““I want arsenic. ” The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag.
"Why, of course," the druggist said. "If that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for. " Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. ” (Faulkner, 4) This scene from William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily” gives a little look into the strange mind of Emily Grierson.Miss Emily didn’t believe it when her father died, her father who was always there to shelter her from the rest of the world, the father who influenced her seclusion from the rest of the town.
Maybe this is why she purchased arsenic to kill a man she “loved” when he did not want to settle down. We will never really know why Emily did what she did, but yet again, others never really know why we choose to do something ourselves.The author William Faulkner lived most of his life in Oxford, Mississippi, where he later experienced and imagined a fictionist county called Yoknapatawpha and researches several of its families, to detail the Compsons and Sartorises who were aristocratic from the Civil War to modern times. The writer Faulkner and his influence in Southern writing prompted him to write the story of “A Rose for Emily. ” Therefore, this setting takes place in the deep south of Mississippi during the Post Civil War days in a small town named Jefferson.Setting his story in this geographic area gives the reader a better understanding and background of the characters values and beliefs in the setting of Southern culture during this time frame.
Miss Emily descending from the aristocratic hierarchical name of the Grierson’s who were well known in the town of Jefferson. The town seems to be narrating the story of Emily in a form of gossip circles to reiterate her living alone with her only servant. Miss Emily’s actions seem to be from eccentric to absurd in logical thinking as she tries to maintain the role of Southern women in being dignified with proper manners.She continues to struggle with all the issues in her life to include the madness she was facing in mental illness.
Emily becomes mentally unable to realize the reality around her. For example, she didn’t realize the death of her father after three days, and she had not realized that Mayor Colonel Sartoris has been dead for almost ten years, as she refuses to pay any taxes. She went as far to poisoning Homer Barron in keeping his dead body in her house, and sleeping next to it.She doesn’t accept the changing times and stubbornly refuses to change with the times.
The essential literary element of the setting in Faulkner’s tale gives the reader background and insight into Miss Emily’s mental illness and delusional stage. To support the insight of Faulkner’s use of Southern setting and Emily’s social struggles, the following quotes are given: “…Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps, an eyesore among eyesores. (Faulkner, 1) This clearly shows the decline of the home, which is part of the setting that represents her social and personal decline. Miss Emily becomes reclusive and introverted after the death of her father and the estrangement from the Yankee, Homer Barron.
“…after her father’s death and a short time her sweetheart, the one we believed would marry her, had deserted her. After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. ”(Faulkner, 2) William Faulkner himself was not “crazy” like Miss Emily was.By knowing that Faulkner's strongest influence was his independent mother, one can guess that Miss Emily Grierson's character was based partly on Maud Falkner.
His mother was not “crazy” either, but she was the parent that most supported Faulkner’s love of literature. With his mother being an independent role model of Southern women, we could imagine that Emily is showing the other side of the board. By this I mean, Emily is the opposite of Maud. Showing that letting others control you and your life can make you seem and act quite strange.
Miss Emily is a truly tragic figure, but one who we only see from the outside. Granted, the townspeople who tell her story know her better than we do, but not really by much. This is why Emily is called "impervious. " We can't quite penetrate her or completely understand her. But, perhaps there is a little Emily in all of us.
We will never really know why Emily did what she did, but yet again, others never really know why we choose to do something ourselves. Miss Emily also shows us to never underestimate the influence of others.
