Introduction: “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, tells a dark and mysterious tale that encircles Miss Emily’s life in the Antebellum South. Under the narrative of an ambiguous narrator, the narrator leads the readers deep into the mystery of Miss Emily’s sanity. Miss Emily is depicted as a significant figure throughout the entire town, and she is praised by the townspeople for her social status. However, Miss Emily retains an obscure secret of her own sanity that makes her become an outcast to the townspeople. Only the readers can reveal as they obtain pieces of evidence throughout the story.
I. Thesis: Miss Emily’s sanity is what makes the townspeople perceive her as an outcast in the entire town. The opposite portrayal of traditional…show more content… “With the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (Faulkner 716)
C. Miss Emily refuses to let her father’s body buried. Law enforcement and authoritative figures must come to quickly bury the body.
D. The psychological illness that Miss Emily develops overtime is based on the emotional abuses that her father instills in her. Similar to the strict parenting examples provided, Miss Emily acquires the mental vulnerability that can be easily triggered by extreme factors. Due to Miss Emily’s weak mentality, Miss Emily develops a sense of insecurity with the outside world, so she decides to live on her own.
E. Based on Miss Emily’s disconnection from the society, she develops an interest for Homer Barron, a homosexual day laborer. Later on, the narrator reveals a gruesome secret as Miss Emily poisons Homer Barron and sleeps with his corpse for years.
F. “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, and become inextricable from the bed in which he lay… and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner