| ’s Male Interaction In A Rose For Emily Essay, Research Paper
Miss Emily’s male interaction in A Rose for Emily
The way that a person is raised has a lot to do with their
personality and actions as an adult. The protagonist in A
Rose for Emily is an example of just that. Miss Emily was
raised to be very dependent on the only male figure in her
life, her father. This set the type of interaction that she
would have with the male figures throughout her life. Even
though there were few, Miss Emily was dependent and unable
to let go of her men that she encountered during her
lifetime.
The first male figure in Miss Emily s life, and the one
that caused Emily s dependency, is her father. All through
Emily s life, her father kept her close at home and didn t
allow her to see other men. This of course caused Emily to
realize that she would spend the rest of her life with her
father. When her father died and left her alone Miss Emily
did not want to face reality and tried to keep the body.
This proves her inability to let go of her first true male
figure.
Miss Emily s next male figure is one that helped her
earlier in her life. Colonel Sartoris was able to remit
Emily s taxes under the impression that the town owed her
money. This act of kindness by the Colonel caused Emily s
dependence upon him and what he did for her. Later in the
story, the Board of Alderman approached Miss Emily at her
house in the attempt to get her to pay her taxes. When the
Board started questioning Miss Emily about why she would not
pay she told them to talk to Colonel Sartoris. Even though
the Colonel had been dead for almost ten years the old women
insisted they see him and leave her alone. Emily s
dependency on Colonel Sartoris caused her to believe he was
still alive, showing again how she is not able to let go of
the male figures in her life.
The most disturbing evidence of Miss Emily s male
problems is her interaction with Homer Barron. Homer was a
foreman who was in town helping with the construction of
sidewalks. Emily became infatuated with Homer and would have
probably married him. Unfortunately for her though, it was
rumored that he was gay. When it came time for Homer to
leave, Miss Emily could not deal with that as she had become
dependent on him. In order to keep him for herself she
poisoned him. This shows how extreme her dependency on her
lifes male figures was.
Miss Emily was a deeply troubled woman who had to have
everything her way. She was too dependent to live on her own
without the presence of a male authority figure. Her
father s death brought denial, as did Colonel Sartoris
death. When Homer came around Emily couldn t afford another
man to leave her and she did what she thought she had to do.
With Emily s dependency on her father she was caused to
depend on each man she came in contact with, keeping each
close to her anyway she could.
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