Thorn on the Rose, Emily’s Father William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” tells the tale of Emily Grierson, a reclusive spinster separated from her community by her overbearing father and her family’s arrogant reputation. Emily is completely controlled by her father during the first thirty years of her life. He keeps her alone and at his side until his death. This abnormal, possibly incestuous, relationship with her father results in …showed first 75 words of 617 total…

…showed last 75 words of 617 total…is her father’s body. Psychologists today understand that a person’s self-esteem and mental health are directly related to the parent-child connection. Emily’s parental relationship was one of manipulation, power, control, and perhaps incest. Her environment was so extremely distorted; her descent into insanity is not surprising. Had Emily’s father been a loving man with normal aspirations for his daughter, it is highly doubtful Emily’s existence would have been so dreadful.