In the short article by William Faulkner named A Rose for Emily, the leading character Emily Grierson displays an eccentric personality trait throughout the story by her actions and lifestyle. Her bizarre behaviors promptly steer people to create assumptions about her mental and physical health, although Miss Emily physically seems fine. According to the townsfolk in the story, they describe Grierson as very pretty when she was young and passed away because of an illness but one never came to a confirmed conclusion of what Emily is had. In fact, the Miss suffers from an illness which that none could figure out.
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that affects how individuals think, feel, and behave. It pulls a person from reality causing them to imagine other things from what a typical human should. There are two types of symptoms in what the disorders fall under. For example, delusions and hallucinations are positive symptoms causing a person to lost contact with reality reduced speaking and social isolation are negative symptoms dealing with emotion and behavior disarrangement. According to Emily, her withdrawal from society and odd behaviors prove to us why she carries this mental illness.
Miss Emily suffers from schizophrenia because she shows symptoms of withdrawing from society. Throughout Emily's life, her aristocratic father the townspeople highly respected, kept Emily closed in believing no suitors are worthy enough for her. Her father serves as the sole source she connected with but when her father passed away, she realizes she lost someone dear who performed the most part in her routine life. The author states, ¨After her father's death she went out very little¨ (Faulkner 805) proving that Emily began to separate herself from everyone and the world. Aside from her father, she meets with a blue-collar worker from the North, Homer Barron as her love interest; however, in the story Faulkner claims ¨...because Homer himself had remarked – he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks club – that he was not a marrying man¨ (809). Put differently, Faulkner implies Homer is not a man who intends to marry. Aware that Emily executes Homer, so he will be with her forever shifting us back to Emily dropping from society after she killed him. Although townspeople just pity her and no proper treatment was given to Miss Emily, she abundantly shows definite symptom behaviors of schizophrenia.
On the other hand, another specific symptom of why Grierson suffers from schizophrenia is her peculiar behaviors. Denial Emily refuses to accept the death of her father and kills Homer because she is fearful of letting him go just like her father. Corresponding to the story, she goes and buys arsenic although it is unsure if she used it to kill Barron, it is assumed she killed him with it. The day Grierson bought the poison; she communicates with the druggist in an unusual tone without providing an explanation why she required arsenic. After many years, it is later found that a long strand of iron-gray hair was on the pillow beside where Barron's corpse sleeps indicates that Miss Emily has slept with him. When the spokesman tries to confront her about paying taxes, she refuses and demands the only person active in the house, Tobe to escort the men out. Faulkner states, ¨See Colonel Sartoris¨ (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years) (805). This quotation exhibits that Miss Emily is unaware of what has happened once she shut herself out from the world and this helps further our diagnostic of her illness. It is abnormal to her to not know about what happened to Colonel Sartoris because usually, people who lived in that town would know, but not Emily. Therefore, Grierson evidently shows us another symptom of why she suffers from schizophrenia.
Wrapping up, in the short story of Emily Grierson townsfolk constantly thought she was just ill and pities her for the passing of her father, Homer's words, and other details but no one truly knew the substantial reason why Emily behaves how she does. Going back to her actions and behavior, Emily has suffered from schizophrenia for a long time throughout her entire life. She has given away many signs and symptoms to prove to us that schizophrenia was a valid illness in her.