Abuse In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

A Rose for Emily is definitely not a positive story by no means. Instead, it rather shows what it is like to live with a mental disorder, as the main character Emily did. Though positivity is not a central subject in a Rose for Emily, one can find that pain is a more fitting. Emily surroundings seem to move forward as she holds on to the past. It is said that Emily’s house was once elegant and located in an upscale neighborhood, but now her home seemed to stick out more than she did. However, the lack of interest in Emily’s life did not stop the whole community to coming to her funeral. Emily suffered from being mentally abused while growing up. Due to her father’s abuse, she never quite devolved adequate social skills and the ability to adapt in present day society. Since she struggled with social skills much of the community did not know how to treat Emily, and that lead to no one trying to communicate with her. However, the community was ever so interested in every move she made and everything she did sparked curiosity. After the public found out she had her first boyfriend, she was later spotted purchasing rat poison. After a few months’ …show more content…
The climax comes in the middle when Emily responds to the drug store clerk that the rat poison she was purchasing was for “rats”. This gives us an inside clue as to what she thought of Homer Barron and maybe people in general. She wanted a normal life but maybe she realized Homer could not give that to her, so she thought she only had one choice, exterminate. Although one does not know for sure what really happen it can be concluded that she in fact killed her only boyfriend. Not only did Homer die, but a part of Emily did as well. Her last strand of normalcy faded away as her mind seemed to do. Due to the mental state that she was in, I do not feel like she was capable of making decisions as a normal person