While reading A Rose for Emily I both sympathized for her as well as came up with many questions concerning the story. People considered her a pathetic, lonely, old women in her town which alone is quite sad. The towns people simply looked at her as their means of entertainment. She was simply something for them to talk about. If I was in her situation, I too would stay at home all the day. It makes perfect sense for her not to leave her home. Every time she leaves she is stared at and gossiped about. Would you want to leave your house with this happening? People whisper about her as she walked by leaving her feel hurt and unwanted.
The people in this town as so cruel and only think about themselves. At one point they sprinkle lime juice on her lawn simply so they don't have to smell whatever smell is lingering around her home. They don't think to just ask her to do something about it. They feel the need to sneak on to her property.
Also when Emily dies, it seems that they only come to the funeral out of curiosity. They don't come as a sign of respect but just nosiness. They hardly got to see her, except for the rare occasion that she would come out of the house out of necessity. So they simply wanted to see what she looked like up close.
There are still many more questions that come to mind when reading this essay. These are just a few that seem most shocking to me.
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4 comments:
I am intrigued at how much you sympathized with the main character. Many readers feel appalled by Emily's gruesome love affair, yet you bring up some interesting points about the "humanness" of the character. I find the following comments from your blog helpful in understanding how I might better sympathize with Emily, rather than condem her: "The towns people simply looked at her as their means of entertainment. She was simply something for them to talk about" and "People whisper about her as she walked by leaving her feel hurt and unwanted."
I wonder if Faulkner purposefully portrayed Emily as both gruesome and pathetic in order to manipulate readers' feelings...how can we possibly hate and/or blame Emily for her actions, considering how she is treated by everyone around her?
I agree. I think most people get too caught up with the weird and twisted ending and fail to see how the story should be more about Emily and her saddness.
When you have no one that cares about you and you lose touch with normal, human interaction, you create your own standards and your own reality.
I think it is very sad that people stoop to such lows to avoid contact with people who are outcasts. I thought you brought up a good point about how they would not even respect her enough to ask her about the smell instead of sneaking around. I never thought of that before.
I completely agree with you feeling sympathy for Emily! I feel as if people may think of her as a crabby, secretive, smelly person; and I think everyone is that way in a sense! People are just accusing her when possibly something might be wrong with them?
I just feel that if you are not treated with respect by others; why should you give them respect? Because the townspeople certainly gave her no respect. Especially since they had to go do things behind her back and didn't even have the descency to go tell her to her face!
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