Nothing could be more pathetic and pitiable than the character of Emily Grierson – if such a person exists today, she deserves to be an outcast and live as a hermit in unknown forest. This could be one of the impressions a sane person can have for a woman who chose to shun the world for a very long time, hiding within the walls of her old unmaintained house with the corpse of her loved-one whom she murdered. She was fat or even obese. She was not having a healthy life style. She also thinks that she does not have to respect the laws of the society where she lives in. She does not want to pay taxes to the current mayor. She is stiff necked, thinking that everybody ought to hold her on high esteem. There is nothing likeable on Emily’s character. There could be something that could be pitied about her, though. People may think that Emily does not exist because of the time setting of the story, but she does. Upon careful analysis of Emily’s character, I came to understand that she is a symbol of a portion in each of us, a portion of the society, a portion of the world. Emily Grierson is a symbol of our stubborn resistance to change.
In order to make a succinct analysis of Emily’s character it is important to focus on how Faulkner chose to describe her. Accordingly, William Faulkner described Emily’s corpse as, “a small fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her” (Faulkner 468). When I initially read this description I can’t help but relate obesity to lack of sufficient exercise or physical activity. Basing from this description, the reader could imagine what kind of life Emily lived – it was sedentary life and a life spent in confinement. I also noticed the emphasis on gold head as it was described as “tarnished.” A tarnishing gold means that the material is not regularly cleaned. Despite wearing it, Emily did not bother to clean it, it is either she is just too lazy or she has her mind focused on different things.
What could have made Emily look and behave us such? This is the question that came next into my mind. Then I remember the portions of the readings which tell the reader that Emily once lived a luxurious life with his family, particularly with his Father, who eventually died living Emily to live alone in the old house. It must therefore be the sudden death of his father which made Emily lost interest to live a normal life and confine herself within the walls of their house. Some of us are like Emily in this particular instance. There are events in our life that totally devastate us. We feel so helpless and alone, so instead of moving forward, we choose to stay back – just day dreaming of how things were until we forget the great opportunities that could come our way if we only let ourselves be free of the past. This is also true in a societal and world level. Some societies choose not to forget of painful events in the past – as result unfortunate events continue to happen, they seclude themselves from the rest of humanity – some isolationist countries like North Korea, or some tribes that continue to resist modernity are some examples of such.
Emily Grierson’s behavior was my next focus in my analysis as I read through the story once again. I noticed that she was very stubborn and stiff necked. She, for example, refused to pay her taxes and refused to give a smile to the people who tried befriending her. It was as if she held herself in a higher social position than the rest of the people in her community. When her lover, Homer, could not stay with her as he is the complete opposite of Emily being a free-minded person, she decided to murder him. This is stubbornness at its pinnacle. But if you come to think of it is an open-minded manner, most old people are really very stubborn – although, as I mentioned, Emily’s stubbornness is exceptionally high – as they give high esteem for themselves and their obsolete generation. I could almost always here old people say “back in our time” or “back to the old days” when reviling the present generation. They seem to love their past so much they fail to appreciate the present and long for a better future.
Upon careful analysis of Emily Grierson’s character in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” it can be concluded that the character may not pertain to a real person but simply a personification of one side or portion of us or our society. This portion is the one that resist change because of the continuous hold of the past. The past pertained to, in this sense, are the events which have broken our hearts or things and events that he gives too much esteem to. Change is inevitable, as it is the only thing that is permanent in this world. Emily’s character shows how the inability to cope with these changes could lead us into – seclusion, bitterness, tragedy, death, and murder. While it should not be construed that I am advocating the rejection and forgetting of the past, I must emphasize that we should just treat the past as we treat history, they are there not to govern all our actions but simply to serve as guide whenever we think it is appropriate.
Work Cited:
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” 1930. Print.
