A Rose For Emily Isolation Analysis

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Atul Gawande once said,“Human interaction is the key force in overcoming resistance and speeding change.” If people do not have contact with other people it can cause psychological problems. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, Faulkner tries to show the need for human interaction through Emily Grierson´s isolation from society, loss of her father, and her necrophilia. Emily’s isolation from her community is very prevalent throughout the story. The town puts Emily on a pedestal, because she seemed to act like she was better than everyone else. She did not have many close interactions, and the townspeople did not try to get to know her closer. The town gossiped about Emily constantly throughout the story. One example of the town gossiping …show more content…
After the death of her father the town contracted a construction company to pave the sidewalks outside her house. The man leading all the workers was Homer Barron. The narrator describes Homer as being a very handsome and commanding man. Homer became a very prominent person in the community, much like her father, whom everyone knew and liked. Homer started to court Emily. On Sunday afternoons Homer and Emily would drive in a yellow-wheeled buggy pulled by horses. The town was glad to see Emily having interest in a man without her father driving him off. Unfortunately, the relationship changed; Emily later purchased poison from a pharmacist. Emily seemed very suspicious when she bought the arsenic. When buying the poison, on page four, she told the pharmacist, “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind.” The pharmacist told Emily she needed to tell him what she intended to use the poison for. This foreshadows the death of Homer.The town however, assumed Emily had intended to commit suicide with the arsenic. They thought she would kill herself because Homer did not seem to want to settle down and marry her. On page four the narrator says, “Then we said, “She will persuade him yet,” because Homer himself had remarked-he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club-that he was not a marrying man.” The couple’s love seemed to appear to be scandalous causing the minister to contact Emily’s relations in Alabama. The two cousins the minister contacted came to visit Emily. The town then learned Emily had bought a man’s silver toilet set with H.B. engraved on each piece. She also bought a men’s night shirt. This lead the community to believe the couple had been married. After Emily’s cousins had left, a neighbor saw Homer enter Emily’s house and that was the last time the town ever saw Homer Barron. The next time the town saw Emily was when she had become very
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