Denial In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Emily’s Denial People develop a defense mechanism known as denial when “a fact conflicts with our wishes, or a feeling conflicts with our values and so we deny it.” (After Psychotherapy by Joseph Burgo, PhD.).Through this defense mechanism, we refuse to recognize what we actually know to be true. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, we meet our main character Emily Grierson who exhibits such defense mechanism as a way of coping with her fear of loneliness and homeless. Due to her fear of being alone and without a roof over her head, Emily developed a denial mechanism as a means to avoid dealing with the fact that owed much tax on her house, she was now alone after her father’s death, and would be alone again if Homer walked away from her or died.…show more content…
After her father’s death, all Emily had left was her house and no money. For this reason she was in denial of the fact that she owed house tax which she knew she would be unable to pay. If she is unable to pay the tax it could lead her to becoming homeless. It was easier for her to pretend the problem didn’t exist than face it then deal with the consequences. Emily believed her denial so strongly that she outwardly ignored letters as well as turned away the city’s authorities saying “(she) had no taxes in Jefferson” (145). And insisted they see Colonel Sartoris who has been dead over ten years at the time. Eventually she was left alone and she kept on living in her house without ever clearing up her

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