Insanity Is Alive In William Faulkner's 'A Rose For Emily'
From Insanity is Alive in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” I agree with the statements Cleanth Brooks Jr. and Robert Penn Warren made in their article From Understanding Fiction and also with T.J. Stafford’s statements made in Tobe’s Significance in “A Rose for Emily.” However, I would like to elaborate on how I personally view it a little more. Being a girl, I knew that us girls would do rash and crazy things for a guy we specifically favored; creep on their social media profiles, draw those cute little hearts around their picture in the yearbook, or even change our appearance or personality to fit their attractions. But none of that even holds a candle to the flame that Emily Grierson has lit. She has us all beat! In order to understand
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She has made everyone in the community scared of her in a sense because she is very mysterious, unkempt, and the very few times they actually have encounters with her, she always has this somewhat mean “death” look on her face. The person who she sees the world through the most, her servant Tobe, she also has shown no interest in. Which is ironic seeing how he is also isolated and he has complete polar opposite characteristics than she does. “These qualities are shown through Tobe who reveals humility, patience, endurance, courage, and pity. A clearer picture of Miss Emily’s true nature is therefore given by her sharp contrast with Tobe’s wholeness.” (Stafford 530) Miss Emily is a very selfish, bitter, independent, perverse woman who doesn’t view life as Tobe, or any other sane person for that matter, does. She wanted Homer Baron all to herself and didn’t want him going anywhere, so she did what she had to do to keep him around for good. Obviously, you can’t commit a murder unless you’re totally out of your mind, which leads me to my third and final point. Emily Grierson was insane. “Miss Emily is obviously a pathological case. The narrator indicates plainly enough that people felt that she was crazy. All of this explanation prepares us for what Miss Emily does in order to hold her lover…” (Brooks and Warren 524) In addition, as soon as the townspeople knew that, that’s
She has made everyone in the community scared of her in a sense because she is very mysterious, unkempt, and the very few times they actually have encounters with her, she always has this somewhat mean “death” look on her face. The person who she sees the world through the most, her servant Tobe, she also has shown no interest in. Which is ironic seeing how he is also isolated and he has complete polar opposite characteristics than she does. “These qualities are shown through Tobe who reveals humility, patience, endurance, courage, and pity. A clearer picture of Miss Emily’s true nature is therefore given by her sharp contrast with Tobe’s wholeness.” (Stafford 530) Miss Emily is a very selfish, bitter, independent, perverse woman who doesn’t view life as Tobe, or any other sane person for that matter, does. She wanted Homer Baron all to herself and didn’t want him going anywhere, so she did what she had to do to keep him around for good. Obviously, you can’t commit a murder unless you’re totally out of your mind, which leads me to my third and final point. Emily Grierson was insane. “Miss Emily is obviously a pathological case. The narrator indicates plainly enough that people felt that she was crazy. All of this explanation prepares us for what Miss Emily does in order to hold her lover…” (Brooks and Warren 524) In addition, as soon as the townspeople knew that, that’s