A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily

What effect can a whole community have on a single person? That effect can be seen in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”. The character Miss Emily Grierson throughout the short story is pictured as bizarre and crazy women. In the story Emily is completely withdrawn from society and her community and trapped in her own delusional world. In Looking at Emily’s social behavior, her withdrawal from her community and her social standing in the community, it is possible to diagnose Emily Grierson with a mental illness.

The townspeople never really thought Emily was ever “crazy”, Emily was a very ill women; she shows of having a mental illness right after her father dies. Emily never received psychiatric treatment throughout the story; she does show symptoms of having a mental illness. The narrator states that she “Was sick for a long time” (29), but does not further elaborate on the type of sickness that she might have had. After her father’s death, she starts to socially avoid as her mental health deteriorates. This can be seen when the ladies of the community come to offer Emily their condolences. Emily is “dressed as usual, and with no trace of grief on her face” (27), showing the denial of her father’s death with the lack of emotion that is presented. Emily then adds to that with the denial of her father’s death by telling the ladies that he was not dead and would not let them dispose of the body until “she broke down”. Even though signs of mental illness are present with Emily, the community itself is in denial as they completely avoid confronting Emily about some concerns they have with her. This is seen when Emily and her house start to become detached from the world and a horrid stench starts emitting from the house itself. Although a man from the “rising generation” has a concern about the stench, the judge responds with some anger and says “will you accuse a lady to her face smelling bad?”(23). Suggesting the denial of any concerns, the...