In the passage “A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner the protagonist Emily Grierson who lived in the south where a person’s social class determined the expectations of a person’s behavior and how society viewed and treated them. Emily Grierson is an older woman who comes from a wealthy family but suffers from schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by incoherent, illogical thoughts, and bizarre behavior” (Kazdin 2000) Miss Emily goes through many obstacles and the town of Jefferson where she resided feels pity for her but Miss Emily still demands respect and dignity. Emily shows signs that she suffers from a mental illness due to her delusions and her withdrawn from society. Emily father …show more content…
The entire community conspires unconsciously to protect Miss Emily from the shame and stigma that may be caused due to her illness and idiosyncratic behavior. The townspeople knew she was distraught from her father’s death and knew that her father had dominated her all of her life and with him gone she felt no since of guidance. She sought to find a replacement for her father and found it in her lover Homer. Though the disappearance of her lover Homer and her suspicious behavior around the time of his disappearance nobody seem to pin his death on her. After Homer’s disappearance Miss Emily had a strong stench coming from her house yet no one bothered to put circumstantial evidence together nor wanted to question her about the smell. “Give her a notice to have her place cleaned up and a certain time to do it in and if she don’t”. “Dammit Sir” judge Stevens said “Would you accuse a lady of smelling bad to her face?” (Faulkner, A rose for Emily 2000) The judge shows sympathy towards Emily and the situation of her home having a horrible smell coming from it. He doesn’t want to be the one who tells her that her home reeks because he didn’t want to embarrass her. The judge still shows compassion and respect for Emily in her lowest