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Emily Grierson In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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In the short story "A Rose for Emily" writer William Faulkner uses the town's' point of view to develop Emily Grierson's character. As a result, Emily remains a mystery to all, except her manservant, until she passes away. Throughout the story Faulkner hints that Emily could be clinically insane because she believes that Colonel Sartoris is still alive, she keeps her father's corpse, and she murders Homer Barron. Emily's first appearance in the story suggests that she is disconnected from the world outside her deteriorating house due to her lack of southern hospitality. Faulkner introduces her house first to parallel its deterioration with Emily's decline in mental health. This degradation of mental health is exposed once she advises the city authorities to "See Colonel Sartoris", who died almost ten years ago, about her taxes (145). She is not even bothered that the Sheriff sent her a notice himself about her taxes because he is insignificant to her. Emily actually believes that she has no taxes in Jefferson, even though the story Colonel Sartoris fed her was completely fabricated. …show more content…

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

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