Characterisation of Emily in A Rose For Emily Essay

The Character of Emily Grierson in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily

Miss Emily Grierson a woman worshiped by the town of Jefferson, a woman with a terrible secret, a woman with all the pomp and circumstance that the south could allow. She began life as an isolate and controlled child, and ended life as a lonely woman who had taken final control of the man she loved. Most people would just say that she was warped, but there is an underlying reason for everything. Being controlled and isolated as a child warped her views as an adult, and the towns idol worship allowed her to commit murder and not get caught.

Her father controlled her throughout her childhood so she didn't understand free-will in her adult relationships. When her father died she didn't want to let go of his body. "The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead." (93) It seems to me that she because of the lack of relationships as a child she didn't seem to understand the difference between her father being dead and being alive. This translated over to her love of Homer and her unwillingness to let him go. The town continued to try to see her as a prim and proper southern lady. Ignoring all the signs, that if you think about it were very obvious.

Because Miss Emily's father isolated her as a child she didn't know how to communicate with people. Some of the signs of this was her unwillingness to go out, "but for almost six months she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die." (95) This ends up being a life-long isolation, "For that time on her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty, during which she gave lessons in china-painting." (95) Which didn't seem to help her mental condition any. She also didn't understand how to communicate with people as was shown by her conversation with the druggist, " "I want some poison," she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a light-house-keeper's face ought to look. I don't care what kind." "Yes, Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such? I'd recom-" "I want the best you have. I don't care what kind." The druggist named several. "They'll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you want is-" "Arsenic," Miss Emily said. "Is that a good one?" "Is... arsenic? Yes, ma'am. But what you want-" "I want arsenic." The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face strained flag. "Why, of course," the druggist said. "If that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for." Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up." (94) If this incident had happen with any other person in the town it would have caused suspicion. It seems to me that she preferred people who didnt question her which are why she didn't mind the company of a dead man.

Because of the southern royalty mentality she was raised in she seemed to think that she was better than everyone and didn't care about the law. A good example was her unwillingness to pay taxes, '"I received a paper, yes" Miss Emily said. "Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff... I have no taxes in Jefferson." "But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see. We must go by the--" "See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson." "But, Miss Emily-" "See Colonel Sartoris." (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!" The Negro appeared. "Show these gentlemen out."' (92) This exchange all enforces my belief that her disconnect with the town was an important factor that lead to the demise of Homer. The town basically had no clue that anything might have happened. They were obviously afraid to confront her about anything, this extremely apparent when the town was fussing about the smell, '"We really must do something about it, Judge. I'd be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we've got to do something." That night the Board of Aldermen met- three graybeards and one younger man, a member of the rising generation. "It's simple enough," he said. "Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don't..." "Dammit, sir," Judge Stevens said, will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"' (92) They didn't even seriously consider what the smell might be. They were too worried about the hurting her feelings.

If the town had actually paid attention to her, instead of gossiping about her they might have seen what was really going on. Her fathers control and forced isolation inhibited her ability to understand relationships. All these things created a terrible mix that lead to the demise of Homer Barron.