Miss Emily's life is dominated by a controlling father. It is because of him that she finds herself alone after his death. Because he prevented her from marrying, he did not believe that any of her suitors were worthy of her, she is depicted as a lonely spinster. This is not her fault.
When Emily meets Homer Barron, he too tries to dismiss her, to marginalize her needs, clearly he should not have gone on carriage rides with her if he was never interested in her in a romantic way. He makes a fool of her in front of the whole town, first because she has put aside the fact that he is a Yankee and allowed herself to associate with him. Then, when everyone thinks that they are going to get married, he disappears.
Once again, Miss Emily is left alone by a controlling man, or so it...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
seems to the town.
Miss Emily does manage to escape the prejudice of the men in this story. She sidesteps paying her taxes, she takes up with a Yankee, something that would have horrified her father, and she kills Homer Barron, for thinking that he had a right to leave her.
Specific women, except for Emily, play insignificant roles in the story. Women are cast instead as members of the town who gossiped continually about Emily when she was alive and can't wait, after her death, to get inside her house and snoop around. In the opening of the story, Faulkner draws an immediate distinction between the men of Jefferson and the women. The men attend Emily's funeral out of some respect and affection. The women go because they are nosy.
Emily's life represents the role of women in her post-Civil War culture. She is completely dependent upon her father who rules over Emily's life as a tyrant. When she was young, he ran off any man who showed interest in her. When she was old, he died, leaving her with nothing except her history with him. Because Emily's dependence on her father had been so all encompassing, she cannot bear to accept his death, refusing for several days to let his body be carried from the house. Emily's descent into madness emphasizes finally and dramatically how Emily's life was controlled and destroyed, first by her father and later by the power of tradition in Jefferson.
How are women represented in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner?
The ladies of the Old South---
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner masterfully portrays the difference between the Old South [pre-Civil War] and the new South [lacking in gentility].The story of Miss Emily Grierson, told in a fractured time frame, spans seventy-four years, the life time of Emily. The narration comes through a citizen of the town of Jefferson, who takes part in the story’s events.
The women of the story signify two groups who are concerned about Emily. The townswomen who follow the actions of Emily closely and directly or indirectly try to fix Emily’s mistakes. Relatives of Emily embody the other faction.
When Emily was a girl, women’s lives were controlled first by the class system, then by race, and finally by their men. Women had very little power over what they did or who they became. In the upper and upper middle class, women were revered, cherished, and dominated. Such was the life of Emily.
Her father had complete control and care of her. His domination had left Emily with few skills to assist her in survival after he died. Not concerned with her happiness, the father drove every suitor away from Emily. After his death, Emily emotionally and physically drew back inside her house and away from the world in which she had no part. The South changed, but Emily did not.
Emily’s cousins visit her to help protect her from the Yankee interloper Homer Barron. Of course, their concern should have been for Homer. Her kinfolks watched over her until they were sure that Homer would either marry Emily or leave for good.
So she had blood-kin under her roof again and we sat back to watch developments. At first nothing happened. Then we were sure that they [Homer and Emily] were to be married.
When Emily dies, the cousins return to make the arrangements for the funeral.
The ladies of the town attempt to help Emily at strategic points in her life. When her father dies, the women come to assist Emily and help with her grief. Emily refused their assistance, denying the death of her father.
The women observe the changes in Emily from her weight, her gray hair, to the room in the upstairs part of her house. Whispering about Emily became a pastime for the ladies. They force the minister to visit Emily to warn her about the gossip and danger concerning Homer Barron. The minister is not successful. The townswomen consider her to be an oddity, but one that should be respected and cared for.
Typical of women, sometimes curiosity gets the best of them. When Emily dies, the time has come for their interest to be satisfied.
When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house...
They have waited for forty years to get inside Emily’s house. Their reparation for a life time of expectations comes when the door to the upstairs room opens to offer its grizzly occupant.
In "A Rose for Emily," how is Emily portrayed?
In the abstract, Faulknet portrays Emily as a symbol of a dying Old South, a "monument" of ancient times, stubborn to let go of a glorious past, and unable to fit into the present. She is a vestige of what once may have been glorious, a little girl alone, a woman lost due to the lack of control exerted by her father, and a woman so desperate for company that she would not even let go of the dead bodies of her father, nor her lover.
Concretely, Faulkner describes her in the beginnings of the story as:
They rose when she entered-a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to
her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her
skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness
in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless
water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two
small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while
the visitors stated their errand.
It is a little hard to know what you mean by how she is portrayed. Do you mean physically, or her state of mind, or what?
As far as her personality, I think the main thing that stands out about her to me is the fact that we find out she was crazy. At least, it's crazy to me for a person to sleep with a dead body for thirty years.
Less obviously, she is pretty arrogant -- she sees herself as better than other people due to the fact that she came from a "good" family. You can see that from how she treats the people who come to ask her to pay taxes.