ipl-logo

Emily Grierson

1226 Words5 Pages

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a story that takes the reader on an unorthodox timeline. It is divided into five sections with each one containing important events that lead up to the ending of the story. The protagonist, Emily Grierson, lives a solitary existence during the late 1900’s. Her father secluded her from society and chased away every boy who had interest in her daughter. The father eventually dies and Emily seeks compassion with a laborer name Homer Barron which eventually does not end well. There were many things wrong in Emily’s life that eventually led her to poison and kill him and she along with her father and the townspeople are responsible for her actions. Emily Grierson was recognized all over the town …show more content…

The narrator of the story is in fact a civilian from the town who is telling the story. Emily had a sad upbringing from having an overprotective father, the limitations of her gender, and other sad events that occured in her life are what make her unreachable to the community and saw that as an excuse to ignore and just let her be. It is evident when Emily tried to hold onto her father’s dead body that she was doing something wrong but the townspeople allow it and excuse her from it. The townspeople stated, “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away and we knew that, with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” They knew that it was actually crazy but they allowed it to happen. Another event they let pass was when that awful smell was coming from the Grierson’s resident and were intimidated in asking Emily to do something about the smell. Instead they send men to spray the lawn with lime to try and get rid of the smell. The townspeople did not seem to care for Miss Emily anymore and regarded her as a nuisance in the town. The Grierson’s also had a long history of insanity running in the family. They recalled a moment from her great aunt whom the town recognized as a crazy woman. The townspeople agreed that

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Emily's Mental Deterioration

    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

  • Similarities Between Louis Mallard And Emily Grierson

    1145 Words  | 5 Pages

    One can assume her marriage was not a good one. Miss Emily Grierson was abused at a young age by her father Mr. Grierson. Emily grew up under the shadow of her father and it haunted Emily for a long time. Many people grow up differently, and the way they grow up could affect the person they become

    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

  • Examples Of Mental Illness In A Soldier's Home

    1008 Words  | 5 Pages

    Since Emily is so off from the world, this makes the understanding of what she is dealing with even harder. If she was more outspoken with the people of the town, rumors would have not grown about her, and caused even more

    Read More

  • Examples Of Ambiguity In A Rose For Emily

    546 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paloma Cerda Mrs. Koehler ENGL-1301-566 September 20, 2017 In A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner, the story of Miss Emily is told through a very loose format. Through this narration, there is a long and drawn out suspense built up through little hints left by the reader without fully giving away the dark truth behind Emily and her house. Until the end of the story, the narrators ambiguity cleverly points the reader towards the climax of the story where Emily is discovered to be Homer Barron’s killer. This ambiguous element is important to the quality of this short story as it drives it forward and keeps the reader interested.

    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

  • The Role Of Conformity In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    716 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because her family was prominent in the town of Jefferson, Emily Grierson was watched her entire life and wondered about by everyone. The townspeople had a lot to do with Emily’s changing mental condition because they constantly gossiped about everything that happened in her life. It generally

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    822 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner we see how he foreshadows that Emily is the murderer of Homer. Within the introduction we are told that William Faulkner was a Southern writer who loved to write comedy and tragedy. I would definitely consider “A Rose for Emily” one of his best tragedy that he has written as it contains suspense and foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is defined as a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

    Read More

  • A Rose For Emily And Cathedral Analysis

    1268 Words  | 6 Pages

    Both Emily and Robert are prematurely judged by the narrators in both stories, and the assumptions are so far fetched from the reality. Miss. Emily is perceived to be a lonely old woman, whom nobody ever spoke with. Since they never talk with her or learn anything about what is going on in her life, the townspeople begin to gossip to make up for this. They knew her father had driven away any man from becoming close to her, and they just thought to themselves, “ poor Emily” (32).

    Read More

  • Homicidal Complicity In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    489 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily’s life was always full of seclusion and she refuses to let her first love go. The townspeople uses many different people to influence Emily to end the affair. When the northerner refuses to marry her to satisfy everyone, she uses her idolized freedom of the town to her advantage and murders her lover. Therefore, everyone was happy, she does not have to live without him and the townspeople believe she obeyed their wishes by ending the affair.

    Read More

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

    960 Words  | 4 Pages

    He also shows the relationship between Emily and her dead father and how Emily cannot let go of people that show a love interest in her or the people who look after her in that she must be attached to them even after death. Faulkner depicts an Emily that was once young and vibrant, who maintained the Grierson home and kept it in a pristine condition. Faulkner relays to readers that because Emily was unable to control her own destiny and was powerless under her father’s hand, she became a recluse and ultimately went into a downward spiral. After sensing and believing that her first real love will leave her, Emily purchases arsenic and it is believed that she will kill herself because there is no point in living if no one will love 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

  • Compare And Contrast A Rose For Emily And The Tell Tale Heart

    862 Words  | 4 Pages

    She is mentally disturbed, and driven to her act by insanity. Miss Emily kills her victim, Barron, to keep him around because she truly loves him and she does not want to let go. Both protagonists have a distorted perception of

    Read More

  • Themes in A Rose For Emily And The Birth Mark By William Faulkner

    1009 Words  | 5 Pages

    To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,

    Read More

More about Emily Grierson

Open Document