A Rose For Emily

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Theme in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner, 1950 Nobel Prize Winner in literature, in his grim, thought-compelling short story, “A Rose for Emily” (1931), alludes to the idea that seclusion can manipulate the mind and persuade it to engage in impulsive devious actions. Faulkner develops this concept by first creating the vulnerable character Emily, who is bestowed an over-protective father, which denies her the chance to blossom as a free woman, then brings death along to steal her only parent’s life which results in odd, arduous coping, and finally exposes this “damsel in distress” to the real world where she experiences unseen hardships and develops a new fond relationship that inconsequently does not work out leading to rash behavior from Miss Emily. His purpose is to depict a supposed impervious, white woman, who strives to assuage herself (due to her father’s death) in the social life of the Civil War, in order to provoke the audience to come to the conclusion that Emily is the typical, dominant white female, but is later revealed as the victim herself. At the opening of the story, the reader is greeted with the death of Miss Emily Grierson and the effect it had on the town. Her funeral was more of a “curiosity”, than a grievance to her fellow neighbors (Faulkner, “Rose” 95). Faulkner introduces Emily as a peculiar woman that is judged based on her family and her father’s protectiveness over her. The town gathers this opinion of Miss Grierson that she was a reclusive, spoiled woman, who would not admit it. Due to the stories of Emily’s family’s past, the Griersons were believed to hold “themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner, “Rose” 97). The citizens of the town began to doubt Emily’s sanity and felt her superiority over them was a fluke. Furthermore, when Emily’s father passes away, the town’s attitude toward

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