A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner - Research Paper Example

A Rose for Emily Thesis In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson’s unnatural tendencies of necrophilia are illustrations of a vanquished womanhood caused by the long periods of exclusive contact with the devastating forces of patriarchal control and class prejudice. By focusing on her eccentric and idiosyncratic characters, it will be shown that Emily’s personality was a direct consequence of the stifling patriarchal influences and class-associated pride, which eventually dissolved her natural sense womanhood and converted her into an inexplicable and bizarre personality. Even though Emily commits the gruesome murder of Homer Baron, her lover, she must be excused on account of her powerlessness to rid herself of the imposed personality. In sum, Emily’s character and actions are born out of external influences over which she has no control. Outline I Nature of Emily’s relationship with her father II Character traits of Mr. Grierson Class consciousness Patriarchal nature III Grierson’s influence on Emily’s personality IV Murder of Homer Baron V Conclusion Analysis Emily spends most of her adult life by her father’s side. Her father objects to all endeavors by eligible suitors to marry Emily partly due to the pride of class. The Griersons had considered themselves as occupying a privileged position in the society (Ruthmann 56). They did not wish to make any kind of acquaintances with the townspeople because of the divide on matters of class. As a result of this, Emily had learnt to accept her father as the only relevant companion in her life. After her father’s death, and later after the disappearance of Homer, she remained in solitude, “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (Faulkner 12). It might be necessary to examine Mr. Grierson’s character in light of its possible influences on Emily. Grierson is portrayed as a domineering father with a strong character and irreconcilable aversion to common people. He is a man who could not compromise his social status and perspectives for ordinary things. As the only man in Emily’s world, he imparted these lopsided views on the young woman thus converting her into an antisocial individual. Mr. Grierson created a private mental universe in which he could live out his fantasies of class supremacy and patriarchal prejudices. He forced his daughter to share in this world and the two adopted a bird’s eye view on the society, which they regarding in particularly demeaning terms. Mr. Grierson desired to convert her daughter into a super-human individual that could exist beyond the touch of all that was ordinary. It was precisely because of these delusions of grandeur that he disallowed Emily to marry the many suitors that came her way, “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (Faulkner 34). This would be the beginning of the unnatural feelings of necrophilia that would later demolish the citadel of grandeur in which she had been forced into by a patronizing Grierson. Emily shares a single mind with her father and appears ready to continue this union to the physical level. Her refusal to admit the reality of her father’s death and the three days reluctance to release the corpse for burial offers strong hints at the kind of physical bond, which she had nurtured towards her father. Her father was the singular point of reference in her life of social exclusion and represented the only essence of affection and company, which she could truly relate to. With his demise, Emily’s life lost all meaning. Naturally, Emily might have fought off her genuine feelings of love and compassion in an effort to stay the course on which her father had placed her. She sacrificed her individuality and sense of self with the intention of walking the straight and narrow established by her overbearing father. The force of patriarchy, which her father so brazenly embodied, would later fend off all forms of natural womanhood from her (Ruthmann 114). On the other hand, there was the inherent and latent force of womanhood churning within her element and fighting off the restrictions and suppressions of class and patriarchal dominance. The competition between these forces eventually yielded within her the unnatural attractions towards the dead. The tragedy of this story might be used to illustrate the possible adverse effects of class and patriarchal dominance at the individual level. In fact, it might be argued that the author sought to bring out the superficial nature of the discourses of patriarchy in terms of the adverse effects on those who embrace them without critical assessment of their true merits. Emily and her father turn their backs on reality in preference for the fantasies of class and privilege. Their small private world of delusions resembled a beleaguered fortress set against the larger external world of social reality. The private world was under a constant threat of dominion from the larger external world of social reality. Emily’s gradual and seemingly unstoppable descent into the state of psychological disorder illustrates her final conversion into the unnatural state due to the sense of loss occasioned by the effect of patriarchal dominance and the pride of class. All that is real and natural loses its appeal to her. She is no longer interested in the ordinary because she was trained and conditioned to relate only to things and people that are not of casual make. The sense of loss is worsened by the death of Mr. Grierson. Emily remains confused and desperate in the sense that she has lost the only person she could relate to. She was part of her father due to the fact that she had could not comprehend of life and reality in terms other than those supplied by her father’s constricted world view. She could not see herself apart from her father. It was partly because of this reason that she held onto his body for three days while asserting to the mourners who turned up that her father had not died. Emily saw part of her father in her own body (Towner 72). Since she was still alive then obviously her father could not have died. The refusal to admit the death of her father illustrates the level to which his control had affected her life. Just the way her father sought to convert her into a super-human status, she also perceived her father in terms larger than human. She had learnt to immortalize her father believing that he was invincible to the natural challenges of life such as the inevitability of death. This aspect could be viewed in terms of the absolute and total submission of a vulnerable woman to the unrepentant overlord. Emily had subsumed her womanhood into her father’s identity. This transformation rendered a problematic identity to her sexuality and gender. The manner in which she sought to control the world around her illustrated the depth of conversion into an individual that could possibly not exist in the normal discourse. She had shed off her feminine qualities and assumed certain characteristics of masculinity as reflected in the person of her father. For instance, she sought to control Homer Baron through total domination (Towner 61). Emily’s decision to poison Baron was born out of the need to satisfy her ego of conquering and subduing. These qualities could be related to the patriarchal mien of her father. Emily’s mental deformity could be analyzed in terms of her peculiar affections and passions. By killing Homer Baron in order to marry him, Emily demonstrates that she is more interested in the body than in the person. Her first attempt to gain control over a man’s body was after the death of her father. The second attempt succeeds and she manages to keep the body for as long as she wishes before her own death. Death, in Emily’s mind only represents an alternative form of existence. While on earth, she had lived differently from the rest of the society. She considered herself as a special being and treated people in a manner that was consistent of this perception. She considered life through a multiplicity of possibilities. Emily believed that she could still get the opportunity to continue her unnatural marriage to Homer Baron even posthumously. For Emily, there can be no real life without a man of class to hold on and remain close to. It does not seem to matter to her whether the man is dead or alive. The effects of her father’s patronizing control had made her embrace the idea that class and manhood mattered more than life. In her unnatural mentality, Emily thought that she would rather date and marry a dead man than a living one whose social status was way below the standards set by her father. Homer Baron represented her last hope of a man who would fill the vacuum in her left, which was left after her father’s demise. It was because of this reason that Emily sought to arrange a posthumous marriage that shocked the society. Although Emily regarded the town’s people with a somewhat condescending attitude, the people appeared to pity her. The people seemed to see through her plight and tell it for what it was. They saw in her a victim of delusions of class whose sense of love and affection had been rendered unnatural by psychological impairment authored by her father’s patronizing presence around her life. Ultimately, Emily might be seen as an unfortunate terrain on which the struggle of class and gender took place. She is the victim of her father’s pride and the society’s disapproval. Alternatively, her obsession with male dead bodies could be interpreted in terms of a subconscious feminist vengeance on the damage done on her personality after a lifetime in the middle of the disabling patriarchal stranglehold. Indisputably, Emily’s unnatural character is a result of the influences of her father’s personality, perceptions of importance, and the reactions of the society towards her social image. Her actions are representative of a ruined personality who seeks to reinvent herself in ways that subvert the order of reality as entrenched in norms and traditions of her society. She can only exist in the image and likeness of her father. Works Cited Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. (Eds). Norton Anthology of American Literature, The, Volume 4. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011 Ruthmann, Davina. The Chronology of William Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily". New York: GRIN Verlag, 2007 Towner, Theresa, M. The Cambridge Introduction to William Faulkner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008 Read More