The Fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian Analysis of A Rose for Emily

Abstract

This paper discusses the tragic life of Faulkner’s Emily Grierson, a life dominated by patriarchy and traditional Southern social values, which concludes with her living as a lonely recluse in her family’s decaying aristocratic house for more than forty years until her death. The key of the tragedy is her father, who isolates Emily from the outside world and tortures her with traditional patriarchal rules and Southern family duty. Emily is expected to lead a life like other girls