Preview

A Rose for Emily: Opinion

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
650 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Rose for Emily: Opinion
In my opinion, William Faulkner displays a perfect example of the old saying, "what goes around comes around" in the short story A Rose For Emily. The main character, Miss Emily Grierson, doesn't know why the public eye looks at her the way it does, she also doesn't know why people act so differently around her. I believe it is strongly because of her father and the way he treated her while she was growing up.

The story only spoke briefly about the father, but what they did say made him out to be somewhat controlling person. The story mentioned that there was a picture in the house that showed Miss Emily and her father standing in the doorway. Miss Emily was placed in the background and her father was in the front with a whip. To me, that seems very intimidating and controlling. In some situations people use a whip to control or tame a situation or even person.

Another instance that seemed to be controlling on the part of the father was that no one was ever good enough for his daughter, Miss Emily. Mr. Grierson was always running off the young men that would come around the house to see Miss Emily. Miss Emily's father never even tried to see if any of the young men were of any interest to Miss Emily. The story also states that the Griersons thought that they were better than the other people in the town. The fact that Miss Emily's father was a controlling man was one of the main, but not only, motivations for the way that Miss Emily acted and reacted to the public.

Another characteristic of Miss Emily was that she was not a very sociable person with the community except for that six or seven years when she taught china painting. The reason that I feel Miss Emily acted in this way was again due to the controlling nature of her father and the fact that she was raised to think that she was better than the other people around her. With Miss Emily's father being in control of the things in her life she did not know how to react to or communicate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Miss Emily is first explained as a nice, sweet, and normal woman, though that all changed as her life went on. The death of her father was the flame that ignited all of this weirdness of Emily. After her father died, Miss Emily did not go out much probably because of grief over the loss of her father. “Because her father is the only man with whom she has had a close relationship, she denies his death and keeps his corpse in her house until she breaks down three days later when the doctors insist she let them take the body” (A1). This statement demonstrates her inability to let go of lost ones.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    'A Rose for Emily': Q&A

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1) Who is Emily Grierson? What was the former position of her family in the town? What has happened to Emily after her father died? What are her economic circumstances? How does the deputation of aldermen from the town of Jefferson treat her?…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The people of the town noticed the obvious lack of independence in Miss Emily’s life before her father passed. “We remembered all the young men that 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.” After the death of her father, she was faced with the reality of needing to carry responsibility for her own life. Miss Emily, finally free of her tormentous girlhood, suddenly became able to make choices for herself. Even with questionable acts, this character further demonstrated her independence by taking…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The possessive ways of Miss Emily’s father started her down fall. Mr. Grierson raised her to be a high class woman who didn’t have to work a day in her life. Keeping her sheltered from the real world and the harsh reality of life started the shortcomings of what was soon to come. Miss Emily’s was spoiled by her father. She had a servant named Tobe and all the luxuries a woman could want, such as a fine carriage. Also she had received all the schooling a proper woman should have. When her father died he did not leave any money, only the house and a pauper. “Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less”(Faulkner pg.791)…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story, Emily strikes the reader as a traditionalist who despises change. Her aversion to change is one of her key character traits and is also the main theme of the story. She is a good representative of the people from the ‘Old South’, who were firmly rooted to their old values and beliefs and were not keen on change. For example, “When the town got free…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rose for emily

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Emily’s father had a significant impact on her daughter’s life. Mr. Grierson was the reason Emily was not married and he was also the reason Emily experienced attachment and control disorders later in her life. The narrator tells the readers that the Grierson’s had held themselves a little too high for what they were and that none of the young men were good enough for Miss Emily. The town’s people thought of the Grierson’s as a tableau, with Miss Emily in the background dressed in white and her father in the front with his back towards Miss Emily clutching on to a horsewhip. When Emily’s father died she had trouble letting go. For three days, when the town’s people came for the body, she met them at the door denying the fact that her father was dead. The narrator claims, “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” (Faulkner 3). This is where the readers can first identify Emily’s attachment disorder. Later in the story, after Emily has passed away and the town’s people are let into the Grierson’s house for the first time they break down the door to the room of which no one had seen in forty years. In this room they find Homer’s decayed body lying in the bed. The narrator observes, “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. Once of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 7). In this final scene of the story, that readers can identify Emily’s attachment disorder once again. The readers can also identify a theme of control here as well. When Emily’s father was alive he was an overly controlling figure towards her. Mr. Grierson had driven away all young men from his daughter and now that he was gone she could finally have power in that aspect of her life. That is…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the beginning the character Emily is portrayed as a cherished “fallen monument” that has left the town. The town holds her up as a respected figure that gets passed from generation to generation with the traits of being “dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.” However, Emily is constantly confined throughout the story, first by her father and second by her community. Her relationship with her father is one that depicts the male dominated south, where her father maintains complete control over her life until his death. Because of this domination by her father, Emily seeps into physical isolation. The physical isolation then becomes a symbol for the slow disappearance of the previous culture Emily can’t seem to let go. Throughout…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Rose for Emily Essay

    • 290 Words
    • 1 Page

    In a “Rose for Emily” one can feel sympathetic towards the main character, Emily. Her father is a very strict man who did not feel anyone was good enough for his daughter. He did not let her partake in their community or experience love. This left Emily emotionally unbalanced. As a result, Emily is a recluse who cannot deal with the thought of being abandoned.…

    • 290 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Miss Emily’s father plays a vital role in the development of her character that leads to her loneliness and isolation.…

    • 1905 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily’s father was a very prosperous businessman; this man was so well off that he once was able to lend the town a considerable amount of money. Due to the generosity of Miss Emily’s father, the mayor at this time Colonel Sartoris discharged their family of their taxes as an agreement. Emily’s father was very protective of her and felt no man was good enough for his daughter’s hand. “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (Faulkner 302). Her father disallowed every man that ever approached Miss Emily. After her father’s final day, it took Miss Emily three days before she would hand over her father’s body to the coroner. She, in fact, acted more as if he was still alive than dead, this was a way for Miss Emily to grieve the loss of her father. Emily had a difficult time dealing with the loss of her father, even the town took notice and could finally take pity on her. “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At least they could pity Miss Emily (Faulkner…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily was often set apart from the town's people because they viewed her as a social icon. She was well respected in the town, because of her father’s wealth and the neighborhood she lives in. This was obvious in the text when it was stated, “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty and a care a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” (Faulkener, 1)…

    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, Emily's relationship with her father was not the best. Her father cut her off from all social contact and courtship which ruined her life, "that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times" (Faulkner,38). She was not able to talk to guys and could not date either. So that there meant she was isolated by her father. When her father passed away and was buried, her isolation was more noticeable, "after her father's death, she went out very little" (Faulkner,34). At first Emily was not willing to accept that her father was dead, "she told them that her father was not dead" (Faulkner,36) and Emily did that for three days. After they buried her father, she was sick for a very long time and she isolated herself.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay: a Rose for Emily

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, the reader can conclude that Emily appears to have had schizophrenia by way she interacts in the town. Emily’s mental problems start to come to light to the reader when she begins having hallucinations. The reader gains further background and further sees mental instability in Emily right after her father dies. The town people also begin to see that there are mental issues with Emily, yet do not want to make it known to keep the integrity of the town. Emily’s inability to form age appropriate coping skills furthers the point of schizophrenia.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rose For Emily Symbolism

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At the very beginning of the story, when the narrator is describing the house in which Ms Emily lived, we get our first glimpse of symbolism. The way Faulkner describes the house, then and now, actually represents Ms Emily's life. The paint and color of the house represents Ms Emily's conscience. Earlier, the house is clean and white, pure. As time goes on the house becomes decrepit, and sullied, much like Ms Emily's conscience. The "select street" that she lives on in the earlier years, which later becomes infected and surrounded by cotton gins and garages, represents her place in society. While her father was alive, and sometime after he had passed, Ms Emily was considered high class. Suitors were deemed unworthy to claim her. As more and more tragedy strikes her life, people no longer envy, but pity Ms Emily. When Faulkner describes her house as "lifting…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though he doesn’t go into specific details besides the change of her appearances. It is obvious Miss Emily was depressed from the death of her father, and this is what leads her to withdraw from society. Miss Emily avoids any contact with anyone outside her house, and she never leaves the walls of her house unless it is necessary. Miss Emily had few callers and those townspeople who were dare to visit her was not received. The behavior that Miss Emily express towards society is a symptom of schizophrenia. Miss Emily was doing everything and anything to avoid the society she lived in. Although her contact with others was limited, when she was forced to interact with others, she does everything to avoid it. The narrator reports one episode, when the town got mailboxes, “Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She would not listen to them” (Faulkner 2165). She reacts in such inappropriate way, yet another example of schizophrenia. Miss Emily refuses the metal numbers above her door because she just wants to go against society and do things her way. She could care less about the metal number, she just wants to have all control over her house and her things. In her mind, Miss Emily always has the last word and the law did not apply to her. One example on how Miss Emily believes that the law does not apply to her is when…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays