Dawn Of The Crimson Rose Essay Examples

Section 509

In the short story A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson is the main character. Throughout the story, one learns of the rigidity of her character, which the aristocrat societies seem to nurture in the women. In the society that Faulkner seeks to portray, status and traditions are valued in this backward society. Due to her unfortunate circumstances, Emily seems to have stuck in time and space, such that her character does not evolve in her perceptions and her interaction with the society rigid and illustrative of women in her era. As Emily’s status evolved from being reverence to pitiful in her tragic downfall, the lingering adherent of the old south, also decease with her.
Faulkner states that Emily “had been a tradition” (Falkner 1), which implied that she has strict adherence to southern customs. The southern traditions can first be seen in the house she lives in, while it is old and dilapidated, it’s still described as “decorated with cupola and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies” (Falkner 1). Aside from her house that captures the town’s attention, her father and her also represented the proud ways of the south. For instance, her father was so much opposed to any man marrying his daughter always portraying suitors as not “good enough” for Emily (Falkner 2). The controlling nature of Mr. Grierson over the life of her daughter represents the traditional societal practices where the society and males perceive woman as mere property and incapable of making independent decisions. The entrenchment of the women as inferior beings to their male counterparts made women too reliant on their fathers and husbands to the extent that they feel they cannot do anything on by themselves. In the story, Emily is too reliant on her father to make decisions for her and is visibly distraught when her father dies and she can no long rely on him to decide for her. Her behavior shows that she remains stuck in the past and in her status of being a Grierson, a sense of pride and inflexibility despite living in a constantly developing town.
Emily transforms into a truly fragile figure after the death of her father and the people who live within her town so now they can finally have pity on her. The manner in which Emily seems to lose her mind after the death of her father is attributable to the over-protectiveness and control that her father had upon her life. Initially, Faulkner represents women as weak and inferior to males when she presents Emily as “a slender figure in white in the background” and her father as “a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her clutching a horsewhip” (Faulkner 2). The physical description had already regard Emily a symbol of weakness. Accordingly, Mr Grierson suppresses Emily is apparent when she is in her thirties and still unmarried. The extent of control of males over females is apparent where everyone in the society that the story portrays is aware of the fact that finding a suitor for Emily would be a daunting task, given that her father is supposed to determine who is to be her suitor. As controlling as Mr. Grierson in shaping the life of Emily’s life, his death still influence strongly over Emily’s distress. For instance, Emily denied the fact her father has passed away, “she told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner 2). His presence is still felt even after Emily’s death as represented in the “crayon face of her father musing profoundly” (Faulkner 2). Emily clung on whatever she is can for support, even if that means the man that controls her life. To her, with no income and no husband, the past is the only thing she can rely on. This is symbolic to the die-hard southern ways that many were adherent to, yet times no longer needed the antique traditions. Emily’s mindless behaviour continues to such deteriorating ways that she brings sympathy to the tragic character.
Such turn of events, show Emily as unable to cope with societal challenges without the help of her guidance – the old south standards. Emily’s stubborn attempts to restore the old traditions just seem pitiful in the eyes of the town’s people. The traditional way of life that Emily and her father uphold does not allow women to interact freely with the society and this explains Emily’s failure to create a rapport with those around her neighbourhood. Her feat of being alone seems to be the main motivating factor that encourages her to begin a relationship with Homer Barron, a “Yankee, a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face.” (Faulkner 3). A Northerner, Homer Barron, has a distinct difference from the aristocratic woman Emily. While Emily is the living symbol of the Old South belle, Barron is just a low class supervisor. Town’s people expected Emily to follow her “noblesse oblige” than to have anything associated with the northerners (Faulkner 3). Barron simply just exploited Emily’s love and he decided to abandon her afterwards. This put Emily back to where she started with a reclusive, no support life. Except this time Emily decided to take matters into her own hands and actually try to reserve this last bit of sanity with her, forever. Emily bought the arsenic and murdered Barron, in doing so, she hopes returned to the past. When the town’s people discover Barron’s body, they “just stood there”, the scene they witness confirm the tragic of not willing to let go of traditions and values. Barron and Emily were both victims of outmoded way of the southern life. Emily was no longer envied; rather she was pitied due to the unfortunate events.
At the end, Emily tried to empower herself by making decisions on her own, something that seemed alien to her when her father was alive. However, her rigidity, which is because of her traditional perspective of every aspect of life, causes her to be in a constant conflict with the society. The fact that Barron eventually dies is a lesson that when personal interests come into conflict with the ever-changing societal norms, there is only one winner, the society.