Emily Grierson?' Need for Control in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

comes near his daughter. After living like this for so many years, Emily is left with

Everyone such as the people in the community, doctors, and so on were calling to tell her to let them lay her father to rest. "When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad.' This shows that Miss Emily will be able to control

   In "A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson seems to be living with her father in what people referred to as the old South.  However, most of the story takes place after the Civil War, but Miss Emily is clearly living in the past.  As critic Frederick Thum pointed out, "Many people are able to survive in the present, but give little or no thought to the future, and these people usually live in the past.  Such a mind is the mind of Miss Emily Grierson..."(1).  Miss Emily's comprehension of death, her relationship with the townspeople, and her reaction toward her taxes are clear examples that she is living in the past.

After all these years of being controlled and sheltered, Emily wanted to live her life on her own terms, Rather than living by her father’s rules after he died. Emily wanted more than anything to be in control of her life, although she struggled with depression and was mentally unstable from being restricted from the outside world around her, she didn’t want to ever be alone and wanted to be in control even if it meant hurting someone she loved dearly.

Emily also refuses to partake in the postal system. Her refusal to comply shows that she has her own personal set of laws and conduct. Emily adamantly resists change, even when it is in regards to law or her superiors. Emily shirking her duties as a citizen are only a small part of her eccentric character. Her resistance to change becomes evident in other aspects of her life as the story proceeds. Possibly the most prominent example of her struggle with change is her murder of Homer Barron. In this act she is refusing to let Homer abandon her as well as letting his death keep her from sleeping with him each night. She displays her obsession with control. She is so fixated by having absolute control that she has a relationship with someone deceased, with no responsiveness or will. In the analysis, typical southern gothic women such as Emily represent a different kind of southern woman, “the roles of women were rapidly changing as the “woman of piety, submissiveness, and purity began to give way” (Donaldson 3). Although Emily lacks the need to change, she does not fall into the category of traditional either. The town is “half sympathetic toward and half horrified by the spectacle of women betwixt and between tradition and change” (Donaldson 1). This is exactly where Emily Grierson falls; she is not quite traditional but she is not progressive either. For lack of a better phrase, she sticks out like a sore thumb,

She is in denial over his death and refuses to give up the body because he was the only person in her life. Despite how insane it is to keep a dead body, the town did not consider her deranged yet, because she had to keep his body until she came to the realization that he was indeed deceased. Emily's father was overprotective and made sure that all the gentlemen callers were scared away by "clutching a horsewhip" on the front porch (146). Emily became so dependent on her father that she was distraught without him once he had died. She even kept a crayon portrait of her father in the parlor to watch over her because she could not stand to be without

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is an intriguing tale of the life and death of Emily Grierson, who ends up killing her male companion, Homer Barron. A motive is not stated by the narrator, but when read critically a motive can be found. Several Literary critics have proposed different motives of why Emily Grierson killed Homer Barron. Some say that Homer was going to jilt Emily. Although homer was the not the marrying type, there is no evidence that homer was going to leave her. Another motive was that homer was gay. This motive was taken out of context; homer enjoyed being a bachelor, drinking with the guys at the local bar. Homer filled the void left by her Father, Mr. Grierson, since Homer and Mr. Grierson were very similar

Thesis: Faulkner passes on the topic of consistent battle between the past and the present in "A rose for Emily." The topic is introduced Emily's hard time believing her fathers death, sleeping with Homers dead body and declining to pay taxes.

However, she was the centre of furious gossip in the entire town especially when her relationship with Homer Barron started.

Have you ever felt uncomfortable with certain adjustments happening in your life? Although change can be positive at times, it may be hard for a person to accept. In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” the decaying of a southern, colonial home emphasizes the theme that resistance toc hange can lead to tragedy. The home symbolizes the modernization of the deep south during the early 1900’s, happening around a person that may be stuck in the past. Emily’s father’s death leaves her so distraught, that she has trouble accepting any other transitions in her life. Her feelings are reflected in the appearance of the home, while she fails to update the outside, as well as the inside. The refusal

Jefferson, Mississippi was a moment town with southern cordiality and pride going through it. Emily Grierson is the last living individual from a honorable southern group of Jefferson. She is raised by her controlling father who passes away, which brings about Miss Grierson secluding herself from the subjects of Jefferson. Miss Grierson was once especially regarded and essential; "Alive, Miss Emily had been a convention, an obligation, and a care; a kind of inherited commitment upon the town" (Faulkner 91). Emily winds up being feared and hated. Emily's conduct starts to produce pressure among the townspeople since she declines to submit to the guidelines and tumbles beneath the town's desires of a man of her noticeable quality. Hence, in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily Grierson turns into a fallen landmark for the general population of Jefferson.

“A Rose for Emily” is a short story by William Faulkner, and Resistance to change is the underlying theme. Faulkner uses a lot foreshadowing to show the resistance to change. According to the article, “The Structure of ‘A Rose for Emily,’” Emily's attempts to stop time by confusing past and present and refusing to accept change. Time is symbolic of Miss Emily’s inability to move forward with the news of Mr. Homer departing.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” he created a short story in which his main protagonist by the name of Emily Grierson is controlled by her father and results in conflicting relationships with other individuals. When it comes to Emily and her father, they have an odd relationship due to him being stingy of whom he allows his daughter see, and not allowing her to marry anybody. The narrator states, “the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner 41). This causes all the young men to be driven away from her, so it causes Emily to be lonely throughout most of her adult life. The relationship between her father and herself was mainly about the struggle of power by controlling the other individual. While

Emily’s need for control grew from her disregarding the law into a craving for total power which channeled itself through necrophilia. It all began when “she told [the ladies] that her father was not dead.” (311) she wanted to keep his body in an attempt to turn the tables and finally be in control of him, and what better way than to control someone than when they are in one of the most submissive states. Her need for total control blinds her to how terrible what she is doing is because all she is able to see is the fact that she finally has the power that her father never let her have. Unfortunately, it does not stop here; when she meets Homer Barron and they begin a relationship. Afraid of losing Barron and no longer being able to control him Emily uses the arsenic to poison him. After killing him she keeps him up in a room in her house until the townspeople found “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt,” (316) as they snooped around her house after her death. Like most other’s suffering from necrophilia Emily wanted nothing more than to possess Barron but failed to find the right way to express her desire, so in taking his life she was able to achieve her ultimate goal of possessing total power over another.

Emily Grierson from the story A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner is the character that I selected. I would say that Emily was blinded by desire and mental illness. She was blinded by desire because she wanted to be love. Everyone that she ever loved died or left her. Emily wanted to have someone to love her. She did not want to be by herself. Emily was blinded by mental illness because she was in denial of the truth. She kept her father’s dead body in her home for about three days. She told the people that visited her that he was not dead. She did not leave her home and did not communicate with the people in the town. She met Homer Barron and he was able to enter her home. Emily bought a ring and a complete outfit for a man. The people