William Faulkner wore many hats; he was a lawyer, a Politian, a soldier, and a writer. Each of his career impacted society, as a writer he was winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. When Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily:” one of his more popular short stories, he was definitely thinking of Emily Dickenson and Charles Dickens; he even borrowed the name “Emily.” Emily is part Emily Dickenson and Dickens’ Miss Havisham—reclusive and delusional.
Faulkner rivets this story by combining the lives of two strange women to make one interesting reading; even the name of the main character is well chosen. “Emily,” like Emily Dickenson does not yield to the constraints of society; she become a recluse and does not care what people think. Furthermore, having a father like hers could easily drive one to insanity. He refuses any suitor who tries to woo her, even though he is fully aware that he is going to leave her a pauper. He thinks only of himself, and does not want her to wed because if she did he will be left alone. He is too selfish to make her live her own life or allow her security after his death. More importantly, he is deluded he has no money yet; he displays himself with pride as one of great wealth. “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front” (section II).
Emily may be a recluse, but she is not foolish and she does not really believe that she should not pay taxes or is she unaware that Colonel Sartoris has died ten years ago. However, it suits her to believe that in order to keep her dignity. “She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson” (sectionIII). In this instance she is just like her father poor and proud. She still lives in the delusion of what her family used to be. When the aldermen come to see her she muster up all the decorum she can find and keeps them standing to exhibit her pseudo-authority.
“Miss Emily is one of those persons for whom the distinction between reality
and illusion has blurred out. She refuses to admit that she owes any taxes.
When the mayor protests, she does not recognize him as mayor. Instead, she
refers the committee to Colonel Sartoris, who, as the reader is told, has been dead
for nearly ten years” (Faulkner 1970 25)
Faulkner switches from loftiness in the story to real horror to do this he goes to Dickens’s Miss Havisham. Like Miss Havisham Emily is oblivious to the community and their comments about her as she parades around town with her male friend. Miss Havisham keeps time standing still as she wallows in her heartbreak; Emily keeps time standing still by killing her lover; It is the common contention that he is would have jilted her. Like Miss Havisham Emily’s mirage regresses into madness. She keeps the man’s composing body in a locked room and it is evident by the dent in the pillow that she sleeps or lies next to it. Even though this is a story, Faulkner is able to move his character from mare fiction to the gothic. Only in gothic fiction does a woman lie with a composing corpse. For Emily time had become a "huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches". As a meadow, all time, past and present, merged into one, and change ceased to exist” (Qun Xie 2007).
Faulkner likes to write about the grandeur of the South where he grew up, “A Rose for Emily,” is set in the South with its stateliness that Emily and her father try hard to keep alive. As any good writer, Faulkner highlights his story by making his protagonist, Emily into a recluse like Emily Dickenson and brings her to life by using Charles Dickens’ Miss Havisham to show how seclusion can turn into madness.
Work Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily Please complete by adding your text, since I don’t know what it is I can’t add it.
Faulkner, William., Inge, Thomas M. (1970). A Rose for Emily. Columbus. Charles E Merrill
Publishing Company. Print
Xie, Qun. “Analysis of the Changing Portrait in “A Rose for Emily” Canadian Social Science
Science. March 1, 2007. Print
