Quote Design: William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”

The image above portrays an aged, stout woman who is wearing a stern expression, which captures Miss Emily‘s cold demeanor; her physical condition is a representation of the mental illnesses she dealt with. This quote from “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is significant because it shows how quick-tempered Miss Emily is that she is willing and determined to buy a deadly poison without taking no for an answer. The years of torment from her father’s authoritarian parenting style, visible through her wrinkles and overweight figure, prohibited Miss Emily from seeing other men and exploring her sexuality, prompting her to take extreme measures to fulfill her “wishful impulse” (Freud 2212), or more specifically a “perversion” (Freud 2231); in which case, she poisons Homer Barron, the only man who spent enough time with her to make her fall in love, and therefore, she fulfills her desire to show sexual attraction towards a corpse (necrophilia). 

Works Cited 

Wood, Lawson. “A fashionable young lady asking a pharmacist about the durability of the cosmetics he sells.” 1909. Colored pencil drawing. Photoshopped by Laura Dinh. Wellcome Images. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/s74qmpj6. Accessed 30 Nov. 2020.