Character Analysis: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner - Essay Example

Their similarities in handling situations in the story were evidently exhibited from the manner by which they apparently lived in secrecy. At the beginning of the story, it was revealed that when Emily Grierson died, the townsfolk, especially women, were immensely curious to see the inside of the house since no one, except “an old man-servant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years” (Faulkner 1). Emily, on the other hand, was noted to have been in recluse and has kept “her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty” (Faulkner 7).

These traits exhibited these two characters preference for isolation, secrecy and reclusion by keeping the doors to the house close: “the front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good” (Faulkner 8). In addition, it was revealed in the story that both characters hardly even talked; either to each other or even with other people. They manifested coldness, indifference, and obliviousness of what other have to say. As cited about Tobe: “we had long since given up trying to get any information from the Negro.

He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse” (Faulkner 8). Of Emily, the townspeople allegedly describe her as passing “from generation to generation--dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse” (Faulkner 8). She apparently had not interacted with any other character in town, except when Emily was visited by the members of the Board of Aldermen to collect taxes; of which, her response were cold and firm, as her actions indicate banishment and indifference to abiding by their purpose.

As such, both characters where seen by the townsfolk only as fleeting and described them as aging figures. Tobe was described as frequently seen going in and out of the house; without much interaction and interpersonal relationships with the townsfolk. As disclosed, “daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket” (Faulkner 8). Concurrently, the same physical description was noted for Emily: “during the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning” (Faulkner 7).

Finally, these characters showed similarities in handling challenges and trials in life: they kept everything to themselves and seemingly denying the realities of life. Tobe, who apparently knew everything that was going on in Emily’s house, refused to neither divulge any secrets nor defy the confidence given him by his master. Emily, on the other hand, handled both deaths in her family (through denying his father’s death; and again, for poisoning Homer Barron and keeping his dead body in the house) through fits of denial.

It could actually be inferred that Emily could be exhibiting symptoms of mental illness: “the inability to either feel or demonstrate appropriate affect, or emotion, that is congruent to a particular situation is one of the