Budding Dissolution In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
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Budding Dissolution
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is a tragic tale, but not the most traditional horror story. There are no explicit supernatural beings inducing terror, but the main character Emily Grierson still undergoes quite the terrifying life. As Emily experiences more of life, she experiences more dissolution. As a result of isolation and loneliness, she ultimately becomes mentally unstable. However, her life’s terror lies in the foundation and root of her unfortunate isolation. Throughout her life, Emily was consistently separated and alienated by her father and townspeople of Jefferson. This overall loss and alienation causes her to become unhinged and live deplorably. Therefore, the separation and isolation of Emily by all…show more content… Initially, members of the Grierson family are clearly more noble and superior to anyone else. This wealth and social disparity is evident when Emily’s father died, “…and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized”(Faulkner 2). So in order to humanize Emily in the townspeople’s eyes, she had to lose her father and much of her wealth. If the sorrow in Emily’s life has to reach that drastic of a level to receive pity and even satisfaction by everyone else, she clearly once lived a more prestigious life. Additionally, this familial superiority evidently created a separation between Emily and the rest of her town. However, even after becoming more “humanized”, the townspeople still alienate Emily completely. When Emily starts seeing Homer Barron, a Northern day laborer, some of the townspeople start to meddle in her affairs. “They just said, ‘Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her.’”(Faulkner 3). Emily finally meets another man to become involved in her life, but his lower social class and bachelor attitude results in the townspeople once again pitying her. This continuing pity fueled by troubled gossip creates a further divide between Emily and all others. The ongoing alienation and pity Emily