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Brooklyn McKenzie
Mrs. Pettay
ENG 112 2B
19 May 2016
Men and Their Impacts
Women are viewed as inferior to men. Examples of this have been shown through out
time. In A Rose For Emily, the town, in the south, strongly believe that woman can not
survive without a strong male to take care of them. Of course this male had to meet very strict
requirements. No servant nor yankee would do. As Miss Emily lives her life, her changes in
personality show that the control by men can lead to someone losing their sanity. Her life
consists of male control and no male control. The downfall for Miss Emily occurs when she
loses the male control. It is apparent that Miss Emily can not survive without a male. In
Faulkners, A Rose for Emily, the loss of Emilys father, and denied love from Homer, left
Miss Emily incapable of surviving as an independent female.
In the society presented in A Rose for Emily, the male figure in a household is
responsible for all others in his house. This proves to be true in the Grierson household as well.
For example, the crayon portrait of Miss Emilys father stands in the house to watch over
Emily after his death. This portrait represents how Mr. Grierson continues to watch over his
daughter even though he is no longer alive. However, before Emilys fathers death, he had
complete control over her life. As literary analyzer, Thomas Dilworth reminds readers, her
father kept her single for over thirty years by standing at the doorway with a horsewhip in his
fist. Mr. Grierson did not believe that any man was good enough for her daughter and of course
Miss Emily trusted her father. Miss Emily idolized and idealized her father (Dilworth). The

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respect Emily had for her father greatly influenced her after his death. Since Emily was hiding
under her fathers control, she became very lonely. She hid in her house for years. A smell
began to build in and out of her house which led to some dispute between the town and the
judge. After the death of Emily's father, the town felt bad for poor Emily because she was a
woman living alone. The townspeople had wanted to preserve the values of the old south
embodied in Emily as representative of idealized southern womanhood (Dilworth). However,
since Miss Emily was a lonely woman without a man, Judge Stevens said he will not accuse a
lady of smelling bad to her face. The, now single and lonely lady Grierson, was left with nothing
but her house. Her father left her with no man to take care of her, no money to survive, and no
education on being independent. This loneliness continued on and led her to do some things she
would not have done if her father was still living.
Now that Emilys dad had died, she lost the person who had complete control over her.
She clung to him even after he had died, denying he was even gone, but after some time, Emily
decided to take on a strong feminist approach to life. Miss Emily was finished with men
controlling her life. She grasped this independency in different scenarios, once, when faced with
the mayor coming for her taxes. After repeatedly telling the mayor she had no taxes, he left
without getting the money he needed. The text shows that Miss Emily was not going to let this
man control her. She knew that she had no taxes and she was sticking to that. The second
example of Miss Emily controlling herself was when she went to claim the rat poison. Miss
Emily and the druggist went back and forth about the arsenic, but the druggist ultimately gave it
to her and said, if that's what you want. This approach to her new single life seemed as if Miss
Emily could control her independence, however, as the story progresses, Miss Emilys actions
show how unstable she is without a man. Her terrible loneliness and desperation for

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companionship was Miss Emily's definite downfall (Dilworth). As Miss Emilys character
progresses through the story, it's apparent that she is not capable of living a strong independent
womanly life.
Although Miss Emily spent a good amount of time alone, she soon realized she was not
okay with being alone. The loneliness and lack of male control impacted her. The amount of
control Mr. Grierson had over Emily was large. The control her father had was what made her
safe and sane, so when Homer was labeled as not the marrying type, Miss Emily lost herself.
She felt that she needed male control and Homer Barron was not giving that to her. Miss Emilys
first attempt to bring Homer to her included the bathroom set with a toilet engraved with Homer
Barrons initials. When Homer denied the gifts and marriage proposal, all hope was lost for Miss
Emily. Her adventurous attempt to have him for eternity, may have seem absolutely crazy, but
unfortunately for Miss Emily, she found this to be the only way for her to survive. For killing
Homer Barron gave Miss Emily the chance to have and hold onto Homer for the rest of her life.
Literary analysis, Laura Getty, states Emily has a need to cling to Homer as she had tried to
cling to her father. Although Emily previously tried to survive alone and with a strong feminist
approach to life, she just could not. She needed a man. Miss Emily was trapped in this
patriarchy society and incapable of living independently.
In A Rose For Emily, Miss. Emily Grierson goes through changes as a woman. She is
dependent upon her father, then tries to become independent, but soon realizes she needs a man.
As history has shown, females need a male in order to survive and thrive. In society today,
Americans have been prospering in a male dominated government. Women are constantly put
in places where men dominate their lives. Women would be unable to thrive in a female

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dominated society because they are so accustomed to a male society. Just as Miss Emily needed
a man to survive, several women in today's society depend greatly on the men in their lives too.

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Works cited
Dilworth, Thomas. A Romance to Kill for: Homicidal Complicity in Faulkners A Rose for
Emily. Studies in Short Fiction 36 (1999): 251-261. Print.
Getty, Laura. Faulkners A Raise for Emliy. The Explicator. Vol. 63, Iss 4 (2005): 231-233.
Print.