Miss Emily

’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.