ipl-logo

Emily Grierson's Death

1049 Words5 Pages

In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” there are at least three different types of death symbolized: the death of the traditional ways of the Old South, the death of her family’s societal status, and the physical deaths of her loved ones. The main character, Emily Grierson, is in complete denial of all three. She is desperate to avoid death of any kind, and she allows herself to lose her grip on the reality of the changing world around her. Whether this denial stems from an abusive father and daughter relationship, or the mental illness that runs in her family, Emily’s actions and reactions to life events are quite morbid.
As the old, southern Mississippian ways were quickly dying out, Miss Emily refused to believe or adhere …show more content…

It was difficult to imagine life any other way. So when her father died, Miss Emily would not accept the fact that he had deserted her. She denied to the townspeople that he was even dead. In fact, as his body lay dead in their home, some women brought food to express their sympathy. When “Emily met them at the door, she was dressed as usual with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead.” After three days of this denial of his death continued, she finally allowed them to take the body and bury it. After several months of depression and loneliness following her father’s death, Emily began riding around town in a buggy with a new friend, a day laborer named Homer Barron. But when Emily found out Homer was not interested in marriage, she lured him to her house, kidnapped and poisoned him. This time, however, she would not allow the townspeople to take the body of her loved one from the house again. In denial of the significance of physical death, she continued a morbid relationship for several decades with the corpse. Even when the odor from the rotting body signaled some of the townspeople to report the stench, Miss Emily just went about her business as usual. This gruesome act proved that she had lost her grip on reality. She would prefer to live the next thirty or so years in a house of death rather than risk the return of that feeling of desertion she felt when her father

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Emily's Mental Deterioration

    563 Words  | 3 Pages

    She discontinued her painting lessons because she did not want any relationships with the people around her. Naturally, some were offended by her standoffish attitude so they stopped sending her gifts during the holidays. Emily became so secluded, it seemed like she and everything in her house were suspended in time. Even the townspeople described her wallpaper and furniture as archaic and dust ridden when they toured her home after her death. She rarely went out

    Read More

  • A Rose For Emily Character Analysis Essay

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    The townspeople never say that miss Emily is crazy nor is she ever diagnosed with a mental illness, but she shows symptoms and behavior that imply that she is crazy and is mentally ill. Her father isolates her from the whole town, so her father’s actions are what drive her crazy and mentally ill. One reason why people may see Miss Emily as crazy is because she tried to hold on to her father’s body and tried to convince everyone in the town that he wasn’t dead. Faulkner says, “She did that or three days with the ministers calling on her and doctors trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.

    Read More

  • Comparing Trauma In The Red Convertible And A Rose For Emily

    1229 Words  | 5 Pages

    After her father’s death, Emily insisted that her father “was not dead… for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (Faulkner). This suggests that Emily was unable to accept her father’s death and that she had been experiencing severe symptoms of denial as a result of her trauma. This denial mainly stems from the physical abuse and emotional control her father had placed on Emily, both contributing to her isolation from society and leading to her eventual death. Despite the differences between the stories, both represent the severe effects of trauma and how it can lead to the tragic downfall of one’s

    Read More

  • William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

    549 Words  | 3 Pages

    As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner “She would tell me what I owed to my children and to Anse and to God. I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them. I did not even ask him for what he could have given me: not-Anse. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled.

    Read More

  • Addie's Voice In As I Lay Dying

    1216 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner shapes the plot based on the looming presence of the absentee protagonist, Addie Bundren. The reader’s knowledge of Addie accumulates through the monologues of other characters, so the reader gains only bits and pieces of Addie’s character. However, after her death, the reader obtains a better understanding of Addie’s voice through her own monologue and as a result, is characterized as cold and selfish. Through the use of similes and interior monologue, Faulkner shows Addie’s tendency to detach herself from the people in her life, which relates to the novel’s overall theme of solitude as Addie adheres to her father’s philosophy that the reason for living is no more than “to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169).

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In A Rose For Emily And The Story Of An Hour

    942 Words  | 4 Pages

    Miss Emily’s father dies, she finds a suitor, and buys poison, then shuts herself and her

    Read More

  • As I Lay Dying

    1129 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Nobel prize speech by William Faulkner and novel, As I Lay Dying , both enhance how the author intends to fulfill his own vision of the writer’s duty. Faulkner’s duty is to encourage writers to focus on problems that deserve attention which are not introduced in other texts. The tone of the Nobel prize speech is assertive yet grasping around the idea of the future for literature. Through both sources, Faulkner speaks not only to the writers, but the individuals that can be empowered by his words and actions. In the Nobel prize speech, Faulkner is directly speaking to writers who have a desire to follow his footsteps, which is writing.

    Read More

  • Suspense In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    806 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A Rose for Emily” is a dark, suspenseful Gothic tale in which a young girl is put on a pedestal by a town who sees her as haughty and scornful. Miss Emily Grierson’s father controls her and her love life, pushing away all people until he dies and Emily is left alone. As her life goes on the townspeople watch her and judge Emily, almost turning her life into a spectacle to be talked about. At her death, a gruesome sight is unfolded when her lover of over forty years ago is found decomposed in her upstairs room. William Faulkner effectively builds epic suspense in “A Rose for Emily” by the unchronological order of the story, the treatment of Emily’s father towards her, and her family’s history of mental illness.

    Read More

  • Homer's Crime In A Rose For Emily

    161 Words  | 1 Pages

    After reading A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, many people initially wonder why Miss Emily would murder Homer Barron. When reviewing the events of the story, it becomes apparent that she displayed symptoms, manifestations of her mental state in her behavior, of being socially inept and thus capable of this heinous crime. These symptoms are unsurprising, as her father represses her, withholding her from the public. Emily accordingly displays symptoms of this repression by evading authorities and the townspeople. Faulkner is trying to get the reader to go back and review this problem-the cause of Homer’s murder- by identifying the signs that this crime occurred and Emily’s symptoms of mental instability.

    Read More

  • A Rose For Emily Isolation Analysis

    1189 Words  | 5 Pages

    In William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson, a prominent member of her small town, dies alone in her home. Upon her death, curious townsfolk entered her home trying to learn her secrets. It was thought she was crazy. Emily Grierson was not crazy; she was isolated by her father, which led to her odd social tendencies and unique interactions with others. A Rose for Emily is a short story based in a small town.

    Read More

  • Love And In Death In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    960 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Love and In Death William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, centers around a reclusive woman named Emily Grierson who is the protagonist of this story. Emily lives in Jefferson, Mississippi with her strict and over protective father who turns away any male suitor who shows any interest in her as he believes them to be unfit for his daughter. Emily and her father are regarded as upper-class southerners who live in a very nice home. The townspeople see Emily as a mysterious individual, often pitting her.

    Read More

  • Racism In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    1055 Words  | 5 Pages

    William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” critiques the American South Describing Emily’s vibrant life full of hope and buoyancy, later shrouded into the profound mystery, Faulkner emphasizes her denial to accept the concept of death. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the South during the transitional time period from the racial discrimination to the core political change of racial equality. Starting from the description of her death, “A Rose for Emily” tells the story about the lady who is the last in her generation (Emily Grierson). Being strong, proud and a traditional lady of southern aristocracy, Emily turns into an evil, unpredictable and mysterious old lady after the death of her father. Even though “A Rose for Emily”

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And A Rose For Emily

    624 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is clear that in her era, Miss Emily was seen as traditional American Southern women, who lived to become an inferior women to man but was later a burden to her society. She was a lady who was secluded from society, lived a psychopathic life, which at the end, and was no secret for the town’s people. While Miss Emily was alive, she lived in a secluded home of a single father, thus leading her to be dependent upon him. She did not have much of a socially engaged life, for her father drove men away. When he finally died, Miss Emily told the townspeople that he was not dead, and finally, on the third day, let the town’s people buried him (William Faulkner 1105).

    Read More

  • Change In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    925 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emily kept her house the same way it had always been and was letting it decay while she stayed in it. She refused to clean or change the house at all to preserve it in the Old South. She did not want to accept the death of other people. When Emily’s father died, she refused the town from taking his body and burying it. She wanted to keep her father’s body with her and the town was “about to use law and force, but she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (453).

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.

    Read More

More about Emily Grierson's Death

Open Document