ipl-logo

A Rose For Emily Isolation Analysis

1189 Words5 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. 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

Show More
Related
563 Words | 3 Pages

Emily’s Mental Deterioration After getting over the initial shock of finding out that the mysterious woman that everyone was talking about was going to sleep each night with a decaying body next to her, it makes sense for the reader to question her mental state. If the reader took a closer look at the town’s description of her, they will realize that as time went on, Emily’s will power began to deteriorate. When she was young, she was the topic of everybody’s conversation, however, she did not let that bother her and walked down the streets with her head held high. Emily took over the old house after her father’s death and kept a few servants around to keep the house tidy, nonetheless, the outside of the house was not kept in the best of conditions.

Read More
1008 Words | 5 Pages

Many people, when they are depressed, want distance to just be alone. Sadly, a lot of these people do end up taking their lives. This was the fear for the towns people because Emily had become such a figure for the

Read More
1852 Words | 8 Pages

Throughout the story, the main character, Miss Emily Grierson, shows signs of what appears to be some form of mental illness. Although Faulkner never states that Miss Emily has anything wrong with her mental health, he does provide enough evidence to support that she is not psychologically stable. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner portrays the main character as a mysterious icon of the small town of Jefferson, Mississippi. As the story states, Emily’s father is an admirable figure in the city of Jefferson. After his passing, the townspeople show the same respect for Emily, as well.

Read More
1562 Words | 7 Pages

One of the most ubiquitous themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God involve Janie's desire for true, decisive and fulfilling love. Her search was not completed until she went through two unsuccessful marriages which caused love to happen much later in life than I think Janie desired. Nevertheless, the story ends how it began, with Janie alone, yet she has a sense of peace and comfort, filled with the love she always desired. She experienced different types of love throughout her life, however, the true love from another man was one she only dreamed of. Her grandmother raised her to think that love will come with financial security and physical protection but Janie broke free of that soon after her grandmother passed.

Read More
716 Words | 3 Pages

This pushed poor Emily over the edge of insanity and led her to commit the heinous act of murder. In the back of her mind, she probably had only one thought if she couldn't have him, then no one else ever

Read More
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
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
844 Words | 4 Pages

In his short story, “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner intends to convey a message to his audience about the unwillingness in human nature to accept change and more specifically the secretive tendencies of aristocrats in the South during the early 20th century. In order to do this, Faulkner sets up a story in which he isolates and old aristocratic woman, Miss Emily, from her fellow townspeople and proceeds to juxtapose her lifestyle with theirs. In doing this he demonstrates her stubborn refusal to change along with the town, but also Among several literary devices the author employs to achieve this contrast, Faulkner sets up his narrator as a seemingly reliable, impartial and knowledgeable member of the community in which Miss Emily lives by using a first person plural, partially omniscient point of view. The narrator is present for all of the scenes that take place in the story, but does not play any role in the events, and speaks for the town as a whole. Faulkner immediately sets up his narrator as a member of the community in the first line of the story, saying that when Miss Emily died “our whole town went to her funeral.”

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

Frank Guercio Mrs. Wagner English 102 19 September 2014 A Rose for Emily William Faulkner once wrote the short story A Rose For Emily, even in its time it was considered to be rather spooky considering the ending; however, since then there have been a great number of theories based around Faulkner’s story and I find Nicole Smith’s to be one of the few that stood out from the rest. Her article begins with a short summary of William Faulkner’s life, from his birth in the South in 1897 to his Nobel Prize in 1949. As his history draws to a close Nicole begins to shed light on the story itself and how his past is a heavy influence in his writing.

Read More
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
926 Words | 4 Pages

Just as they were about to resort to law and force she breaks down and buried her father quickly.” (Faulkner 453) Miss Emily tries to keep her father’s body so she isn’t left lonely. She tries to keep him until the townspeople basically force her to bury him. The second reason Miss Emily may be crazy and mentally ill is because she kills Homer Baron.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

The value of romance and mortality resembles the theme of obsession, and is shown throughout the plots, and the characters in, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Birth Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Firstly, Faulkner illustrates obsession of romance through mortality. In addition, Emily’s obsessive illness of love over death it often seen throughout the plot. Lastly, Hawthorne demonstrates the obsession of mortality thorough romance, through the main protagonist, Aylmer in “The Birth Mark.” To compare, Emily and Aylmer believe their obsessive consequences was from the heart, despite their obsessive disorders.

Read More
793 Words | 4 Pages

Kierrah Edwards ENGL 201 9/20/15 Character Analysis: Emily Grierson The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner depicts how seclusion can certainly impact one’s life. Throughout the story, Emily gives off this “insane” impression. However, after fully reading the story, the reader can fully understand why Emily was the way she was. Emily Grierson was a very dependent person.

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

If there was a missing person now, the people in the town would have been more suspicious and notified the police. The authorities would have questioned Miss Emily about Homer’s disappearance and searched her house since that is where he was last seen. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, it is important to have knowledge of the background history. In order to understand whats happening in the story and why Miss Emily acts the way she does someone must understand why she thinks she is above everyone in the first place.

Read More
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

More about A Rose For Emily Isolation Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document