First published in 1930 in the now defunct magazine The Forum, “A Rose for Emily” is a short story by the 20th century American author William Faulkner. The story revolves around Emily Grierson, a woman of the mid to late 19th century American south, a few decades following the end of the Civil War (Asmarani 24). As Faulkner sets the story, apparently the Griersons belong to the aristocratic elites of the Antebellum era in the south, but after the war, the family faces financial crises and disintegrates as members fight over the remaining properties. Arguably, Emily’s actions and choices in life are wrong and in contrast to the social expectations because of the impact her overly controlling and manipulative father had on her early upbringing.
Emily is the protagonist in the story, but her actions do not either make her a hero or a villain as is the case in many stories. Rather, she leads a seclusive and reclusive life after the death of her highly controlling father and disownment by her only lover who is unnamed in the story (Huang 202). Apparently, her actions are strange and would be considered signs of mental health problems in the modern times. However, the townspeople rarely interfere with her life and behaviors. Emily’s choices in life are bizarre and uncommon, but it arguable that they are directly influenced by the impact of her father’s excessive control over her life and relationships, which might have had severe long-term psychological impacts.
In normal circumstances, a person starts making important decisions in life in early adulthood, especially after schooling. It is during this period that people make decisions to work, enter into relationships, marry, and take other interests that will shape their life and future (Khrais 28). In the 19th century America, especially in the South, people at this age were expected to start working or running businesses and get married (Asmarani 26). However, Emily Grierson makes a strange decision at this time in life. Throughout her childhood, teenage, and early adulthood, she is always in company of her father. From a psychological point of view, one would note that the manipulative nature of the father affected Emily’s ability to form intimate relationships in her early adulthood life.
In turn, Emily decides to stick to this life as long as she does not confront or disappoint her father. Faulkner portrays Emily as a highly submissive woman, but only to her father. In addition, unlike other people at her age, Emily does not start working and appears to depend on her father for support despite her age (Bai, Zhang, and Li 611). Apart from Mr. Grierson, no other close relative is mentioned, which suggests that she might have been his only daughter. It may also explain why he decides to keep her close to him by banning all men from her life and refusing to allow her the freedom of choice.
Emily starts making life decisions for herself quite later compared to other members of her community. The father dies abruptly when she is about 30, an event that greatly affects her (Faulkner). It appears that she had not expected such an event and there were no plans on how she would survive alone. She seems not to accept the fact that the father, keeping the body for three days hoping that he would arise (Bai, Zhang, and Li 611). This choice is rather strange in a society that is highly religious with strict rules on how manage a similar situation. As the only family member, Emily was supposed to announce the death to the community members, enter into a mourning period, obtain moral and material support from other people in the city, and finally respectfully lay the father to his grave. However, her decision is against this tradition because she does not even mourn and bans people from coming to comfort and support her during the period (Zhang and Zhou 709). It takes the effort of doctors and community leaders to convince Emily to allow the burial of her father’s body (Asmarani 28). It appears that she does not have any other person in life apart from her father, thus the decision to avoid let him go. Again, this decision emanates from the father’s controlling and manipulative behavior when he was alive.
After the father’s death, Emily decides to lead a seclusive life and does not want to relate with other people in the town. For most people, this would have been an opportunity to try other relationships in life to fill the gap the father has left. In particular, the society expected her to find a suitor and eventually wed and settle down. However, this is not the case because she remained in her house, rarely appearing in public (Kirchdorfer 145). At one time, she only teaches young people about China arts in a class she sets in the lower room of her house. However, she closes down the room and is never seen again in public when students are no longer coming to her class (Zhang and Li 988). The choice of remaining secluded is probably a long-term impact of her father’s treatment during his lifetime.
As a means of retaining her life a secret, Emily’s choice of a helper is a black man named Tobe whose work is to obtain supplies from the market and take care of the home. The choice is rather strategic because at the time, black people were still treated as second-class citizens and would be controlled by their employers. With Tobe, it was possible for Emily to control his behavior and make sure that he did not talk to anyone in the town or reveal any of her secrets (Kirchdorfer 146). Tobe acted as a royal servant and neither interfered with her life nor talk about it outside. Even after her death, Tobe does not talk to anyone, but disappears from city to avoid revealing Emily’s secrets.
Even when an opportunity to find a suitor and settle down comes her way, Emily’s choice of relationship and marriage is rather awkward. The appearance and presence of Homer Barron in the town is a relief to many people who are worried of Emily’s life choices. At last, she has fond someone who she can relate with, given that Barron is a northerner and is not aware of Emily’s past life. Because of her father’s actions, it is possible that Emily must have no interest in local men (Kirchdorfer 146). This is why she is interested in marrying Barron and even goes further to purchase wedding items for him in preparation for marriage. To many people in the southern society, the expectation was that a public wedding would happen and everyone would witness (Khrais 28). However, she makes another rare choice. Probably feeling that Barron would abandon her, Emily decides that the best way would be to keep him permanently close to her. That is why she makes the choice of poisoning Barron and keeping the body in her bed as long as she lives.
Apparently, Emily’s experience as a child and in early adulthood in the hands of the manipulative father led to her choices of law and conduct. Indeed, she has created her own logic of law and conduct, which puts her in contradicting position with the town’s laws and order. First, she sticks to the idea that her father was not supposed to pay taxes to the city throughout his life because the former mayor had remitted levies on him (Bai, Zhang, and Li 612). The narrator says that the decision for Colonel Sartoris to remit Mr. Grierson’s taxes was because he had lent the city a huge sum of money sometimes before. Emily uses this as an excuse to avoid paying taxes as she believes that the decision by the mayor also applies to her, long after the father is dead.
Consequently, she does not reply to any letter from the city leaders and when they decide to physically demand for taxes, she refers them to Sartoris. It is not known whether she is aware that Mayor Sartoris had died a decade before (Feng 86). Again, Emily’s choice of law and conduct applies even after death of an individual as it is seen when she asks the men to go and consult Sartoris, keeping her father’s body with her, and staying for years with the dead body of Barron.
In conclusion, the protagonist in this short story makes choices that seem to emanate from a psychological problem. In the modern times, a person who behaves like Emily would be considered having a mental issue, which is most likely due to trauma following her father’s death. Also, it is possible that the choices and behaviors that Emily demonstrates result from the manipulative behavior of Mr. Grierson, which made the daughter lose interest in forming relationships with other people in her society.
Works Cited
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Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Web.
Feng, Shiying. “Fallen Monument: A Marxist Analysis of William Faulkner’sa Rose for Emily.” International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology, vol. 3, no. 3, 2021, pp. 85-87. Web.
Huang, Yan. “An Analysis on Rose in A Rose for Emily.” Journal of Social Science Studies, vo. 6, no. 2, 2019, pp. 202-205. Web.
Khrais, Sura M. “Rereading’A Rose for Emily’from the Perspective of Wolfgang Iser’s Reader Response Theory.” International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, vol. 5, no. 3, 2017, pp. 28-31. Web.
Kirchdorfer, Ulf. “Weak Men in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily.” The Explicator, vol. 75, no. 3, 2017, pp. 145-147. Web.
Zhang, Lu-ying, and Xu Zhou. “Analysis of A Rose for Emily From the Perspective of Trauma Theory.” Journal of Literature and Art Studies, vol. 12, no. 7, 2022, pp. 707-711.
Zhang, Xiaotong, and Yihui Li. “A Comparative Analysis of the Causes of the Heroine’s Tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and A Rose for Emily.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 10, no. 8, 2020, pp. 988-992. Web.