"A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner: Literary Analysis.

Essay by BoristhebladeHigh School, 10th gradeA+, November 2005

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If you found out that your friend or relative killed people to keep them around, kept rotting bodies in their own bed, and slept next to rotting bodies at night, would you feel secure? Most normal people, as well as many doctors of the mind would tell you that this is abnormal behavior, practiced by a very small percentage of people, and that this would could be called madness for many reasons, and be on the level of needing serious help to cure these disturbing symptoms of madness. These are the three main behaviors that Emily expresses that lead me to believe tat when she dies at the end of the story, she is truly mad.

First off, Emily is in severe need of always having someone in her life to care and love for her. This is first demonstrated when her father dies, and she denies the fact and attempts to keep the rotting corpse in her house to keep her loved one as close to her as possible.

When she is finally convinced by town members to give up the body, she is devastated, and subconsciously spends the rest of her life moping and regretting this personal loss. The second time this is demonstrated is when she murders Homer Baron. The couple has a great time for quite a while, but when Emily starts to suspect that Homer might have plans of skipping town, she murders him in her room, and leaves him there so that she always feel loved and close to him just as she did that fateful night. These to events lead you to believe that she is driven to near madness by the extreme desire to have someone in her life that loves and cares for her.

Secondly, she is in constant need of...