Psychological Analysis of Emily Grierson in Short Story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
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Psychological Analysis of Emily Grierson in Short Story A Rose for Emily
by William Faulkner
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Psychological Analysis of Emily Grierson in Short Story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
Gaby Kumala Dewi Santoso*, Ida Bagus Putra Yadnya, Ni Ketut Alit Ida Setianingsih.
English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University. [[email protected]], [[email protected]], [[email protected]]
Abstrak
Karya sastra merupakan sesuatu yang selalu menemani kita, mereka dapat berupa fiksi ataupun non-fiksi. Namun, keduanya memiliki elemen intinsik dan ekstrinsik yang sama. Salah satu elemen intrinsik adalah tokoh. Tokoh merupakan bagian yang menarik dalam sebuah cerita, setiap tokoh memiliki kepribadian yang berbeda-beda. Kepribadian ini dibentuk berdasarkan pengaruh dari dalam dan juga luar tokoh tersebut. Fokus utama dalam penelitian yang berjudul Psychological Analysis of Emily Grierson in Short Story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner adalah kondisi psikologi dari tokoh yang bernama Emily. Khususnya, pengaruh lingkungan hidup terhadap psikologinya dan alasan ia membunuh dan menyimpan mayat dari pacar atau suaminya.
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif dalam menganalisa data yangn telah terkumpul. Teori yang digunakan adalah teori kepribadian karya Feist & Feist (2008), khususnya bagian psychoanalytic social theory dari Karen Horney. Selain itu, ada pula historical background theory yang digunakan untuk menentukan pengaruh lingkungan hidup Emily.
Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah bahwa psikologi Emily sangat dipengaruhi oleh lingkungan hidupnya, khususnya pada identitasnya sebagai gadis aristokrat dan juga tidak adanya sosok pria dalam keluarga untuk melindunginya. Sedangkan, untu alasannya membnuh pacar atau suaminya itu dikarenakan perasaaan ketakutan karena kesendiran dan juga ketakutannya akan kemungkian untuk membutuhkan orang lain dalam hidupnya. Ini menyebabkan ia menghampiri pacar atau suaminya dan berakhir pada perasaan bahwa sang pacar atau suami itu adalah kepunyaannya. Hal ini berakhir pada tragedi kematian sang suami karena ia meninggalkan Emily sendiri dan kemudian untuk memuaskan perasaan posesifnya, Emily menyimpan mayatnya.
Kata Kunci: psikologi, psikoanalisis, psikoanalisis social
Introduction
Literature is a form of art created through the creative or imaginative mind of a person. It is full of general aspect of life and could be said to be something that would reflect or influence the reality. It is classified into two; fiction which is purely based on the imaginative mind of a person, or non-fiction which is based on the facts found in reality. Both of them had the same elements; the intrinsic elements which involves plot, theme, point of view, character, setting, style, and the extrinsic elements which is the outside influences such as the author’s biography and social, historical, cultural background at the time the stories written.
The most intriguing thing from all of those is one of the intrinsic elements, character. A character is a person in narrative work of arts. Character, particularly when enacted by an actor in the theater or cinema, involves the illusion of being a human person. In literature, character guides
readers through their stories to help them understand plots and ponder themes. There are many types of character that exist in literature, each with its own development and function (Reaske, 1970: 174). Character could be said to be a reflection of human in reality. The writer describes them to have emotions. However, their situation, environment and also responsibilities may limit their choice in doing things which would made them had emotional struggles. All of those things were what human faced every day; therefore, it is intriguing to analyze them.
Analyzing them was like analyzing the mentality or psychology of a human, therefore to analyze them, some theories based on psychological analysis could be used. Psychological analysis is a theory introduced by Sigmund Freud in 1890s, it was the basic of all kinds of psychological theories that was made and known until today. In psychological analysis, or also known as psychoanalysis, a person’s mental or
psychological condition could be analyze based on his behaviors and mind. However, the theory used in this research study, psychoanalytic social, the psychology of a person was analyze mostly based on their personality and social condition. The living environment influence the creation of his personality and his social condition affect his decision and therefore affect his psychological condition.
The target of this article was a fictional character named Emily Grierson in a short story A Rose for Emily written William Faulkner in 1931. Emily Grierson was a young lady from the southerner’s aristocratic family. In this family, she was an only child of her father. Her father, was a friend of Colonel Sartoris, a respected figure in the town. From the story her family only consist of her, her father and Tobe, a niger butler. Thus, after her father suddenly died, she had lived alone in mansion ever since. Then, she was attracted to a young lad from the construction company named Homer Barron and dated him for quite some time. However, in the end she killed him and kept his body inside her mansion. Only after she had died that this deed was found by her cousin.The focus of the article was to know the reason she killed him and kept him, and also whether her decision was influenced by her living environment.
Material And Method
This article focuses on Emily Grierson’s psychological condition. Her psychological reason on killing Homer and also her living and social influence in her decision making.
The data was collected by documentation method. It used the note-taking technique on documenting many important points in the Emily’s story. The first step in these notes taking was by reading the entire story and comprehending them. After that, re-read them while taking notes on the important points in Emily’s story. Beside taking notes from the story, there was also some historical books that was read and taken notes off as references for the cultures, social rules that existed on the time around the time the writer wrote the story.
These collected data were analyzed by descriptive-qualitative method. It was done by repeatedly reading and comprehending the story and also history related books, especially the points that was being taken notes off. Then, listed the possible relation between these points, mentality
change of character that happened and the history at that time. After that, determined the closes possible relation from the list based on the psychoanalitic social theory introduced by Karen Horney (Feist & Feist, 2008). Then, also listed and explained the influence of the rules and cultures on her desicion.
Theoretical Basis
Wijaya (2018) had published a research entitled ‘Psychological Analysis of The Main Character in The Movie “Dictator”’. This study had contributed in the creation of this article due to the detailed information of character’s emotion and situation which answer how their motive and conflicts came to be.
Darma (2018) conducted a reseached study entitled ‘Psychological Analysis on The Main and Secondary Characters in The Movie Entitled Orphan by Alex Mace’. Although, it was a bit unclear and confusing in its explaination, it contributed in this article as an example of how the characters had relation with each other based on psychological analysis.
Indrayani (2019) had written a research entitled ‘Psychological Analysis on The Main Character in Moyes’ “Me Before You”’. This research had contributed in the creation of this article due to its informative contents about psychological changes that happen to a target character throughout the story based on the related psychological theory.
Ismet Toksoz’s article entitiled ‘Psychoanalytic Analysis of The Characters in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”’ had contributed in the creation of this article because of its detailed and clear classification and distinction of characters in terms of their personality based on the psychoanalysis theory.
Giovanny Mario’s study entitled ‘A Psychoanalysis on The Main Character and The Author of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet’ had also contributed in this article as its discussed and explained in detailed the relation between the author and the novel he wrote based on the psychology analysis of the main character.
Character
Reaske (1970) stated that a character is a person in narrative work of arts. Character, particularly when enacted by an actor in the theater or cinema, involves the illusion of being a human
person. In literature, character guides readers through their stories to help them understand plots and ponder themes.
Egri (1923) also stated that a character had three indispensable elements which made them seems human and alive. These elements are: psysiology which involve the body of the character,such as its gender, age, height, weight, color (hair, eyes and skin), posture, appearance, defects and heredity; sociology which involve the social environment of the character, for example the class, occupation, education, home life, religion, race, nationality, place of community, political affiliation, amusement, and hobbies; and the last one is psychology which mainly talked about sex life, moral standard, personal premise, ambition, frustation, chief disappointment, temperament, attitude toward life, complexes, extrovert, introvert, ambivert, abilities, qualities, and IQ.
Psychology and Psychology Analysis
According to Freud in Feist & Feist’s book entitled Theories of Personality (2008), psychology is the science of behavior and mind (not to be confused with neuroscience, which studies the neural underpinnings of psychological phenomena). Thus, psychology analysis or also known as psychoanalysis is a mental disorder’s cure method that started from the study of the relation between the conscious and unconscious minds.
Psychoanalytic Social
Based on that, Karen Horney introduced psychoanalytic social theory which revolve around the culture and social environment of a person. In her theory, she stated that the root of the psychological problem was in the childhood period. The love and affection given to children would have a huge impact in their psychological condition in the later period. The children that had not had enough love and affection from their parents and elders would developed basic hostility and anxiety.
This basic hostility which directed to the parents or elders due to their lack of attention, affection and love was unconsciously repressed by the children making them unaware of this feeling. Meanwhile, the basic anxiety was the anxiety that appear due to the children’s insecurity resulted from the parents or elders’ attitude toward them. These two problem was related and influenced each
other and thus made the normal children unconsciously defend them self by either trying to gain affection by being affectionate, loving and giving things; being obedient; trying to dominate others; or isolate themself. Either one of these was done in order to gain the attention, affection and love they need.
But, for those that have inclination in psychological problem, they would need more things in order to reduce their basic hostility and anxiety. There are ten list of things that those people needs: affection and approval; powerful partner; restrict one’s life in narrow-border; power; exploit other; social recognition or prestige; personal admiration; ambition and personal achievement; self-sufficiency and independence; and perfectionand unassailability. Based on these ten needs, Horney identify three neurotic trends: moving toward people which made them move toward others to gain affection and love by being extremely obedient in order to protect themself from feeling helpless; moving against people which made them become extremely aggressive, vicious and harsh toward others as they feel targeted and opposed by others; the last one is moving away from people which made them isolate themself as they feel no one like and understand themself. Most people that had the last type of trends usually would end up feeling they are genius or supperior from others, thus desire power and control which resulted in their posessive tendency toward their things, and partner.
Result And Discussion
Emily Grierson’s Reason in Killing and Keeping Her Lover’s Corpse
The reason Emily killed Homer, her lover, need to be analyzed from the first sign of her psychological problems. The first sign was when she denied the fact that her father had died and left her alone. She done this for three days without listening to others’ persuation. The second sign was when she disregard her aristocratic rule, nobleoblique, that stated that she had to marry someone from an equal or higher status than her. She violated that rule and dates Homer, a northerner who had lower status than her. The third was when she began to buy poison after she heard the rumour that Homer had no intention to marry her. The forth was her act in buying complete sets of man’s clothing, including night shirt and also man’s toilet set in silver with H. B initial on it without any
approval from Homer. The fifth was when people clamour that there was smell coming from her mansion, yet she had no response. She kept on isolating herself and only looked at the people that Alderman ordered to sprinkled lime in her yard. Sixth, her refusal in adding number and mailbox on her house. Seventh, her stubborness in refuting that she had no taxes in Jefferson and ordered the new generation of Alderman to contacted Colonel Sartoris, who had died, if they wanted to complain. On top of all that, she had never interacted with other people and kept on isolating herself. The only exceptions were when she approached Homer and when she open her mansion for around six-seven years for the China-painting class.
From these list of sign, it could be seen that Emily seems abnormal. Then, if it was matched with Karen Horney’s psychoanalytic social theory (Feist & Feist, 2008), it could be seen that Emily’s condition matched with one of the neurotic trends, moving away from the people. In moving away from the people, people tended to distancing themself from others by isolating themself. This fitted with Emily’s condition as throughout the story, Emily isolated herself, only if necessary would she went outside. Beside that, in the theory, they tend to think they are genius, the best and superior, thus disregard others’ opinion and dislike others intervention on their desicion. In the story, Emily was also described as someone that disregarded others opinion as she refuse to bow down even though people had said that she had fallen ever since her father died. She had also disliked others intervention in her desicion which could be seen when she had kicked out the new generation’s Aldermen when they came for taxes. There is also their tendency to fear that they would need others in their lifes, therefore occasionally they would approached others. Their motives to approached people differed from each person, they might be in need of money, partner, food, etc. In Emily’s case, the first time, she approach other was due to her need of a partner to protect her reputation and this partner had to be from outside. This was due to her father who had rejected others that had asked for her hand in marriage because they did not met his standart. Out of the people she met, Homer Barron had fulfilled her requirement, thus she approached and dates him. Then, the second time she had approached others was when she was in need of money, therefore she opened the Chinapainting class for the young aristocratic ladies.
Another characteristic from the neurotic trends moving away from people was their possessiveness and desire of control. They hate others that took away their things or things that tried to break away from their control. This characteristic could also be found in Emily’s story as she bought poison after she heard the rumour that Homer had no intention to marry her although she had dated him. He got away from her and successfully went away from the town without saying anything to her. Thus, her reason to kill him as a consequence. Her strong desire of control and her hate of him leaving her control was also perfectly displayed in the form of her keeping his corpse until she had died.
The Relation of Living Environment and Emily’s Decision
There were relatioships in each of Emily’s desicion displayed in the story. This could be seen if each of them was matched with the cultures and rules that exist in the period when the story was written. William Faulkner written the story in 1931, the beginning of the story start with Emily’s death and it was stated that Emily died in her seventy-four years. Therefore, she had lived from 1857-1931, in the history, this period of time was the era of American Civil War. In this era, the southerner and northerner had different ideology which was the root cause of the war. The southerner believe in inequality, meanwhile northerner believe in freedom and equlity. This ideology could be said to be the root cause of her desicion. This ideology made believe that men had the higher status than women. Men worked to provide and protect, meanwhile women was the keeper of morality. This made Emily became dependent of her father, her only family member and also the only man in the family. Therefore, when her father died, she could not believe it and subconsciously denied the reality. Afterall, if her father died, she would be alone and need to survive by herself. No one to depended on and no one protected her. For her who had been well-protected by her father, this fact would be something that was hard to accept thus it resulted in her three days firm denial.
There was also her violation of the aristocratic rules, noble-oblique, that required her to marry a man of equal or higher status than her. This was due to identity as aristocrat which made her became the center of attention for other people. In order to protected herself and also preserved her family’s reputation she had to quickly married
someone as she had reached thirty years old. However, her father had rejected the local men who had wanted to marry her, thus made her to choose from the local people and needed to search for people from outside. As she had to quickly married someone and Homer Barron who coincidentally came to the town fitted her criteria, she ended up approaching him and dated him.
Third, the desicion on buying poison, men’s clothes and toilet sets. Her identity as aristocrat made her arrogant and prideful of herself, on top of that, she had always been well-protected by her father. Therefore, when she had heard the rumour that Homer had no intention on marrying her, she felt humiliatedand betrayed. Thus, her possessiveness, desire of control and also desire to revenge overlapped with each other and resulted in her idea of buying poison, men’s clothes and toilet sets in order to kill Homerand keep his corpse. Her act of isolating herself even though there was a complain of a smell coming from her mansion was also due to her upbringing. Afterall, people from other status did not interact with each other and if there was any, it was minimal. Plus, her obedience toward her authoritative aristocratic father made her distance and isolate herself from others. Meanwhile, her refusal to add number, mail box and also topay taxes stem from her stubborness, firm believe and also desire of controlwhich originated from her identity as aristocratic lady.
Conclusion
Based on the discussion, the reason that Emily killed her lover was because of his betrayal in their relationship. Emily, as a person with the inclination toward psychological problem, one of neurotic trends moving away from the others, had a possessive desire to control everything that she had, including her partner. Thus, when there was a rumour that her lover, Homer Barron who dates her stated that he had no intention to marry her, she had decided to kill him by buying poison. This desicion was reached decided on, especially after Homer had left the town after his work was done.
Besided that, that decision also had a relation with her living environment. This was due to her identity as a southerner’s aristocratic lady, she had been in docrine with the southerner’s ideology. The ideology of inequality, made her disregard people that had lower statuses than her.
In addition to her upbringing as an only child of an aristocrat, she became an arrogant, prideful and stubborn lady which made her unable to listen to others’ persuasion, advices or explaination normally. Afterall, she sees herself as supperior, therefore whatever it was that she had thought and done was always right.
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