Mental Illness In A Rose For Emily

The day after her father's death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was "dressed as usual" and had "no trace of grief on her face (Perrine's 285)." Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to hold on to her father, "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrine's 285)." The town's people tired to justify Miss. Emily's actions, by saying that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy.

Emily's father suppressed all of her inner desires. He kept her down to the point that she was not allowed to grow and change with the things around her. When “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated…only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Rose 217). Even when he died, she was still unable to get accustom to the changes around her. The traditions that her and her father continued to participate in even when others stopped, were also a way that her father kept her under his thumb. The people of the town helped in

The fact that Miss Emily is dressed in white proves her purity. Another point is how Emily is in the background, further proving her submission towards her father. The horsewhip symbolizes the power Miss Emily's father has over her. Her father is domineering and controlling and sadly, that is all she knows. It is no surprise when Miss Emily's father dies, she does not know what to do, "being left alone, and a pauper" (471). The corpse of her father remains in the house for three days while Miss Emily refuses to accept the fact that he is actually dead. The narrator's description of her at the funeral is evidence of sympathy the inhabitants feel toward her; "We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. 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" (471). The crayon portrait resting on an easel before the fireplace reveals the fact that Emily?s father still has a powerful control over her.

The author, William Faulkner, has a collection of books, short stories, and poems under his name. Through his vast collection of works, Faulkner attempts to discuss and bring awareness to numerous aspects of life. More often than not, his works were created to reflect aspects of life found within the south. Family dynamics, race, gender, social class, war, incest, racism, suicide, necrophilia, and mental illness are just some of the aspects that Faulkner explored. In “A Rose for Emily” the aspects of necrophilia and mental illness along with the societal biases that were observed in a small-town setting are seen to be a part of this captivating story. These aspects ultimately intertwine with the idea of insanity that characterizes “A Rose

In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily there is more than enough evidence to determine that Miss Emily is mentally ill. Most of the clues and hints are subtle, but when they are all pieced together the puzzle becomes clear. Not saying it is clear as too what Miss Emily was suffering from, the only way to know that for certain would be if the author or narrator told us in the text. We can conclude, however, she was suffering from some form of mental illness. Miss Emily was seen as a recluse and odd, but what no one in the town knew was that she couldn't help it there was more going on with her then people could see.

Faulkner states that Miss Emily would tell the other people that “her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly,'' (Faulkner 804). This part of the story foreshadows another incident where Emily again refuses to let go of the deceased. Instead of Emily not being able to let go of her father, this time she couldn't let go of her close friend, Homer. The hint of Emily not being able to let go of her father in the beginning serves as an indication for the reader that Miss Emily is very isolated and will do anything to prevent that. Emily’s suspicious actions causes the reader to anticipate certain happenings and wonder what will happen next.

Miss Emily also shows how she is living in the past when her father dies.  She told everyone that came to get his body that her father was still alive, she refused to believe he was dead.  However, she eventually was forced to give them his body.  "After her father's death, she looked like a girl 'with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows-sort of tragic and serene.'  This suggest that she has already begun her entrance into the nether-world"(Rodriguez 1).  The people did not know what to make of Emily.  Many thought she was

Similar themes of death, mental health, and isolation are portrayed through characters’ internal and external conflicts within the short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and the novel, “The Last of the Crazy People” by Timothy Findley. Together these themes illustrate how traumatic experiences can result in an inability to function within society and a stigma impacting their overall wellbeing. These actions and behaviours are explored through Emily and Jessica, who both experience depression and struggle with their ability to function within society, without gaining negative attention from their peers.

Her relationship with her father is a total mystery, however it’s well implied that their relationship was more than the typical normal father and daughter relationship. For this reason the community wasn’t at all shocked that Emily was single and turning thirty. In denial about her father’s death, she refused to le the townspeople remove the body for three days. Once she met Homer Barron, Emily begins an undesirable affair. Many of the town people were happy she was with someone. Though it is soon found that Homer played for the other team, Emily goes to the pharmacist for poison, it is then that the townspeople think that she will kill herself. After buying the arsenic, the next time they see her it’s stated, “she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray” (Faulkner 521). This perhaps the result of Homer Barron’s murder and the loss of her dad. At seventy four years old, Emily died in her home “She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight” (Faulkner 521). The major plot twist is that the townspeople find Homer Barron in a bedroom upstairs, lying in a lover’s embrace, with the indentation of a head upon the pillow next to him and one “long strand of iron gray hair” (Faulkner 522). Ms. Emily is “jilted” by the death of her father and Homer Barron leaving her. Since her father isolated her so well

Though “A Rose for Emily” and Psycho have two different plots, they have similar themes and characteristics. Both stories have a murderous theme, with eerie abandoned looking houses. In both Faulkner and Hitchcock’s stories, the houses looked as is no one was taking care of them, but there were still at least one person that came out of each one. Within the two houses were secrets unimaginable to anyone outside of the home with a cloud of mystery hanging over them. This comparison essay will cover the main characters, Ms. Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily” and Norman in Psycho, who have similar themes of mystery, loneliness, and secrets.

“See Colonel Sartoris.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) “I have no taxes in Jefferson.” (Faulkner 97). Emily Grierson, a main character in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, was a very delusional character and to the town she was crazy. A Rose for Emily is considered to be a Southern Gothic Literature type story, and Emily Grierson plays a big part in this categorization. Southern Gothic Literature is Southern Literature genre that is centered on characters that are delusional and usually damaged characters. These stories often do not include supernatural elements but they can. From sleeping next to dead bodies and keeping them in her house, and buying rat poison for an unknown reason, Emily showed throughout that she was

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner was published in 1930. This short story is set in an old southern town. I believe that this and several other combinations of events are what made the main character Miss Emily go insane. Miss Emily was an old school southern woman trapped in a modernizing society. She tried desperately to keep to her old ways, but the changes that happened around her were inevitable. This made me feel like something was going to go wrong very early in the story. It became very apparent to me that Emily did not deal well with change. Throughout the story, I felt sorry for her, because I do not deal well with change either. I find it hard and stressful to deal with. Thus I can see how her changing environment directly impacted Miss Emily’s life. When Emily met the love of her life she slowly became obsessed with him. This was until one day he betrayed her by spreading rumors about her that weren 't true. As the town grew more and more people heard these rumors and began to think less of Miss Emily. This along with her sheltered and isolated childhood could have been what drove Miss Emily to become a murder later on in her life.

corpse of Homer Barron is the mirror image of the violence represented in the tableau,

Emily’s father died when she was about thirty and refused to accept her father’s death for three days and after a life of having husbands rejected by her father, she spends most of her time with a newcomer Homer Barron. According to the saying of townspeople “Their relationship improper because of differences in value, social class, and regional background” (Mosby 2). Therefore, she started to think of herself as an unfortunate girl. Her father and Homer Barron played an important and significant role in her life and for that reason, she could not bear the absence of two people in her life and stayed unhappy in her house. It seems that Emily might have psychological trauma and it may be assumed that her loneliness turned into a stubborn character as her house is described as “stubborn and coquettish”(Faulkner 557) which reflects the character of the owner of the

In the short story, “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, his main character Miss Emily Grierson is presented as a lonely and sane individual. Throughout the story, she begins to show signs of mental instability. She loses her father in the story which begins her deterioration of sanity. Emily Grierson suffers emotionally due to her father’s moral code, pressure from town folks, and unrequited love. Faulkner presents the story through a narrator’s voice instead of first person. The narrator tells of how the town folk believed the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily her father thought. It is believed that Miss Emily turned down so many of the young men because of her father’s moral code; the town folks thought of him as a puppetmaster pulling the strings behind the scene in Emily’s life. He kept her inside and gave Miss Emily very few decisions she could make entirely on her own. This isolation caused her to feel trapped, but it was the only thing she knew. Furthermore, he drove away all the young men in Emily’s life which combined with the fact that she was usually isolated showed her father’s controlling effect on her throughout his time alive. When he died, Miss Emily’s sanity crumbled away as clearly presented in the story. Also in the story, the narrator speaks tells of how the town ladies attempted to offer their condolences and aid to Emily; but, they were met at the door