Outsiders Of Her Community Miss Emily example essay topic

"Old habits die hard". William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily" is an excellent representation of this age-old saying. The story was written around 1930 by Faulkner who was born and raised in Mississippi, and takes place in a southern community which was reluctant to adapt to the rules and regulations set forth by the Northerners after the Civil War. The story plays with ideas of Southern pride, dignity of the family, and most of all human nature. Miss.

Emily Grierson is the focus of the story, and through her bleeds opinions and insights that Faulkner undoubtedly drew from his own community and family. Miss. Emily came from a family of prestige but was seen by the community as a family who "held themselves a little too high for what they really were" (Faulkner 4). After Miss. Emily's father's death she was reduced to a pauper which pleased the community. Perhaps Faulkner's family experienced a similar alteration in social status when his grandfather sold a profitable railroad business to the Illinois Central for a price much below face value.

William Faulkner's father did not agree with the sale and became very distressed after it happened. The railroad was said to be the center piece of his life and the "foundation of his self-respect" (Williamson 143). The family suffered through another financial setback when Faulkner's father's livery stable business was destroyed due to the sudden appearance of the factory made automobile (Williamson 170). In "A Rose For Emily", statements or ideas of Southern social structures seem to take a back seat to the insight provided of the Southern woman. Historically southern women are known to be obedient, elegant, and respectful ladies, who depict all that a woman should be.

"The social role of the lady both illustrates and defines an interlocking system of class, gender, and race relations through which the South defines itself" (Roberts 2). Faulkner had a variety of relations to woman, which surely must have acculturated him, in terms of the females of his time. At a very young age William Faulkner befriended a girl named Lida Estelle Oldham. Lida went by the name Estelle to distinguish her from her mother and was said to be extremely beautiful, stylish, well mannered, and well dressed. It was also agreed that Estelle blossomed at an early age and was said to be "boy crazy" (Williamson 168). Faulkner spent virtually every possible moment with Estelle and was in constant exposure to her flirtatious ways.

Later in his youth, Faulkner would frequently visit brothels with his friend Phil Stone. Though he never indulged in the services provided by the "girls", he did spend many nights with them and came to know intimately the nether life of the south. It seems that the combination of these experiences with the relations to the women of his family and community, led to the creation of Miss. Emily Grierson. We are told that throughout her life, Emily's father had turned away all of the young men that came to call upon her, which was justifiable at the time by the "old south" concept of lady hood. Later in the story we see that because of this Emily has been left with years of repressed sexual emotion that is released upon a Northern man who refuses to marry her.

The people of Emily's community describe her as "a slender figure in white". Traditionally, "the white lady is represented as a vessel or as a garden or as a statue on a high, narrow pedestal... ". (Roberts 103), and it is said that "white ladies be spirit not body, angel not whore" (Roberts 159). Emily's "perverse" side is revealed however, when her gray hair is found next to the dead body of her love, indicating that she has committed necrophilia.

This clash of tradition, repression, and innate sexual desire spawned Faulkner's "Southern Woman". Miss Emily represents more than just a segment of southern women, but also the "Old South" itself. By winning the Civil War the Union had won control of the laws of the country, however the dominant hegemony in the south was still determined by the Confederate people. This led to distaste for Northerners in the South and somewhat of an anti-Northern attitude below the Mason Dixon line. Naturally Miss Emily's community had much to say of her when she entered into a relationship with a Northerner (Homer Barron).

Faulkner grew up in a time when women were highly judged by their communities and harshly judged by their actions. In this time an unmarried woman was seen as experiencing a form of social death, and as queer and withdrawn from life (Roberts 149). Because of this, they are seen as "dangerous women literally on the edge" (Roberts 150). So when Homer would not grant her marriage, just as the North would not grant the South much of what they desired, she poisoned him. To the outsiders of her community Miss Emily is seen as a traitor however, further inspection reveals that she is a true Southerner. "There are no Union soldiers to shoot off the front porch so Miss Emily poisons one in her bed: she should be a heroine of the culture" (Roberts 161).

The last scene created by Faulkner of a tomb like room that is furnished for a bridal closely resembles Miss Havisham's room from Dicken's Great Expectations, which is a novel that Faulkner would have likely read. Similarities like this and metaphors such as Homer and Miss Emily both being destroyed by her deviance, much like the North and South were both severely damaged by the Civil war, give excellent insight into the environments from which Faulkner drew his stories. "A Rose For Emily" is could be used as solid proof in a Cultural Critic's claim that no on writes in a cultural vacuum. Word Count: 982.