A Rose For Emily Schizophrenia Analysis

A Rose for Emily, by Faulkner, contrasts the beliefs of the South as it becomes more industrialized like the North after the Civil War. Miss Emily’s abnormal behavior, most likely due to societal-demanding conditions from her as a Southern Aristocratic woman, verifies that she's an atypical character by any average reader’s standards. Miss Emily’s inappropriate actions and unusual character reveal her mental condition of Schizophrenia, restricting her abilities to cope and adapt to stress. The beginning of the story demonstrates one of the earliest symptoms of Schizophrenia and its effect on a person’s ability to express appropriate emotion. For example, as the ladies of the town gather around Miss Emily’s front door to offer their condolences for her deceased father, they immediately notice that there was “no trace of grief on her face”. Although Miss Emily is very …show more content…
While the town believed she would use the poison as Homer refused to marry her, Miss Emily uses it to murder Homer instead. This type of compulsive behavior is another sign of Schizophrenia, indicating an inappropriate response to a refusal as women don't typically kill for it. It also illustrates her insane obsession with the gay man as she kills him because “If she can't have him, nobody can”. However, the strangest behavior of Miss Emily’s is when she sleeps next to Homer’s decaying body for years. This is illustrated when the townspeople discovers an indentation of a head, with a long strand of gray hair, on a pillow next to the dead body itself. This obvious psychotic behavior confirms Miss Emily’s mental disorder, specifically Schizophrenia. Pressures of society can affect the psychological side of the brain, as so in Miss Emily’s case. She also lacked adaptive coping skills to help manage stress like her father’s death and rejected love, expressing the importance of developing such skills in