William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily - Research Paper Example

English In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" analyze the personality and behavior of Miss Emily Introduction In this book, Emily can be considered an outsider, who controls and establishes constraints in identifying her true identity; in fact, her identity remains hidden. Apparently, Emily’s mind seems to be engulfed by a shield that inhibits ability to interact with other people; this shield makes her shuttered and in darkness (Qun, 66). On the other hand, she becomes an object to be scrutinized by people in her town, and this turns her into a mysteriously mute figure. There are other situations where Emily portrays qualities of stereotypical southern “eccentric” that are unstable and exceptionally tragic, thereby leading to bizarre behaviors (Qun, 66). Emily is also described as a person who enforces her own sense of law and conduct; for instance, she refused to pay taxes, which was illustrated, when she was purchasing the poison. Besides, this is also demonstrated by her behaviors such as skirting the law through refusal to have numbers attached to her house when federal mail service is instituted. Nonetheless, her effort to dismiss the law began to take more sinister consequences, thereby resulting killing her husband. This paper will focus on analyzing the character of Emily as portrayed in “A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In this case, this analysis will begin with general analysis of her character, which will be followed by an analysis in three perspectives, which include; Emily as a daughter and woman, as an artist and her legacy. Emily is presented to be a monument, which is pitied, irritating, and focusing on living her own life in her ways and terms. People in her township gossips her after accepting to be married to Homer without firm wedding plans; in fact, this lead to drawing people’s attention to her way of life, whereby people make various speculations about her. The act of buying the poison is considered to be effort to commit suicide by people in her town. However, Emily had numerous instabilities that resulted to different directions and leading to finals scene of making a conclusion that she had necrophilia (Qun, 67). In this case, necrophilia is a condition, which regards a sexual attraction to dead bodies. In addition, this is a term used to describe a powerful desire to control another person in a context of romantic through an intense personal relationship. Therefore, Emily as a necrophiliac, controlled her relationship, which resorted to bonding with unresponsive entities without resistance or will, like the case with dead bodies. Daughter and Woman Emily is also portrayed as the only child in her family, whereby the narrator does not mention of her siblings, and her mother is not mention. Moreover, it is striking that the narrator fails to mention about her mother, since there is not reasonable explanation for this. Instead, the narrator focuses on emphasizing on the way she was her father’s daughter and the loneliness she experienced due to him (Fang, 106). On the other hand, she is completely controlled by his father up to his death and this control continues even after his death. For instance, he separates her from the rest of the world, during his life, whereby he ensures that Emily did not have any friends, lover, or husband. In this case, her father sets up a life that is in a way that is impossible for her to change until her death (Fang, 106). Emily is portrayed to be a weak person, who is unwilling to declare a stance against her father; though this idea is in a way that blames has as the victim. Her father is depicted as a person who is strangely controlling, domineering, and willing to treat her daughter with cruelty. However, her behaviors are disguised by this theory after his death, whereby she tried to get rid of the perception that had been created by her father (Fang, 106). Nevertheless, Emily failed to pursue her own desires of love and sex, and the effort to pursue womanhood fails leading to a decision to revert to her way of life attributed to loneliness, isolation, and hopelessness. Artist The narrator does not indicate the extent of Emily’s artistic ability beyond China-painting, or event the full lowdown on her art. However, a focus on her artistic talent can assist in understanding about the tragedy of her life. For instance, through her art she manages to offer a bit of hope and a dimension of vision (Fang, 107). In this case, the narrator explains that there is a tragic side of her art is where it creates a connection to the town through a way if being a member of the community and having contact with the outside world. Therefore, through her art, she creates a new generation, which is contracted with pieces of her secret. However, there are chances that Emily had ability to convert her art to be a source of comfort and for having something to do in her life. Miss Emily's Legacy There is a logic conclusion, which can be drawn from Emily’s decision not to commit suicide and this can be transmitted from one generation to another; in fact, this leads to the idea that she used this poison on Homer. In this case, people in her town were astonished to find Emily’s hair on a pillow that was beside Homer’s body. On the other hand, there was an imprint of head in dust, which led to suggestions that she was lying there, and there are chances that she left this evidence on purpose. In this case, she made a final comment on life before she died; this could be considered more of a will or perhaps a significant legacy for the people in her town. This legacy was due to cruelty that people in her town showed Emily by interfering with her happiness and isolating her due to fear and disgust. Apparently, Emily was pitied by everyone in the town and this was not an indication of love; thus, she decided to leave a legacy of how inhumane she was and her desire for love due to has distorted and perverse desires that went off limits. Conclusion The paper has presented an analysis of Emily as portrayed in “A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. This analysis began with general analysis of her character, and this was followed by analysis in given perspectives, which include being a daughter and woman, an artist and her legacy. Therefore, this analysis sought derives ideas from various peer reviews articles to support arguments presented regarding character analysis about Emily. Works Cited Fang Jie. “Working through Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily—On Character and Character Portrayal”. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 105-107, January 2011. Web. July 31 2013 Qun Xie. “Analysis of the Changing Portraits in "A Rose for Emily". Canadian Social Science. Vol.3 No.2, April 2007. Web. July 31 2013 Read More