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Characterization refers to the techniques a writer uses to develop
characters. In the story A Rose for Emily William Faulkner uses
characterization to reveal the character of Miss Emily. He expresses
the content of her character through physical description, through her
actions, words, and feelings, through a narrator's direct comments
about the character's nature, and through the actions, words, and
feelings, of other characters. Faulkner best uses characterization to
examine the theme of the story, too much pride can end in homicidal
madness.
Miss Emily, the main character of this story, lives for many years
as a recluse, someone who has withdrawn from a community to live in
seclusion. "No visitor had passed since she ceased giving
china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier" (394). Faulkner
characterizes Miss Emily's attempt to remove herself from society
through her actions. "After her father's death she went out very
little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all"
(395). The death of her father and the shattered relationship with her
sweetheart contributed to her seclusion.
Though her father was responsible for her becoming a recluse, her
pride also contributed to her seclusion. "None of the young men were
quite good enough for Miss Emily and such" (395). Faulkner uses the
feelings of other characters to show Miss Emily's pride. Her pride has
kept her from socializing with other members of the community thus
reinforcing her solitary. But Miss Emily's father is still responsible
for her being a hermit. "We remembered all the young men her father had
driven away..." (396). If he had not refuse the men who wanted to go
out with Miss Emily, she may have not gone crazy.
Miss Emily may have wanted seclusion, but her heart lingered for
companionship. Her desire for love and companionship drove her to
murder Homer Baron. She knew her intentions when she bought the arsenic
poison. "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation
of a head" (400). Her deepest feelings and hidden longings were lying
in the bed. Miss Emily's pride resulted in the shocking murder of Homer
Baron.
Faulkner's use of characterization to describe Miss Emily and her
intentions was triumphant in bring the story to life. Miss Emily's
pride was expressed through her actions, words, and feelings, through a
narrator's direct comments about the character's nature, and through
the actions, words, and feelings, of other characters. Miss Emily's
story constitutes a warning against the sin of pride: heroic isolation
pushed too far ends in homicidal madness.
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