Miss Emily Grierson From A Rose For Emily Character Analysis

From the outside looking in things can appear to look different. When you don’t know the insights of a person’s life you began to become curious and make assumptions or even give false information about that person. In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner models a story about a woman named Miss Emily Grierson and how the townspeople which was narrated in first person as “we,” discussed her strange and sad life. When Miss Emily lost her father and her ex-lover left, she faced numerous challenges.

Before her father passed, Miss Emily was accustomed to her father’s lifestyle by being under his rules all the time. The townspeople are unable to grip an idea about Miss Emily life, so they just made accusations about her because they did not exactly know how she feels after her father died and ex-lover disappearance. They began to question her mental health because she refuses to face reality about her father’s death.

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Throughout the story William Faulkner began to view the community as liberal and voyeuristic.

The townspeople had more liberal views toward the town of Jefferson than Miss Emily Grierson did. They were more open to new ideas and willing to adapt to the changes that were being made. Jefferson was becoming more robust and modernized with the paved sidewalks, mailboxes, and taxes. The setting of the story was in the years following the civil war. Before the civil war the town of Jefferson had wealthy people, men that owned their own property, and they didn’t have to work every day.

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Miss Emily and her family were not familiar to the modern lifestyle because they were accustomed to life before the civil war. The townspeople wanted to change the image of Jefferson, but she decided that she would stick to her traditional values. For an example, Faulkner states “Alive Miss Emily had been a tradition a duty and a care; a sort of heredity obligation upon the town”. Miss Emily only represented the southern tradition of Jefferson. The townspeople explain how she had a hard time trying to accept the new changes of the new town and her new life without her father, as well her ex-lover. When her father was alive he was strict on her, but he played a big role in her life. He prevented her from having relationships outside of her family. After her father passed she wanted to stick to what she knew of him by keeping the same old coquettish house and painted pictures of him. Following her father’s death, Emily refuses to notice the death of her father. She kept his body in the house for days which caused the town to complain about the smell. The construction company came to fix up the sidewalks around town, as well as mail boxes, but Miss Emily refused to let them do so. Miss Emily doesn’t pay attention to the townspeople at all. They were not worth her consideration, but when they try to step into her life, she chases them away to maintain the isolated world she lives in.

The community had the voyeuristic pleasure of looking into Miss Emily love life with Homer. When her ex-lover left, Miss Emily became depressed. The ladies in town came to offer their condolences, but she declined it. She locked herself inside the house and looked out the window for a while until she started meeting with a “friend” Homer. When Miss Emily was young she looked more stunning and men would come to the house looking for her, but her father ran them away. As she began to age, the townspeople stated that she had the resemblance of angels in colored windows. Now that she has become older it has been harder for Miss Emily to find someone she likes and can potentially get married to. “At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest because the ladies all said she will not think seriously of a Northerner”. When Homer Barron the “yankee” came into her life the townspeople were happy for her. Homer’s and Miss Emily was spotted ridding around in a yellow buggy on Sunday and hanging out occasionally with each other. However, the ladies observe that no Grierson should consider a Northerner, but Miss Emily appeared to be happy and in love. Homer was the only man in her life after Mr. Grierson passed. So when he stops spending time around the house, the townspeople became curious. Miss Emily goes down to the store to buy some arsenic and the townspeople assume that she was going to commit suicide, but later kills homer with it. When the town went into her house after the death of Emily, they figured that she had slept with Homers dead body because there was a gray hair and imprint of a body next to him. Miss Emily couldn’t risk loosing another important person in her life so she killed him instead.

In conclusion, William Faulkner gives a broad perspective about the community and Miss Emily Grierson analysis. He imitates a storytelling style in first person that was told by the townspeople of Jefferson as “we.” The town of Jefferson began to make several changes in the community while Miss Emily continues to remain traditional. Because of her family wealth before the civil war, Emily and her family didn’t have to work much as the town does now. Miss Emily daily life began to take a toll on her as the men in her presence started to exit out of her life. She lost her father, ex-lover, and Homer. The townspeople believed that Homer was a potential husband for her where she would be happy and get married. All factors in Miss Emily life resulted in her decision to death as the only possible means

Updated: Feb 02, 2024
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Miss Emily Grierson From A Rose For Emily Character Analysis. (2024, Feb 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/miss-emily-grierson-from-a-rose-for-emily-character-analysis-essay

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