"Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning froward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair." (A Rose for Emily, Faulkner pg.35)
This end quote is very interesting to me. Reading the story I was aware of something more going on, but could not quite place it. I knew that Miss Emily is seen as being off her rocker a little, but throughout the story I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was just a sad lonely woman. Not until the end of this story where they find the body of a man in her room did I get a different idea about Miss Emily. Then ending it with these lines and talking about the strand of gray hair put it altogether. The strand of hair gave me the thought that Miss Emily was indeed mentally off, not only did she keep this body in a room, the gray hair on the pillow brought it altogether as to how off she was. The meaning of the gray hair to me, is that she was so out of reality that she lay beside the body of the man as if it were a living human being. I guess this line interested me most, because I noticed things that made Miss Emily noticeably odd, but then reading the end just brought it more into a shocking idea of what kind of person she was.
I too, wanted to give Miss Emily the benefit of the doubt. I still like to think that maybe she had such a rough existence that this seemed to be the only way for her to stay somewhat sane. She clearly loved that man in the bed and so she lay next to him even though he was no longer alive. I found this intriguing more than disgusting. Yes, it's strange, but I think she just needed love and this was the only way to fulfill that need.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I can definitely see your side on this. It definitely could go either way. This was for sure an interesting story that made you think.
ReplyDeleteHi, Mary and Amber. I agree that the ending is weird. On the one hand, Emily is probably crazy, as sleeping with a corpse is not what most people do. On the other hand, Emily comes across as a little more normal than the town seems to think in that, in her weird way, she has fallen in love or something like it. She seems almost human. I like the ambiguity of that. :) Nancy
ReplyDeleteI can kind of see that side, where before she didn't seem human, but now for once in her life does. I never thought of it that way before, but I definitely can see it.
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