sense feels happy, she is fond of the freedom she gains from her husband’s death. The main character becomes suddenly relieved by the thought of freedom from marriage and slavery associated with love. Mrs. Mallard is described as a wife that abandoned herself throughout marriage. The husband is described as being happy with the marriage, despite the fact that his wife views the marriage as toxic. Now that her husband passes away, Louise Mallard is happy because she is now alone? Or is Mrs. Mallard truly upset that her husband has passed?

Chopin states, “she said it over and over under the breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body, (Chopin 1). For the first time, the audience gets to experience the protagonist showing a different side to her character; behind closed doors Mrs. Mallard can truly express what she is feeling, without feeling guilty around her family and friends. As Louise begins to feel happiness, she becomes fearful and tries to beat it with her will power, but the force is too powerful to ignore. Once the main character allows herself to overcome this fear, she finds her desire for self-determination and her uncomprehending stare becomes replaced by a smile and acceptance. In one of the most critical passages of the story, Chopin describes Louise’s vision of this new found freedom as not about retting rid of her husband, but about taking control of her own life. While Louise’s joy is closely related to her status as a women in the 19th century, it is important that this story doesn’t apply its ideals to just women, in a time period of feminism. Chopin writes “there would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a will upon a fellow-creature,” (Chopin 2). Louise believes that now her husband is dead, there is no one to force obedience, now all that matters to her is that she can achieve freedom. Past ties and expectations that were of cruel nature are revealed as shackles that have been isolating her, even the love of a good person keeps one from gaining freedom. Chopin believes that it is both men and women who lack freedom, and steal it from one another.

Towards the end of the story, just before Louise leaves her bedroom, she begins to illuminate the extent of her life. “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long,” (Chopin 2). Before Brently Mallard’s death, Louise views her life as being destructive, visioning years of dull and unchanging independence. The “shudder” she once experiences is full of dread and hatred, that becomes replaced and evolves into a life worth living. The main character was hoping her life would be cut short before the death of Brently, but after his death she is now praying for a long, happy life. Rather than associating loneliness with dread, this isolation is what Louise anticipates in the future. Once Louise leaves her bedroom at the end of the story, she is greeted with her husband who walks in alive and well. Upon seeing Mr. Mallard who believes his wife will be eager to see him, Louise “died of heart disease — of joy that kills,” (Chopin 2). The audience immediately recognizes this irony, and it seems clear that her shock isn’t over joy of her husband’s arrival, but rather the shock that she must return to her dreadful life and cherish her own freedom. She briefly experiences joy- the joy of imaging a life in her full charge and control; it was the removal of that intense feeling of joy that led to her death. Louise was able to escape her isolation by facing the grief of her lost husband, but once he came back she is forced to give up her freedom. This same idea of losing your sense of freedom is depicted in, A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner.

Isolation dominates the life of seventy four-year old Emily Grierson in, A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, in 1931. The main character, Emily, lives under the control of her father who thinks no man is good enough for his daughter. Emily’s father is in charge of her life pushing away anyone who comes near his daughter, and forces Emily to live like this for years until his abrupt death. After the death of her father, Emily is left with nothing but bad memories and states, “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, as people will ” (Faulkner 370). Due to the fact that her father pushes every man away from her before his death, Emily is left alone after his passing. Loneliness “can occur during life transitions such as the death of a loved one, a divorce or a move to a new place,” (Novotney, 2019). Emily soon isolates herself from others because she is used to living with her dad which causes her to become lonely and change her attitude towards men. At this point in American history, women were general known by their role of wife and mother, something Emily was unable to achieve. Because of this, the town felt sympathy for Emily’s loneliness. Also, out of respect for Emily’s late and well-regarded father, the county allows Emily to not pay taxes.

Emily didn’t talk to men for a while, until she comes across a handsome man by the name of Homer Baron, a man of color. Homer Baron is a northerner who claims he has no intention of marriage, and plans to remain a bachelor forever; he is often seen at the bar talking to young men which questions his sexuality. “A key part of feeling lonely is feeling rejected, and that, it turns out, is the most damaging part,” (Shulevitz, 2013). The women of the town begin to say Emily and Homer riding around town with no intention of marriage was, “disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people,” (Faulkner 371). In the 1930s, women were seen as being role models and mothers, while having a husband that was of their class. Without Emily solidifying her relationship, the society which she lives in begins to loose sympathy and gain hatred for the main character’s ways of life. The town soon becomes worried being that she is ruining her father’s honor by dating a guy beneath her, and Emily responds by going to the store to buy poison. After this, Emily is not seen leaving her house for over six months, showing that the actions of her own town now shunning her, leads to her isolation from the world. Her hair turns gray, she gains weight, and she dies in the darkness of her basement that is not illuminated for years. Upon hearing of her death, the towns people go to Emily’s house and breakdown the door of her bedroom, revealing a gruesome scene. They find the presents Emily ever got Homer, and on the bed they find the rooting corpse of Homer Baron next to an indentation that contains a faint, gray hair. This gray hair indicates that Emily has been lying down, next to the corpse of her dead boyfriend up until her death where the insanity took over her life. The main character did not want to be alone with nothing, just like after her father’s death, that they only way she could escape her loneliness was by killing her only true love. This same idea of losing your sense of freedom is also displayed in, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathon Safran Foer

Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, is written using very casual language to describes the life of a boy named Oskar Schnell who loose his father, Thomas Schnell, in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Oskar is characterized as being extremely curious, and his childhood innocence leads him to observe, question, and comment on everything he experiences and witnesses. Oskar finds himself constantly throughout the novel struggling to cope with feelings of grief and pain, being that he is traumatized by the fact he missed 5 phone calls from his dad on the day of his death, and refuses to tell anyone he was too afraid to answer. Oskar spends the whole novel trying to figure out why and how his dad exactly died by traveling across the country with a key that was found in Thomas’s closet. Oskar discovers this key in the back of his father’s closet in an even lope labelled “Black” inside a blue vase; he soon plans an expedition to explode New York City in search of answers. The protagonist wears this key around his neck for the rest of the novel, putting a Band-Aid on his heart when he gets irritated symbolizing his protection from grief. One of the main things Oskar wants to do is “spend his Saturdays and Sundays finding all of the people named Black and learn what they know about the key in the vase in Dad’s closet” (Foer, 51). Since Oskar wants to know about his father, he searches for every possible answer reliving the day of his father’s death over and over in his mind.

As Oskar’s expedition progresses, the search for the missing lock distracts him from his grief and allows him to stay connected to his father. However, his motivation to find the missing lock shifts from preserving his father’s memory to proving his love. “I got heavy boots because I was reminded me of the lock that I still hadn’t found, and how until I found it, I didn’t love dad enough” (Foer 251). The main character believes because he didn’t answer the phone calls- from his father on the tragic day, he needs to push himself to find the lock to relieve himself from the feelings of guilt. However, upon Oskar’s expedition, he is finally forced to face society alone.

As Oskar travels around New York City, he meets every person with the last name “Black” in alphabetical order. Along his journey, Oskar is forced to face his fears by traveling across bridges, and riding the subway. Halfway through the novel, Oskar recounts his father’s story of the Sixth Borough, which symbolizes the protagonist’s struggle in society during the aftermath of the dreadful terrorist attack. Osker’s vivid imagination and extreme levels of anxiety and stress make it difficult for him to form friends making him isolated form the outside world; many of his bystanders poke fun at him making it hard for Oskar for maintain his confidence. He states “the high bridges between Manhattan and the Sixth Bourough strains and finally crumbled, one at a time, into the water,” (Foer 189). The collapse of the bridge symbolizes Thomas Schnell’s attempt to help Oskar fit into society. Without his father’s guidance, Oskar feels abandoned and alone, slowly drowning below the surface of society, just like the Sixth Borough. When Oskar encounters William Black, the owner of expedition for the missing lock, he realizes that you must be able to learn to let go.

When Oskar discovers that Mr. Black owns the box he doesn’t wish to discover the contents, after searching for months for answers due to his own fear of its belongings. The protagonist expresses his feelings of guilt and anxiety to Mr. Black after upon learning that he also tragically lost his father. In one of the most important moments in the story, Oskar finally reveals to someone that he didn’t answer the phone calls from his dad on the day of his death. William Black is the key in opening Oskar’s heart to deal with the isolation he feels by expressing, “do you forgive me?” “Do I forgive you?” “For not being able to pick up?” “For not being able to tell anyone.” He said, “I do,” (Foer 302). Mr. Black reassures to Oskar that he shouldn’t feel guilty for not picking up the telephone, and he is allowed to be scared to face the reality that Thomas is gone. This act of forgiveness is what opens Oskar’s heart, and the key and lock are not what are physically opened, but rather they open Oskar emotionally. Even though Oskar doesn’t receive the actual answers on how his father died, his relationship with Mr. Black enables him to cope and reminds him that it is okay to be scared in life. At the end of the story, Oskar rips of the Band-Aid that was placed on his heart after finding the key, showing that it is okay the let go of the past, and everyone will heal with time.

All of these authors come from a time period where grief was very difficult, no matter the year. Chopin and Faulkner both come from a time where women are seen as living at home, and taking on distinct gender roles and stereotypes, it was hard to gain your freedom. Foer comes from a time period when the 9-11 terrorist attacks struck the American society forever, many people didn’t know how to deal with their unexpected losses of their loved ones. All of these authors wrote specific books on their experiences like, Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathon Safran Foer. These novels deal with isolation, by forcing the main characters to abandon their own ideals and learn who they are without their family to guide them. People are forced to abandon their faith and ideals, without guidance from others, forces them to either gain freedom by facing their isolation and grief, or they lose their sense of reality by never coping with hardships life brings. “It is estimated that over 40% of us will feel the aching pangs of loneliness at some point in our lives,” (Winch, 2014). The only way for us to deal with the pain with feel, is to face it head on and understand that it is okay to feel lonely, and it is something we all must except.

Bibliography

1. Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. 1894.
2. Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. 1930.
3. Shulevitz, Judith. “The Lethality of Loneliness.” The New Republic, 13 May 2013, newrepublic.com/article/113176/science-loneliness-how-isolation-can-kill-you.
4. Novotony, Amy. “Social Isolation: It Could Kill You.” Monitor on Pscyhology, vol. 50, May 2019, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation.
5. Safran-Foer, Jonathon. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. 2005.
6. Winch, Guy. “10 Surprising Facts About Loneliness.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2014, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201410/10-surprising-facts-about-loneliness.
7. http://newrepublic.com/article/113176/science-loneliness-how-isolation-can-kill-you
8. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation
9. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201410/10-surprising-facts-about-loneliness
10. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201410/10-surprising-facts-about-loneliness
11. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201410/10-surprising-facts-about-loneliness

“A Rose For Emily” is a dramatic story written by William Faulkner and tells about the life of a woman named Emily Grierson. The story talks about all the terrible events that have occured in Emily’s life and how it changed her. Her father had complete control over her life and when he died she was uncertain what to do. Eventually she met a man named Homer Barron but after leaving her once, she poisons him. However she kept his body in her bed and slept with it until she died. The story also shows Emily being unable to move on from her aristocratic lifestyle that her and her father were accustomed to throughout their lives. The story “A Rose For Emily” shows a possible negative response a person could have and examining “A Rose For Emily” using psychoanalytic criticism we can see how her past relationships and experiences have affected her negatively.

Emily’s entire life can be considered abnormal by most standards. For instance, her father was the only prominent person in her life for the majority of the time. While this and in of itself would be strange, it was the fact that her father was abusive. Throughout all of her life her father had been very controlling. It is because of this she had little to no social experience until much later in life. But in the description of them together the people in the town mention seeing him with a horsewhip and Emily behind him. This could mean that he was also physically abusive as well. It was also believed that because of her aristocratic social status, that the majority of people who lived in the town thought that no one would ever be good enough for her. Then when her father had died, she had no idea what to do. This would have been the first time she would be in control of her life. But with little social skills and the trauma from the death of her father, she was completely lost.

In the story Emily had displayed several actions and behaviors that can be interpreted as signs of mental illness. One sign showed an extreme case of denial. Denial is one of the most primitive defense mechanisms, it is when someone experiences a traumatic event and their way of coping is to simply act like it never happened. This occurred when she was dealing with the death of her father. The story explains that when people from the town had showed up in order to offer their condolences, she had denied that her father had died. This happened for three days until she finally broke down and let the town bury the body. The people in the town had also rationalized this by saying “we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her.”(Falkner 3) Other signs of regression is that they will not engage in everyday activities or even leave their bed. The townspeople had stated that after the death of her father, she was not seen for six months. Then after her father had passed the then current mayor Colonel Sartoris had created the tale that her father had paid a sum of money to the town and they preferred to pay it back by accepting her house from taxes. However when a new generation of city officials came to her several years later, she insisted that they go talk to Colonel Sartoris but had been dead for ten years. Another defensive mechanism that she displayed is regression. This is where a person’s state of mind regreses to an earlier state of development rather than working through new environments in a more adaptive way. An example of this is when the town states that she had cut her hair in a way that had resembled a young girl. Another possible contribution to her illness is genetics. In the story it is stated several times that Emily’s great aunt Wyatt had gone completely crazy. With this statement and the actions that her father had taken, this could show a mental illness that runs in the family. This when combined with the events from her life would most certainly cause some type of mental illness. However the most significant action she took was when she had poisoned Homer with arsenic. This occured after Homer had left town for a few days and then was seen returning to her house. It’s possible that the event of Homer leaving had triggered the memory of her father leaving her. So when he returned she ensured that he would never leave her again. The most disturbing part of this was that not only did she kill him but she also had kept his corpse in a bed in her house until the day she died. While the extent of their relationship is unknown, the story heavily implies that she was at least sleeping in the same bed as him. This is shown by mentioning several times about her iron grey hair and the fact that there was a head indent with one of those said hairs next to Homer.

The actions that Emily took show the side effects of all the experiences and trauma in her life. For instance when her father died, her reactions indicate that she was unable to cope with her loss and tried to keep her only prominent relationship by being in denial. The way she lived her life after his death also shows that she was so used to the old ways of living that her father had taught her, she was unable to adapt to new situations and change with the times. Eventually she did create another meaningful relationship with Homer. However he did leave for a short while but when he returned he was seen going into her house and then he was said to never be seen in town again. It’s likely that after almost losing Homer once that she couldn’t accept it happening again. This is most likely the motive behind her killing him, to ensure that he would never leave her again.

Emily’s life has no doubt been sad. Her uprising had left several effects on her mental health that had caused her unable to adapt to change and other various negative effects. She was entirely fixated on the past and trying to keep her life the same. She is unable to accept loss and can’t properly handle relationships or the changes to her lifestyle. She is showing several signs of defensive mechanisms in response to the trauma that she has encountered in her life and she possibly has a history of mental illness in her family. After her father died and she finally became in control of her life, she spent the rest of it making sure nothing changed again. All of the things that have happened to her have almost certainly affected her.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner, William. William Faulkner: A Rose for Emily. Merrill, 1970.
2. Harris, Paul A. “In Search of Dead Time: Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’” KronoScope, vol. 7, no. 2, Dec. 2007, pp. 169–183. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1163/156852407X249025.
3. Arensberg, Mary, and Sara E. Schyfter. “Hairoglyphics in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’/Reading the Primal Trace.” Boundary 2, vol. 15, no. 1/2, 1986, pp. 123–134. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/303426. Accessed 20 Apr. 2020.
4. van Stralen, Hans, and A. M. Iken. “The Coveted Monument.” PsyArt, Jan. 2013, p. 4. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=90545416&site=ehost-live.

Despite how unfairly our society has always viewed and treated people who suffer from mental health issues, as well as the social stigma that comes with this diagnosis or undiagnosed ailment, the truth is that these very individuals who are labeled “mentally ill” can be geniuses at projecting through their writings an understanding to the reader of the mind and society, and how the world appears through the lens in which they view life. According to Edvard Munch, a master of painting who had a bipolar disorder claimed that his fear of life was as necessary to him as his illness itself, he proclaimed that “without illness, I am a ship without a rudder… My sufferings are part of myself and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art.’ This testimony, as well as the short stories “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “The Story of an Hour,” and “A Rose for Emily,” aids their readers’ understanding of the mind and society through authors that would be considered in today’s terms mentally ill.

As stated by the Mayo Clinic Staff, “Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic). The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica defines repression, a type of mental illness, in psychoanalytic terms as “the exclusion of distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings from the conscious mind.” “…[T]hese unwanted mental contents are pushed into the unconscious mind” (Encyclopedia Britannica). In essence, repression works as a buffer to allow a person to go on and live their life unimpeded by the negative reality of the world in which they live. This was especially true for the character Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of An Hour,” by Kate Chopin. However, to understand and analyze the real cause of Mrs. Mallard’s death, “of joy that kills,” one must first look at the repressive history of a woman’s rights as they existed in the 1800s, and somewhat understand the life of a married woman during that time, at least as perceived by the author in 1894, to allow the reader to grasp that her true cause of death was not from an overdose of joy, but instead from the instant annihilation of the newfound happiness that she felt after hearing the news of her oppressive husband’s survival.

Likewise, as in “The Story of an Hour,” understanding this same history is necessary to place into context “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” as penned by Charlotte Perkins Stetson in 1892, and specifically how her world looked to her as it related a woman’s mental illness at the time. As told from the posture of the narrator, the author chronicles in detail the decline of a young woman into lunacy. As the story unfolds, the narrator’s mental illness worsens as she sinks further into her inner captivation with the wallpaper and becomes progressively more disconnected from her day-to-day life. When the narrator finally identifies herself with the woman trapped in the wallpaper, she is able to see that other women are forced to hide behind the domestic “patterns” of their lives and that she herself is the one in need of redemption (Perkins).

According to Lives of Women, America in the late 19th century was still predominantly rural, with seven out of ten people in the United States living in small towns with populations under 2,500 or on farms, and most in poverty. What was termed the “Cult of Domesticity” was firmly in place. “The beliefs embodied in this ‘Cult’ gave women a central, yet outwardly passive, role in the family. Women’s God-given role, it stated, was a wife and mother, keeper of the household, guardian of the moral purity of all who lived therein;” however, in practice, it was “designed to limit their sphere of influence to home and family” (Hartman). In the cult of domesticity, a woman was to be submissive and obedient to one’s husband in all things (MacKethan). Also, from The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860, “[b]y custom and law, she did not enjoy all of the rights of citizenship. In the legal realm, women were decidedly dependent, subservient, and unequal” (Welter). Further exacerbating the situation, rights normally enjoyed by women were often withdrawn when she married. Indeed, a woman gave up so many civil and property rights upon crossing the threshold that she was said to be entering a “state of civil death,” according to Women and the Law in Early 19th Century (Crumrin). Not only did women more often than not hold miserable positions within marriages, but the same rang true with employment where they would typically hold servant-type positions. Because of a woman’s lack of status and opportunities, it is very understandable why many of them suffered from different forms of mental illness and may have been deemed insane for negligible reasons. There were laws in place during this period to protect women from being committed to insane asylums and treated unfairly. However, they were rarely enforced and inconsistently applied. The cumulative effect of all of these things was, as stated by Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianen, the fact that women were committed to “mental institutions for [simply] acting in ways that the male-dominated society did not agree with” (Pouba et. al 95). This was the social backdrop for each of these authors as they wrote their short stories.

As alluded to above, “The Story of an Hour” was a short story written about a mentally repressed woman, in the late 19th century who, after hearing of her oppressive husband’s death, instead of being overcome with grief, begins to feel ascended in hope and spirits. After receiving the tragic news of her husband’s demise, she ironically begins to notice all the “new spring life” that she has not seen since her single years. She felt she was finally granted freedom for “intelligent thought” (Chopin 1) that of which she was not capable of doing while under her husband’s reign. However, because the announcement of his death was a mere misunderstanding, his presence alone walking into the house crushes all of her hopes that she finally started to plan, consequently giving the last stab to her feeble heart. So, instead of this ending happily where husband and wife are together, the thought of her spending another day with him ends her life. Through this story, Kate Chopin conveyed to the reader a fictional account of the emotional toll repression had on women during this time, as well as being a voice to stand up against or at least acknowledge the terminal effects that a mental disorder, like repression, can have on a person.

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” according to the article, Mental Illness in Literature, by Rebecca Sutton, laid out perfectly to the reader how a “women’s lack of autonomy negatively affects their mental, emotional, and physical well-being.” The author achieves this by telling a story from the point of view of a mentally unstable wife who was under submission to her husband who believed that the rest cure practice – “no physical activity, mental stimulation, or hobbies – was necessary to treat her mental condition” (Sutton). But instead, she was slowly going insane due to her forced idleness and isolation. For example, because of this act of repression of not allowing her to work, much less leave the house, the narrator confesses to the reader how “[i]t is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work (Gilman 13).” Later she yearns that, “I wish John would take me away from this house” (Gilman 27)! Despite his wife’s wishes, his constant response was in the negative. Due to the author’s own depression, she was able to convey her real-world experience with mental illness in a very understandable way to the reader, and express through her own familiarities the fact that the “rest cure” treatment was a fallacy and was nothing more to her than a way for a dominating husband to control all aspects of his wife’s life.

Unique to the other two short stores is “A Rose for Emily,” written by author William Faulkner in 1930. This uniqueness is borne out by the circumstance that you have a male author with a female lead character, Emily Grierson, an elderly Southern woman who cannot accept the fact of her father’s death. Just as in understanding “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the reader has to look to the environment in which this story was written. First, the backdrop was the Great Depression which began in 1929. Based off Political Movements and Social Change, aside from the Civil War, the Great Depression was the gravest crisis in American history. Just as in the Civil War, the United States appeared—at least at the start of the 1930s—’to be falling apart” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Furthermore, the opulence of the United States in the 1920s overshadowed the continuing poverty of certain populations, including women, because they typically held unstable or low-paying jobs. In fact, according to The Economic Context —The Second Industrial Revolution, during this time, about “one-fourth of the population in southern rural areas consisted of poor sharecroppers and tenant farmers” (Marx). Finally, this time brought a rapid rise in crime. This was a result of American’ frantic need for essentials, such as food. Suicide rates rose, as did cases of malnutrition. For women specifically, prostitution was on the rise as desperate women sought ways to pay the bills. Since health care, in general, was not a priority for many Americans, based on the information from the article: Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression, seeing “a doctor was only reserved for the direst of circumstances” (ushistory.org). The cumulative side effects from the Great Depression set the background for this short story, and the mental illness issues that flowed from this time.

“A Rose for Emily” is written from the perspective of the townspeople in Jefferson, Mississippi, where the story takes place. According to Stephen Holliday’s, What Might Have Been William Faulkner’s Purpose? Themain intention of this writing other than mere entertainment was “exploring several aspects of the human condition, specifically repression” (Holliday). This intention is achieved by telling the story of a woman, Emily Grierson, whose father dies. Instead of exercising the typical post-death functions, she chose to try to deny his death and not except its finality. As customary of the time, when the ladies of the town came to support her during this time of grief, she was dressed in her “usual clothes and there was no trace of grief on her face, for she was in denial of his death” (Faulkner II). Three days later, before the townspeople “were about to resort to law and force, she [finally] broke down [in tears], and they buried” him quickly (Faulkner II). According to the author, it was just “another sad manifestation of man’s condition in which his dreams and hopes…[and] of the poor tragic human struggling with its own heart,” which gives the reader enough information to conclude that she suffered from some sort of mental illness (Faulkner at Virginia 1957). Further, adding to Stephen Holliday’s analysis of the character, based on “Miss Emily’s… abnormal behavior,” as well as Mr. Faulkner’s comments, we can more specifically infer that she actually suffers from repression from her father’s death. All in all, Mr. Faulkner’s story of a psychologically repressed woman that suffers a tragic life, allows its readers to better understand the sociogenic views of the mentally ill in this time.

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Charlotte Gilman’s and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” while each containing similar themes, still managed to give their own unique impression to aid the reader’s understanding of the effect of mental health on the mind and society as they existed during the time in which they were written. In “The Story of an Hour,” the author tries to alert its readers to the seriousness of repression and how lethal being emotionally unstable can be. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” its author focuses on debunking the hopes of the “rest cure” treatment specifically for women, showing how some men expressed their dominance over their wives in her time, while simultaneously helping the reader truly grasp the complexity of mental disorders as a whole. Lastly, “A Rose for Emily” allow its readers to understand how society viewed the mentally ill, along with the trouble that one who was mentally repressed could have at processing death. Furthermore, each author’s ability to connect with their stories was directly due to their relatability to what they experienced and to what they wrote about, as each suffered from mental illness themselves.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner at Virginia: Selected Clips, faulkner.lib.virginia.edu/display/wfaudio16_2.
2. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Repression.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 21 Apr. 2009, www.britannica.com/science/repression-psychology.
3. Chopin, Kate, and Kate Chopin. The Story of an Hour. Perfection Learning, 2001.
4. Clinic, Mayo. “Mental Illness.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 13 Oct. 2015, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-20374968.
5. GILMAN, CHARLOTTE PERKINS. YELLOW WALLPAPER. WILDER PUBLICATIONS.
6. “Great Depression: American Social Policy.” Social Welfare History Project, 26 Feb. 2018, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/american-social-policy-in-the-great-depression-and-wwii/.
7. Polk, Noel, and William Faulkner. A Rose for Emily: William Faulkner. Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.
8. Pouba, Katherine, and Ashley Tianen. Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America. University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/6687/Lunacy in the 19th Century.
9. “Quotes by Edvard Munch.” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/quotes/25844-my-fear-of-life-is-necessary-to-me-as-is.
10. Romer, Christina D., and Richard H. Pells. “Great Depression.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 10 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.org/event/Great-Depression/Political-movements-and-social-change.
11. “Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/48e.asp.
12. Sutton, Rebecca. “Mental Illness in Literature: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Owlcation, Owlcation, 9 Aug. 2014, owlcation.edu/humanities/Mental-Illness-Literature-Charlotte-Perkins-Gillmans-The-Yellow-Wallpaper.

In “A Rose for Emily” William Falkner provides an engrossing profile of community dynamics and Southern social values at work in the first half of the 20th century. Falkner narrates, events in such a way that causes the reader to feel that he or she a member of the community. It gives the “consensus” vision of Emily Grierson’s life that to be passed down from generations to generations. Emily is the daughter of a prominent family whose fortunes are declining every sense of urgency. but also one depicting prejudice and small-town attitudes in the South a century ago. The main idea is, most, obviously the inability or refusal of the protagonist, Emily Grierson, to accept and adapt to change. The fact that the narrator refers to her as a ‘fallen monument’ symbolizes precisely what she represents—a stubborn memorial to the past. “Miss Emily Grierson, who changes from a vibrant and hopeful young girl to a cloistered and secretive old woman. Whose family was upper class, passed away.” While alive, her interactions with the community were the source of much community conversation. These conversations, described in detail in William Faulkner’s, A Rose for Emily, provide the reader with an understanding of the past and present social interactions of the town people. The stories presented occur in a variety of locations and involve a variety of people. The vast variety of settings and characters makes it impossible for A Rose Emily told by a single individual. The combination of the town people’s. Memories of their interaction’s with Miss Emily forms the story. The degree of detail provided when events are described in their short story is astounding. Miss Emily did not talk much, but you can say a lot about her from her actions and lifestyle. She was fairly old fashioned, possessed a stubborn outlook toward life, and she refused to change. You can say that Miss Emily’s attitude definitely came from her father’s strict teachings. Emily, has been closely

Guarded by her father throughout her life. Conflict in the story is Miss Emily not being able comparing find love. With her father not giving her a chance to date, Emily that there was no one good for her. Then, the only man she has been for to Love dies, which is her father Faulkner transitions from the past short the present all throughout the story. The events being out of order make the story more interesting and it also creates suspense. The comparing might be confused at times comparing at the end of Emily story Emily adds up and makes sense.

I think that if Faulkner had told it in chronological order it would have been comparing and predictable He would never let me run around the house when glass could off break and hurt me. As I kept growing up my father started to give more freedom but short gave me more responsibilities; like he wanted me to do the chores rose the house, not all of them but some.

I knew they Emily not mine to do but I still help. When I went off to college and I had to do all comparing myself, I realize that my father did well on making me do my laundry, chores and etc. Some stories where more comparing catching than others. In my opinion, essay stories were eye catching because of how the author made its characters react and respond toward the suspense and eeriness in certain comparing of the climax of the stories. Question no. The audience begins to understand their essay when Mrs. I suppose I might as well get breakfast ready—not that there’s anything much to get. Unless you have some money.

Miss Emily is confined from society for the majority of her life by her father, so after he has died, she longs for relations for ironically her longing destroys. The despondency and obsession exuded throughout the story portray the predicament at hand A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner has been interpreted in many contrary ways. Most of these interpretations rely solely on hints found within the story. The possible meanings of both the title and the chronology of William Faulkner’s

Inequality exists in all shapes and forms, to name a few: racism, discrimination based on skin color, sexual preference, and gender. The way women have been treated, past and present, has led them to fight for equality. The battle to be equal to their male counterparts is part of the Feminist Movement. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the theme of Feminist theory can be seen through the patriarchal ideologies of the townsfolk, Emily’s struggle to survive in a patriarchal society and how the lack of gender equality for women ultimately leads Emily to rebel against the male dominated society that she lives in.

The patriarchal ideologies of the townsfolk, both men and women, display how they firmly believe in traditional gender roles. Gender roles are part of the patriarchal belief that men should hold the power and that both men and women have roles to play based solely on their gender (Class Notes 2015). The residents of Jefferson believe in these roles and if anyone steps away from their gender role, they are an outcast and should be treated accordingly. An indication that these beliefs are practiced, can be seen as Faulkner writes, “So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with the insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down her chances if they had really materialized” (305). In other words, the residents of Jefferson view Emily as an “old maid” because, she is no longer considered young and has not married. This is the beginning of what they consider a violation of her gender role as patriarchal beliefs indicate that if one does not conform to their role as a male or female, it is unnatural.

Additionally, during the Victorian era in which the story is set, the role of a woman includes maintaining her purity before marriage. Once married, the husband now has dominion over his wife’s body. The ladies of Jefferson believe that Emily has once again violated her gender role by consorting with a northerner by the name of Homer Barron. Faulkner demonstrates the agreement of this patriarchal idea as the women of the town refer to Emily and Homer’s relationship, “Then some ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people” (307). To analyze, the people of Jefferson believe Emily is not following her role as a “true woman” because they think that she is having a sexual relationship with Homer. Emily has lost her virtue and is now seen as an outcast, this leads Emily to struggle to survive in the patriarchal community.

Emily’s struggle to survive in a patriarchal society is brought on by her refusal to be dominated by men. Faulkner paints a clear picture of Emily’s struggle, “The druggist looked down at her. She looked back him, erect, her face like a strained flag” (307). To elaborate, the druggist looking down on her is symbolic of his disdain and rejection of Emily. Furthermore, Emily’s steadfast determination and refusal to accept the display of contempt essentially allows her to be more man than those who try to dismiss her because of her gender and lifestyle choices. Although she does not back down, Emily’s constant struggle with social interactions in this patriaof objectification. In the end, Emily’s fight against the norm is what gives her freedom. From the Victorian Era to the present day women continue to strive for equality by fighting oppression. Only with the elimination of patriarchal ideologies will the real potential of a woman become evident.

References

1. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Using Critical Theory: How to Read and Write About Literature. Ed. Lois Tyson. New York: Routledge, 2011. 303-310. Print.
2. Sweeting-DE Caro, Michele. “Feminist Criticism.” AC. CCNY/CWE. New York. 2015. Class Notes.
3. Tsakitopoulou-Summers, Tatiana. “Helen Of Troy: At The Crossroads Between Ancient Patriarchy And Modern Feminism.” Interdisciplinary Humanities 30.2 (2013): 37-56. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

A Rose for Emily is a short story by William Faulkner. Throughout this story about murder, Faulkner uses many symbols to represent a theme about leaving or breaking traditions. Among these symbols are the crayon portrait of Miss Emily’s father, Emily’s house, and the long strand of iron-gray hair that found on the pillow next to Homer’s body.

In the first chapter of the story, Faulkner states “On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily’s father.” (Faulkner 1009) Although Emily’s father passed away thirty- two years prior to the time of this story, Emily kept the crayon portrait of her father on a tarnished gilt easel. Emily’s father was overprotective to the point that she is isolated from the world. He drove all her potential suitors away because he did not feel like anyone was good enough for his little girl. Throughout the story, Emily’s father has a significant influence on her life, which is represented by the crayon portrait. Moreover, the crayon portrait is a symbol of Emily looking to her past for help.

In addition, Emily’s house is an important symbol in this story. We, like the townspeople, only see Miss Emily’s house from the outside looking in. The narrator’s description of the house: “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—” (Faulkner 1009). The house is also a symbol of the opposite of what it’s supposed to be. However, Emily wanted a house she could love someone in. The house is a symbol of her isolation.

The final symbol is the long strand of iron-gray hair that found on the pillow next to Homer’s body. In the final lines of the story, Faulkner notes “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron- gray hair.” (Faulkner 1015). In addition, the strand of hair that found on the pillow next to Homer’s dead body represents Emily’s spirit in a way that she is saying, I may be gone, but I am still here.

Finally, if there is something we should learn from Faulkner ‘s symbolization is that life is too short to think about the past. We have to learn how to live and forget.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 9th, edited by Robert S. Levine, Vol. 2, pp. 1009-1015. New York: Norton, 2017. Print
2. Nebeker, Helen E. ‘Emily’s Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’ ‘ Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, vol. 24 no. 1, 1970, p. 3-13. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/rmr.1970.0018.
3. Shmoop Editorial Team. ‘The House in A Rose for Emily.’ Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2019.

There are various reasons for sending and receiving roses. Certainly, they are not only used to express sympathy and love, but they are even more present in events of tragedy and sorrow. Moreover, A thorny rose needs a special way to deal with it. In William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily” the word “rose” rarely appears but an attempt to interpret it helps readers have a deep understanding of the story.

The rose is a symbol of death, it is probably a flower at Miss Emily’s funeral. On the theme of death, Miss Emily is unwilling to let go of the dying past, she expects everything to stay the same and she lives with decaying bodies. Instead of life, laughter, and happiness, she can only bear emptiness. Moreover, Faulkner’s way of expressing condolences to Emily’s death, he sympathizes with her loneliness and her imagination about her status. People in the town respect her but they are one of the main reasons that make her have a good opinion of herself.

Additionally, the rose is generally viewed as a symbol of love. The flower is associated with love and romance, respectively. In Greek Mythology, roses are often gifted for romantic occasions like weddings, Valentine’s Day, and anniversaries. Thus, perhaps the rose can be related to Emily’s desire for love. In her life, she lacks love and desires to have one. Emily wants to be loved, and she is determined that Homer is her true love to rescue her from her fear of being alone. Emily loves Homer sincerely, but he has different feelings about the relationship because he doesn’t like marriage. The only true love she has ever known now leaves her. Her darkest thoughts and secret longings for love lead to her Homer Baron murder. She does not realize that he is not a deserving man but desperately keeps to that blind love. A “rose” is what she searches for in her life but till the day she dies, she never has one.

However, the rose is also a prickly flower that can hurt the skin. Emily keeps people at a distance like a thorny rose. Her isolated life does not allow any other people to approach her. She also proves to be dangerous like a rose, the only man who gets closer to her, Homer, is killed in her hands. Emily sheds blood, the same color as the red petals of a rose.

William Faulkner’s title is significant, the rose has all kinds of hidden meanings, even though not much is mentioned in the story. Emily lives and dies without ever being given a rose, without being loved and she has a special way to deal with people.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 9th, edited by Robert S. Levine, Vol. 2, pp. 765–783. New York: Norton, 2017. Print
2. Nebeker, Helen E. ‘Emily’s Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’ ‘ Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, vol. 24 no. 1, 1970, p. 3-13. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/rmr.1970.0018.
3. Perry, Menakhem. “Literary Dynamics: How the Order of a Text Creates Its Meanings [With an Analysis of Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’].” Poetics Today, vol. 1, no. 1/2, 1979, pp. 35–361. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1772040.
4. Skinner, John L. “‘A Rose for Emily’: Against Interpretation.” The Journal of Narrative Technique, vol. 15, no. 1, 1985, pp. 42–51. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30225110.
5. Watkins, Floyd C. “The Structure of ‘A Rose for Emily.’” Modern Language Notes, vol. 69, no. 7, 1954, pp. 508–510. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3039622