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Feminism In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Feminism in Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily”
In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner deals with the life and death of Miss Emily, a woman that is considered crazy mainly because she never showed interest on the traditional woman role of getting married and forming a family, especially since the story develops in the late 1800s. Although Miss Emily can be presented as a weak character that the town feels responsible for and takes care of, this paper would argue that her character presents a real strength. In fact, some scholars argue that her strength uses the symbolism of a goddess (Eriksson). This is shown in two main points, the first regarding the image that the town people have of her as a single woman, and the second regarding the strength within herself.
Firstly, regarding the view of people on Miss Emily, they seem to pity her, firstly by the fact that she could not fulfill her womanhood by marriage, and then by the death of her father. They also often relate the pity and loneliness with madness. This is clearly reflected in “That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last” (Faulkner 80). By the time she reaches thirty years old, and still unmarried, the people in the town seem to accept that she will never be married, and assume that she would become crazy like some other members of the community. The pity comes back in the story when her father dies and she is

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