Psychological Analysis Of Miss Emily example essay topic

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" focuses on Miss Emily Grierson, a distraught women who seems to have lost control of her own mind. While "A Rose for Emily" is just a story, psychoanalysis ts go so far as to question Miss Emily, as well as Faulkner's psychological state of mind. According to Michael Meyer, "Psychological approaches to literature draw on Freud's theories and other psychological theories to understand more fully the text, the writer, and the reader" (1510). With the help of psychological theorists such as Sigmund Freud, more can be seen in the story of Miss Emily. Psychological analysis of literature helps the reader to better understand the work and its author. Miss Emily is portrayed as having control over everything in her life.

She doesn't have to pay taxes, she doesn't have to give a reason for buying arsenic, and no one could even face her to tell her that her house smelt bad. Miss Emily is a strong character in this story; she believes that she can have anything she wants. When Homer Barron enters her life, she assumes that he will love her and marry her. However, the story points out that Homer is gay.

"Homer himself had remarked-he liked men... [and] that he was not a marrying man" (Faulkner 79). Not only would Homer not marry Emily because he was gay, but Homer also had no intentions of ever getting married. Miss Emily did take the fact that Homer would not marry her very well. After all, Miss Emily was used to getting her way.

Miss Emily's fight for the control of Homer Barron's love for her caused her to drown in her own emotions. The fact that she could not force or persuade Homer to love her took her by surprise. This feeling that she could not control him overtook her and caused her to do the unexplainable. She had her mind set that he loved her, so when she knew that he would not, she decided to kill him.

Miss Emily not only killed Homer Barron, but also she kept him in her bed until she herself died. What would possess Miss Emily to behave in this manner? It seems psychotic that she would kill Homer simply because he did not love her. One of Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious id is that "during an individual's formative years, he or she [is] entirely governed by his of her developing id. This developing unconscious often takes sexual and / or hostile mannerisms...

Freud also believed that any repression or neurosis formed during this time period would later surface as damaging outbursts in the mature adult" (Taylor.) This theory of Freud's can apply to Miss Emily, because it might help explain why Miss Emily acted in such a violent way towards Homer. Miss Emily may have had sexual and / or hostile feelings towards Homer in her subconscious. The time finally came where her conscious could not control these feelings, and they were brought to life. Miss Emily also has a psychological problem in dealing with death. This was first pointed out when her father died. "The day after [her father's] death all the ladies prepared... to offer condolence...

Miss Emily met them at the door... with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days... ". (Faulkner 77). Miss Emily reacts in strange ways when she is faced with death.

She didn't believe her father died, and when she killed Homer, she kept him. Why did Miss Emily keep Homer? Maybe she didn't believe he was dead, the same way she didn't believe her father was dead. She kept Homer over the years in her bed, to make it clear that she did in fact get everything she wanted. Miss Emily's fight for control over everything in her life was made final when she kept the one thing she didn't have control over-and even then-she attained control over it in a way unconceivable to the psychologically sane. Another way of psychoanalysis is to find out if there were psychological impulses behind the author's writing.

Freud says that: Those who create (artists, poets, etc.) are using their creativity as a sort of therapy. [Freud] believed that an individual relieved his or her own neurotic tension through their creative work. In addition, these individuals give us insights into the nature of reality and the people who inhabit it. Thus, psychoanalyzing a work of literature can give us great insight into the unconscious of the author (Taylor). The one thing that I noticed in Faulkner's life, was that his sweetheart, Estelle, had cheated on him numerous times. The story of "A Rose for Emily" could serve as Faulkner's "therapy" about how he felt about Estelle breaking his trust and his heart.

In the story, Miss Emily could signify Faulkner, and Homer could signify all the men that Estelle had cheated on him with. That fact that Homer was gay also plays into the fact of how Estelle had left Faulkner for other men. The connection of the author to this story is that Faulkner portrays himself as Miss Emily. Faulkner did not portray a man getting cheated on by his wife because it is more common to see a woman being cheated on by her significant other. Faulkner used Miss Emily as a character to portray himself, so that he could still keep his dignity. Faulkner's sweetheart Estelle was also much like Miss Emily.

She had so much confidence in her decisions, that she even accepted a marriage proposal not believing that the man who asked her would carry through. Despite her romance with William, she dated other boys, one of whom was Cornell Franklin... who proposed marriage. She lightheartedly accepted, apparently believing his request insincere since he was going to Hawaii to establish a law practice. When he sent her an engagement ring several months later, however, she found herself unable to escape the circumstances (Padgett). This action of Estelle, broke Faulkner's heart and he most likely wrote this story to get his true feelings out. These feelings of Faulkner's would be his anger towards Estelle, and how he wishes he could have done to her like Miss Emily did to Homer.

"A Rose for Emily" is more than just a story. The psychological analysis of Miss Emily and also the author concludes that there were more reasons for writing the story than just to write it. Miss Emily cannot handle death or rejection well. The author did not fully recover from when his sweetheart had cheated on him and had eventually left him. Miss Emily and the author both represent the hurt and heartache that can come from being in love. Both the author and Miss Emily had a hard time dealing with their pain, and they each had their own way of dealing with it.

Faulkner wrote this story, whereas Miss Emily killed the person who caused her heartache. Love can cause people to do crazy things, but loss of love can do even worse. Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily". The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.

Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2003.75-81. Meyer, Michael. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2003.

Padgett, John B. The Mississippi Writers Page. 2002. The University of Mississippi English Dept. 27 Feb. 2003...

Taylor, Maxine. "Critical Psychological Analysis of Literature". 2001. Page Wise. 12 Mar. 2003.