The concept of Emily Grierson as a trapped individual - Essay Example

Emily Grierson was strongly attached to her father and it was her father who brought her up. Her mother had passed away and she did not have any other close relatives. This aspect of her life led her to live a life of solitude and her life was based upon her relationship with her father. Her father was a proud man who considered him to be superior to all the other people who resided in the town. He kept a distance for the other people and did not intermingle in the social gatherings with people.

He instilled similar feelings in his daughter and she was also not very social and restricted to her life within the house. Her father considered all the men who offered to marry Emily not to be up to the mark and rejected all these proposals. This behaviour of the Griersons is portrayed by Faulkner in these words, “People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.

None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” Thus her upbringing by her father pushed her into solitude and led her to lead a trapped life. Emily’s father was the most important figure in her life and the death of her father shattered her. She became hysteric and was not ready to accept the death of her father. She did not take the condolences of the people and sent them away. It was only by force that her father’s body was buried. This great loss pushed her more into entrapment and she was left alone in her life.

The next major character that entered her life was an outsider, Homer Barron who came to visit the town. Emily became greatly attached to him owing to her solitude and loneliness but Barron opted not to marry Emily. She took a drastic step of poisoning Homer Barron and kept his body in her house. The reaction of the people of the town and their criticism for her can also be held accountable for her trapped life. The people in the town talked about her behind her back and only visited her out of curiosity to see what was going inside her house.

This social alienation served to further prevent Emily from leading a normal life. Emily became totally isolated and did not believe in societal laws and regulations. She developed these believes owing to her entrapped life. She did not consider herself to be a member of the society. She did not allow for the installation of a mail box at her house as she did not want to be linked to the outside world. She also denied paying the taxes in the town and responded to the officials from the city by saying, "I received a paper, yes," Miss Emily said.

"Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . . I have no taxes in Jefferson." It has been portrayed that the life of Emily Grierson starts “decaying” in her home in solitude. She began to decay physically, mentally as well as socially. She started losing her looks and was totally cut off from the social environment of the town. She did not mingle with anyone and thus her life depicted a theme of decaying. She also lost her sanity as she went as far as to kill Homer Barron so that she could keep his body with her.

The death of her father is the initiation of her psychiatric issues. This can be seen when she denies that her