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A Rose For Emily Isolation Analysis

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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. The narrator focuses a lot on Emily Grierson after her death. The narrator said multiple times they believed she wasn’t crazy. However, their actions proved to show the opposite. Emily’s father played a role in her isolation. Her town believed she was crazy because of the way she and her father carried themselves, the fact she had never married, and the way she dealt with grief. Throughout her life, her father turned away countless numbers of suitors, even well into her 30s, around marrying age. “None of the …show more content…

According to Lixia Ge’s article Social Isolation, Loneliness and Their Relationships with Depressive Symptoms: A Population-Based Study states, “Social Isolation and loneliness have been individually identified to be associated with depressive symptoms” (Ge 2). Some of the symptoms were “being single, living alone, having a weak or small social network and infrequency of social interactions” (Ge2). Emily Grierson had 75% of the symptoms. She was at a very high risk for depression with the death of her father as well as not having a support system of friends to communicate with. The town thought she was odd, but she was suffering from depression. She was alone, she was humiliated by the town, she had to hide away because she was not able to cope. In Tim O’Brien’s article he states, “After her death, Emily is reunited with the other members of her southern class …”, which means, in death, with the people she loved she will no longer be alone” (O’Brien

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