Being inability to distinguish past from present

Being mentally unstable can define an individual’s actions toward certain situations and someone who is mentally unstable is more erratic, which means the person faces a high risk of reacting violently when provoked. Offending a person who is mentally unstable might not seem so bad to the individual who is stable at first , but when that person realizes later on why they were caught in the conflict it is too late. Foreshadowing adds dramatic tension to a story by building anticipation on what is to come later on.

She struggles a lot with the traditions and life in the Old South. The author makes use of different aspects of her life assisting the reader to have a full understanding of the life of Emily. Throughout the story “ A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner he foreshadows Miss Emily’s mental instability by utilizing details of her relationship with her father and family, her relationships with the community and how they treat her,  her inability to distinguish past from present . Emily has a strained relationship with her father. Emily’s Father treated her like a delicate egg.

Her relationship with her father consisted of her having to following and abide by whatever he wanted her to. Being a southern female comes with a lot of responsibility and pressure because you are expected to act ladylike. When it came to marriage in a southern household the father gave the final blessing. Emily’s father “ driven away” all the young suitors that came for his daughter’s hand in marriage. In doing so he  shows his overprotective character.

Miss Emily only knew the love of her father because he never allowed anyone else to love her. Emily’s only friend was her dad and the indoors. She was not allowed out of the house much which was how her father liked it. Her “ slender figure in the white background” shows how she was always kept behind her father’s  protection. Since Emily’s father did not believe anyone was good enough for her he kept her under his wing.

People felt sorry for Emily. They knew about how her great aunt had gone “ completely crazy” and felt bad that she had to live in such a dysfunctional family. They were aware that her only opportunity for getting away from  all of the insanity was to get married.

Although her father treated her like a child until she was thirty years of age and everyone her age was married off  his death took a huge toll on her. She became very antisocial and distant from other people. She “ went out very little”  after her father’s death and for three days she was “ in denial” that he had passed away. and Since Miss Emily had such a close relationship with her father, his death took a toll on her; after his death she “ went outside very little” and was in denial that he had passed away. She did not want to believe that the only love and human she knew had been taken away forever. Emily’s father was very important to her, losing him made her begin to ignore the outside world and lose herself. Emily shows signs that she is mentally unstable when she first refused to believe that her father was dead.

It was more than her father’s death that influenced her mental instability, but her family background too. Her mental instability could have also been an inherited thing from her great aunt who went completely crazy. Faulkner foreshadows Emily’s later actions by amplifying the loss of her father and her family’s history. The relationship that Emily has with the community and the way it treats her shows that there is some level of disconnect between them. Faulkner foreshadows Emily’s mental state by describing her relationship with the community and how they treat her. Miss Emily is respected by the elders of the town, but the new generation, do not treat or respect her as much as the elders do.

Emily is known to be from a wealthy family, so she is therefore  respected amongst all of the townspeople, Some of the younger generation were jealous of her because of her wealth and the beautiful home she lived in. In an attempt to take  her money the new generation agree to make Miss Emily pay taxes because they did not agree with the older policy, but Emily refuses and ends up not paying. When the townspeople wanted to give her a mailbox and post numbers above her home she “ refused to let them fasten the metal number above her door”. Emily did not want anyone to send her any kind of tax , so since she had no proper mailbox or adress no one would be able to send her anything.

Emily has been trapped in the house and lost track of time for so long that she had no idea about the “ younger generation” and new taxes. Many of the townspeople distance themselves from Miss Emily. They were aware that her father had died but yet treated her like an outsider because of how much time she spent indoors. After her father’s death, the community begins to pity her saying “ poor Emily,” she then meet Homer, who received different reactions from the town. The older people thought that Emily and Homer’s relationship is a “ disgrace to the town”, since he is a “ northerner.

” During the recession  time period northerners and southerners did mix well, so they had no choice but to act hostile toward one another. Meeting Homer was like finding a father figure and a replacement of her father.  Rumors soon begin to spread that grief is what is making Emily date Homer Barron.

The older townspeople did not agree very much with the relationship since she was a southerner and he was a northerner , they thought Emily had “ forgotten her kinship.” When Emily decides to go out she makes a trip to a shop to purchase arsenic (poison). Some of the townspeople witness Emily purchasing the arsenic so they instantly make the assumption “ she will kill herself,”. Many townspeople felt sorry for Emily due to her father’s death because she didn’t take his death too well. They thought in her doing so she was doing the best thing for herself because it would end her emotional and mental suffering.. Emily and her family were treated with very high respect, they were always the  subject of discussion, and were of very  high-class. When Miss Emily passed away all the townspeople attended her funeral, some out of curiosity on what is in the house and others to pay their respects.

Faulkner uses Emily’s introvert personality, her relationship with the townspeople and how they treated her to emphasize and indicate Emily’s mental state. The story defines Emily as “ a fallen monument” . This relates to the idea that the life of Emily is slowly fading away. The reader is able to foretell that the life of Emily is about to go through some form of life defining changes.

Faulkner foreshadows her insanity by describing her inability to distinguish between the past and the present. Emily has to live in her family’s shadow which puts a lot of pressure on her, keeping her stuck in the past because she has to remember how to “ live up to her name”, which contributes to her mental state. To the town she has been a “ hereditary obligation”. The author makes it clear that Emily and her family are an important aspect of the community. Growing up she has continuously followed and listened to what her father said because that was the only way of life she knew.

Losing her father made it hard for her to be able to make decisions on her own because she has no one who can tell her to do so. The new generation came up  with all laws and rules, which had conflicted Emily’s judgement about the past and the present because she only remembered what was told to her by her father. Emily  says “ see Colonel Sartoris,” when asked about her taxes, even though he had been “ dead almost ten years ago.” She was unable to realize that he was gone and that a new generation had come into power.

Emily does not realize her house was the only one that was not modernized and well designed . He describes it’s “ smell of dust and disuse”. The author makes a connection between Emily’s decaying house and mental instability. Faulkner foreshadows Emily’s mental state by describing her inability to differentiate between the past in the present, through her house decor, taxes, and loss of  her father.            In “ A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner foreshadows Miss Emily’s mental instability by describing her relationship with her father and her family background, her relationship with the community and how they treat her, and her inability to distinguish the difference between the past and the present. The author confirms Emily’s insanity by revealing Homer’s death at the end of the story. Homer’s dead body of many years is found on Emily’s bed, with and mark of someones head in the pillow a long with strand of her hair.

This show how Emily was so scared of losing someone else so in order to hang on to him forever she sleeps with the corpse, confirming her insanity. Emily goes through the loss of her father, which makes her distant herself away from the community, her family, making her go crazy and contributing to her mental state.