A Rose For Emily: Character Analysis Protagonist

Loneliness and isolation have been written about for generations through literary works, such as William's Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'. This short story is centered around a young upper-class woman, Emily Grierson, in a southern town during the early twentieth century. Since her father died, she lived alone, and she never married. The story is told through a neighbor's point of view, and how they slowly stop to see Emily appearing in town until eventually she never leaves her home. Faulkner's story shows how loneliness and isolation can be a driving force in the decline of one's mind and hinder their ability to function in a normal society.

So, “A rose for Emily” character analysis protagonist.

The first time that Faulkner mentions Emily's loneliness is when the reader learns that her father has died. The way that Faulkner describes Emily's reaction to her father's death, 'Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face.

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She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days'. This marks the first sign that something may be off with her mind. Emily's neighbors comment on how they never see her out of her house after her father dies, they only see the Negro man going to and from the market. This is the first time Emily begins to isolate herself from society, and Faulkner uses Mr. Grierson's death as a way to humanize Emily to the townspeople, so they begin to take pity on her.

The only lull in the isolation Emily shows the town is when she meets a new suitor, Homer Barron.

Homer Barron becomes a driving force for Emily. Once she starts a relationship with him, she is seen out in the town again. They take Sunday carriage rides through town, and people begin to think that maybe Emily will marry Homer. That is until Homer disappears, and Emily buys poison. The town thinks she will kill herself from her lost love, but instead she locks herself in her home again, the same way she did when her father left her. The only movement from Emily's house for a long time was again the Negro man coming and going with a basket to the market. Sometime after Homer had left, Emily tried to fight the loneliness and isolation by hosting a China painting class in her home, but it was short-lived. The town was changing, and people no longer wanted to paint China, so Emily gave in to the isolation and closed her door for good.

Faulkner writes that Emily kept her door closed for ten years, never leaving her home. She willingly isolates herself from the town, up until the day she died. The whole town attended the funeral, but they had ulterior motives, 'the men [attended] through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years'. Emily Grierson was an enigma in the town, due mostly to the sporadic periods of isolation she put herself through. The town had a hard time understanding her, and she never really showed them her true colors. The town did not learn how lonely the isolation had made Emily until after she died and, in her home, they found the body of Homer Barron. Faulkner shows just how desperate and lonely Emily must have truly been in the last line of his story, 'Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair'.

In William Faulkner's, 'A Rose for Emily', he paints a picture of what loneliness and isolation can do to a person. Loneliness can damage a person's brain and make them do crazy things. It hinders cognitive abilities, such as complex thinking. This is exactly what Faulkner was trying to show with 'A Rose for Emily' because it shows how social isolation can mess with someone as it did for Emily. The human brain is a sensitive thing that needs to be exercised and it needs social stimulation, which is something Emily never got. Living with her strict father, she didn't get out of the house much and then once he was gone, Emily didn't quite know how to be social with the town. Faulkner was trying to show how the town drove her into isolation since she was held at a higher standard because of her being upper-class. The mind is a delicate thing, and Faulkner was proving that it needs to be taken care of to be a functioning member of society. 

Works cited

1. Faulkner, W. (1930). A rose for Emily. Forum, 84(1), 30-33.
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