Emotions In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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The ability for one to filter what they say and conceal his or her true feelings is key for the social interactions among groups that take place everyday. If everyone were to constantly spill whatever came to his or her mind, the world would be a very hectic place. However, concealing true emotion and pursuing an action that is in disagreement with that one’s true feeling leads to problems. The consistency of true emotion and action is disrupted, just as it was among a community captivated by the story of the life an old woman. While many of the townspeople within the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner claim to respect and sympathize with her Miss Emily, their actions and hidden motives reveal that some of their expressions on her life and death are surface-level and falsified and in confliction with how they truly feel. While any of…show more content…
Many, in fact, are simply invested in the drama that engulfs her life. Instead of aiming to help Miss Emily, the townspeople are instead focused on fulfilling their own personal curiosities. From the very beginning, it becomes clear that Miss Emily is an outsider to the rest of the town. Even when the townspeople believed she would kill herself, they deemed it as “the best thing” that could happen for her. Miss Emily and the townspeople both understand her status as an outsider from the society; however, the townspeople continue to encourage actions that single her out. Phrases like “poor Emily” show that the townspeople only pretend to care about her problems and isolation. They truly say this because they want to feel better about themselves. They pretend to pity her while taking no real action to better the situation. The townspeople should feel even worse after considering that they have made major contributions to her

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