This paper investigates the development of the heroine’s psychology during the period presented in A Rose for Emily by displaying her experiences in chronological order and teasing out the details that may have caused significant influence on Emily’s mental state. It is concluded that Emily has developed a particularly strong desire for controlling and personal awareness under the social deprivation by her father for about thirty years, contributing to her twisted acknowledgement of her relationship with Homer, which are later triggered off when Homer refuses to marry her, finally into the seemingly inconceivable ending that Emily kills him and spends the rest forty years of her life with the decomposing corpse of her beloved one’s.
展开▼
