Comparison of the Characters Emily, and Deborah - Term Paper Example

COMPARISON OF EMILY (from A Rose for Emily by Faulkner) AND DEBORAH (from Life in the Iron Mills by Davis) Question: Both Davis' Deborah (in the Life in the Iron Mills) and Faulkner's (A Rose for Emily) live in a patriarchal world. What is the parallel between these two characters as women struggling in a patriarchal society Or, what is the contrast between them Thesis Statement: The stories presented the status of women during the time of the writers. A lot of changes occurred since then and women are not given more responsibilities and roles that make them feel important in the development of the society. Emily is the protagonist while her father and the townsmen are the antagonists. Emily is the round and dynamic characters in Faulkner's work while the flat and static characters are his father and the townsmen for no changes or developments. The setting of the story is the funeral of Emily attended by her relatives and the townspeople. The life of Emily has always been an open book. The story of her life is narrated in the third person point of view or narrated in the eyes of the townspeople. Emily's life has always been filled with all the rich and elegant belongings for her father raised her to be a fine and beautiful woman. She has lived a life comparable to a princess wherein the townspeople admired and adored her beauty. Women of her age envied her social status for all the men in the town focused on her admirable beauty. The limelight has made Emily the apple of the people's eye. She was always watched, applauded and criticized. The people in the town had control of how to live her life. Emily's father wanted to secure her by preventing any eligible bachelor to be Emily's future partner in life. The constrained life of Emily seemed to be ideal for everyone who only saw one side of the story. They were not able to feel the emptiness and loneliness that Emily felt because of his controlling father and the manipulative hands of the townspeople. Faulkner's story had an unexpected turn. The conflict rose when Emily followed her heart and confronted her fears of the reactions of the people around her. She chose to love Homer - the man everyone never thought would even win Emily's heart. In spite of her father's contradiction and the negative reactions from the townsmen, Emily fought bravely and blindly for her true love. Her affair with Homer was a union of two souls bound by their love and commitment symbolized freedom for Emily. She felt liberated by the idea of disobedience of her father's will and the people's expectations of her. Everyone believed that Emily deserved someone better than Homer and that she did not have to settle for anyone less simply because she felt lonely and alone. The climax in Faulkner's story was when Emily gave up everything she had when she chose Homer. She knew that her father would never take her back and the people would never forgive her for her own decision to get married to Homer. All throughout their relationship, Emily realized that the life of a married woman was no more than perfect. When Emily found out about Homer's fervent desire to have leave and that Homer was not willing to give up his drinking pals and his vices, she felt dismay and fear. She has already accepted the truth that she could never have him forever and she did not have enough strength to face the consequences of this revelation. Emily has always been afraid to live alone for she spent her younger years with his father's support and love that when her father died, it was hard for her to accept the truth that she will no longer be able to see his father again. Her denial caused her to become sickly and weak. In this time of distress, she sought for a new pillar of strength which she thought she found in Homer. He expected that Homer was courageous enough to leave all of his worldly activities and settle in peace with Emily. She gave everything that Homer wished. It was like she doubted the love and trust of Homer for if she really believed that he loves her without any restrictions, Homer would have been honest to her and believed that nothing will change with that strong feeling that he has for Emily. Homer was all Emily had. She craved and sought assurance and security in the love that Homer gave her. Her innocence about the truth and the lies of love, she was made to believe that Homer would never leave or abandon her. When the time came that Homer was about to leave her, she killed Homer for she believed that his death will be the only way to keep him and for him to never depart her side. When Emily passed away, a secret room was found and the decomposing body of Homer was inside that room. Emily still kept his body even though she knew that he was already dead. She was unable to realize that she needs to move on with her life and that death does not only mean the end of everything but it can actually the start of something better for her. Life in the Iron Mills presents us with one interpretation of what role money plays in American society. In this story, the idea of money is crucial, since all characters, rich and poor alike, falsely equate wealth with personal fulfillment, thus elevating it to the status of absolute importance. This practice, as Deborah learned, has disastrous consequences because the attainment of money then is seen as justifying the breaking of moral and legal laws while it also overshadows one's personal qualities. The latter diminishes the likelihood that true personal fulfillment will be achieved since inappropriate methods are being used to attain it. So, to Deborah, while society typically misinterprets money's significance, its true role is distinct from the attributes of individual fulfillment and happiness, thus their attainment may be achieved independently of wealth. Rebecca Harding Davis's story "Life in the Iron Mills" gives a more realistic look into the life of a factory girl and her makeshift family. The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous narrator, whose vocabulary betrays an upper-class education, and whose lack of work outside the home betrays her gender. This narrator invites the reader to "come right down with me...into the thickest of the fog and mud and foul effluvia....to hear [the] story" of a Welsh mill worker and his family (Davis, 13). This invitation to descend into the life of a lower-class worker symbolizes the social and physical distance between industrial workers and the middle and upper classes of the town. The narrator invites the reader to give up psychological and philosophical theories about the poor and to experience life as they do. The kitchen, traditional seat of feminine power in the domestic economy, holds neither power nor attraction to the Wolfe family. As Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller write, " the settings for physical sustenance and hygienic care, the kitchen and bathroom...[frame]...'worlds'" (Davis, 504). Deb's kitchen does not frame its own feminine world, but she demonstrates her sentiments for Hugh in other ways. Although she does not cook, she carries food to him "almost nightly," although she herself aches "from standing twelve hours at the spools" of the cottonmill (Davis, 19). Hugh, not Deb, is the moral center of the family and Davis attributes typically feminine qualities to Hugh. For instance, he embraces the sentimental economy by helping Janey and Deb. Furthermore, Hugh's artistic sensibilities signify an appreciation for aesthetics, which the female narrator shares. Most importantly, Davis calls attention to Hugh's woman-like appearance: He had already lost the strength and instinct [sic] vigor of a man, his muscles were thin, his nerves weak, his face (a meek, woman's face) haggard, yellow with consumption. In the mill he was known as one of the girl-men: "Molly Wolfe" was his sobriquet. (Davis, 24) Davis gives Deb and Hugh both masculine and feminine qualities. Hugh's korl-woman further signifies this blending of genders; Dr. May describes the sculpture as having the "peculiar action of a man dying of thirst" (Davis, 32). Hugh chooses to represent his yearning in the form of a woman because a woman's form represents reproduction, hope, the infinite cycle of renewal. Like Melville's maids, Hugh has sacrificed his creative powers to mass production and eventually gives up his hope for the future. But after Hugh's death, the korl-woman keeps his yearning alive: Nothing remains to tell of the poor Welsh puddler once lived, but this figure of the mill-woman cut in korl.... [I]t is such a rough, ungainly thing.... Sometimes...I see a bare arm stretched outin the darkness, and an eager, wolfish face watching mine: a wan, woeful face, through which the spirit of the dead korl-cutter looks out.... (Davis, 64) Hugh's eternal hunger still speaks to the narrator, and she in turn speaks to the reader. Unlike Faulkner, Davis does not ask the reader to "see to your hearts" but to "see for yourself." She addresses the reader while Hugh is deciding what to do with the stolen money, "You laugh at the shallow temptation You see the error underlying its argument so clearly.... I do not plead his cause. I only want to show you the mote in my brother's eye: then you can see clearly to take it out" (Davis, 46). She presents Hugh not as the object of pity or scorn, but as a person with complex problems and motivations. Honestly seeing the humanity of the poor is not an easy task for an upper- or middle-class person of the nineteenth century. Davis admits that both political and private reformers become "outraged, hardened" while working with the lower classes (Davis, 15). Deb shows some of the faults that are not easy to overlook. She is physically deformed, and her work is so morally hardening that she steals without remorse and inadvertently causes the imprisonment of Hugh. However, she is redeemed with the help of a Quaker woman. Like Emily, Deb needs a network of others to rebuild her morality after hard work and poverty corrupt it. The stories presented the status of women during the time of the writers. A lot of changes occurred since then and women are not given more responsibilities and roles that make them feel important in the development of the society. Women are no longer limited by the four walls of the house. They can now have jobs and earn money just like their husbands. Both stories show the readers how women always had the desire to be equal with men or to be free from male dominance. Women are still asking for the treatment of equality for they are not completely treated the same as men. Times keep changing and as more women are heard they have a better chance of gaining equality. REFERENCE: Meyer, M (2008). The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th edition. Bedford: Boston, Massachusetts. Davis, Rebecca Harding. "Life in the Iron Mills: or The Korl Woman." Old Westbury, New York: The Feminist Press, 1972. Read More