Written by William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” is a short story on an old southern lady by the name of Miss Emily Grierson. She used to be a mentally normal person, but the death of her father struck her deeply. This caused her to mold into a more unstable state. More popularly known a ‘psychopath’. The fear of abandonment, denial, avoidance, displacement, the oedipal complex, and regression which is constantly recycled throughout the story, she undergoes depression, repression, and recovery; even if she never experiences full salvage.
Miss Emily’s behavior in the beginning compared to that of at the end s very relatable. Almost every concept that was listed above can be directly applied back and forth, from beginning to end. The concepts also follow a solid chain reaction from those very same checkpoints, and it all starts with her father. It is plausible to say that Miss Emily started falling apart when her father had died. When in reality she was already in the process of breakdown when her father was alive and well. It was just that when he died, it pushed her on the edge.
Mr. Grierson bullied away every young man that wanted to be with Miss Emily. Over time, this caused an unstable relationship between er and her father. But her father had no conscience of the oedipal complex she was developing. Even so, this idea was not in a full blown effect at that time. The reason being is because of how she did not try to have sexual relations with a man that resembles her father. The bond was just completely dysfunctional in her conscious, so when he died she was not looking for someone to have a sex drive with at this time.
Rather just someone to take his place as head or to lose her the sense of abandonment and maybe replace it with joy. One might say that because of the disconnection between lovers, and the very ell controlling personality of her father, that Miss Emily had a fear of abandonment as well as denial. It was not just that her father died. No, that was just the tip of the iceberg. It was in fact how she conducted his death. For three days, she told the ministers and doctors of that town that her father was not dead. Her denial was the existence of her father’s death was not real.
Not only did she not believe it but to make herself more assure, she left him where he died. Meaning the corpse was still in her presence for three days. Now the fear of abandonment occurs. “.. he would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will. “(796). In this case, it would be her father because there is no man in her life because he took that away from her. This leads back to a not yet full blown oedipal complex. As known, the dysfunctional bond is there, but the sexual attraction to it is not. Leave the sexual drive up to a construction worker by the name of Homer Baron.
Ironically, his character was not a ‘stay in one place’ type of man, but by the end of the story Miss Emily made sure he would leave. The uncommitted type of lifestyle he has chosen sealed his fate. He caught not only her heart (as for so they got married), but her attention as well. The attention that Miss Emily so deeply desired, she took his life to make it quite certain that he would not abandon her like her father did. Which was, in fact, unintentional.
Taking a slight pause on the psychoanalysis of Miss Emily, there is a latent problem with Mr. Grierson her father. Even though his death was unintentional, leaving his daughter’s hand to no one was unquestionably programmed and every blame falls on him. Mr. Grierson has a problem of his own, which is probably why he ever agreed or settled with any men that tried to coat with his daughter (although in his eyes it seemed more like taking). Saying so, It is only right to be certain that Mr. Grierson has a fear of abandonment. He was afraid of having no one left that was a part of the family. He was a very strong man when it came down to family.
Especially when it was family talking about family. Miss Emily’s great-aunt, old lady Wyatt, according to the town people had gone “completely crazy at last” (796). That didn’t settle with Mr. Grierson so well, so when their kin from Alabama had a quarrel with him about their crazy kin there was o communication between the families for years. “She had some kin in Alabama; but years ago her father had fallen out with them over the estate of old lady Wyatt, the crazy woman, SO and there was no communication between the two families” (797).
Having no one close by that he actually still communicated with, this left him unconsciously i hang on to what he had left. Being afraid that a man would take away his daughter is a scary thought, especially when you are all alone. But Miss Emily did not see this, so she took from someone else what he took out of her. She put that isplacement on Homer Baron not just mentally but physically as well. In her mind, it was only admirable to say since my father left me and with no one to love, it is only right thatI make up for his actions my making sure no one leaves me once again.
But after the marriage her psychological state is no longer a fear of abandonment. The reason to rely on such a claim is due to how Mr. Baron came back after Miss Emily’s relatives visited (the ones that Mr. Grierson did not like). If he really was going to leave her or a ‘keep it moving’ type a guy he says he is, there would be no reason to come back. It rather becomes a egression as well as the full circle of the oedipal complex. Now the battle isn’t with herself but instead her father. Miss Emily has a regression of corpse and death from her father and she takes that to Homer Baron.
When her father died she kept the corpse in the house because of denial and abandonment. By killing Homer, she completes the circle of the oedipal complex. She now has a man just like her father. When she killed Mr. Baron with rat poisoning she dressed him and lay him in her bed, where she slept every night until her death. So his corpse was right beside her every night sleeping with her through the reams. She can now be considered to have necrophilia- the choice but to sexual attraction toward corpses. This is the other half -the sexual part- of the oedipal complex.
This concept could not be true if it were not for Homer. Not only through his help but also through the acts of regression of her father’s death, which could not be turned into something more if she had not felt the fear of abandonment. That fear which would come from her father’s routine of rejecting the young men out of life. Mr. Grierson may or may not have such a routine if he himself had not felt abandoned. Miss Emily did have many problems, but it was not just after her father had died like the town’s people proclaimed.
It was an inside deal that begun when he was alive and well. She and her father were unconscious of their own actions and psychological pattern. It may have been processed on their own doing, or passed down from old lady Wyatt. Where it did the trait come from? The answer is unclear. But what we do know is how she went from being well known to the town as “. tradition, a duty, and a care. “(794); to nothing more than a new sad, daunting story for the town’s people to tell their kids.