Character Analysis Of Emily Grearson In "A Rose For Emily"

In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" the depiction of Emily is as a weak individual who is withdrawn from society into her own realm of loneliness and despair. Miss Emily is a woman that was looked down upon by the entire town folk. Her passive attitude of love toward Homer Barron changed drastically when she realized that this may be her last time to love since her age and desire were depleting her. Instead of being passive towards him, she changed to active by "making" him "love" her.

Miss Emily's desire to be loved changed her attitude on life. Not only is she not loved by her father with "his back toward her clutching a horsewhip", but also as she grew up everyone around her showed her no positive awareness even if she did deserve it (Faulkner 132). As the town folk walk by with the dismal approach to "Poor Emily", they can only feel sorry for her, rather than compliment her (Faulkner 133). A precondition to be loved by someone else, or to be admired by another, must be that a person loves themselves, first and foremost. Her lack of love towards herself is depicted as she barely "carried her head high enough" to even show her face (Faulkner 133). She has obviously been aghast of herself for a long time, to the point beyond self recognition. She did not love herself in any bit of her non-typical life, that is ended after her desperate desire and yearning for just one taste of love is consumed.

As Emily's desire for love was prevalent in her thoughts, her insecurity and loneliness were more. As "her upright torso motionless as that of an idol" sits, she cannot help but hope to be loved in such a way to only see a glimpse of happiness in her monotonous being (Faulkner 133). Miss Emily learns that having a tedious, dull life, is going to be a part of her for some time. Self respect was not one of Miss Emily's priorities of life. She is deficient enough to be "bloated, like a body long submerged" (Faulkner 131). By not seeking to keep her figure reasonable shows that Miss Emily doesn't respect herself whatsoever. This lack of self respect carries over to her relationships with other people, including men. She is not excited to the point where she struggled after one particular man; rather she wants any one man to struggle after her. She does not care who this man was or how they come to her. She is actually afraid of men. She is afraid to love one again - afraid of being left again like her father had left her. When "She told [the aldermen] that her father [is] not dead" she is trying to fight admitting that she had actually lost her father (Faulkner 133). In all actuality, she is hiding the fact that she is completely devastated by the loss of her father. Even though he treated her horribly and did not let her do the things normal girls do, she is still overcome with grief to the point where she could not and would not admit that her father had actually died.

Miss Emily's desperate attitude reflected in all