A Rose For Emily Schizophrenia Analysis

Over the course of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily’s unpredictable and quirky behavior aroused a sense of curiosity amongst the readers. The readers, much like the townspeople in the story, are left wondering the cause of Miss Emily’s behavior. It could easily be inferred that Miss Emily experienced a mental disease. After evaluating her symptoms in this short story, it can be supported that Miss Emily suffered from schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia is a serious disorder, which affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts. Someone with this disease may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary” (“Schizophrenia”). Miss Emily had expectations and standards to meet, and it was reasonable to propose that she developed this disease as a response to the outside pressure.
Miss Emily was from a family of great status. Her community believed she held a “hereditary obligation” (Faulkner 773) to maintain certain
Miss Emily appeared before town officials insisting that she did not owe taxes. She constantly vowed that she had “no taxes in Jefferson” (Faulkner 774) and if they did not believe her then they could confirm it with Colonel Sartoris. The problem here was not that she was claiming she had no taxes; rather, it was the fact that Colonel Sartoris had been dead for many years. Her refusal to listen to anyone and her inability to fathom the changes going on around her made it obvious that she was more than just stubborn. Her failure to distinguish what was real and what was not was a huge indication of schizophrenia "(“Schizophrenia”). Needless to say, her main psychotic episode was sleeping with a decaying corpse. Not only was she just sleeping with him, but she also continued to buy things for him as if he was actually going to receive them. Miss Emily’s sanity and sense of reality had completely