'This paper will only focus on the representation of the U.S. South in the following two texts “A Rose for Emily” which is a short story from 1931 by William Faulkner, and Tennessee Williams’ play from 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire: Both stories are cited from The Norton Anthology of American Literature.'
Representation of the U.S South in Literature
The arrival of Europeans to the American continent brought with it different people who prescribed into diverse ethical, cultural, economic and social domains. The resulting impact of the immigration communities was the creation of two factions that came to be known as the North and the South in America. This was basically in the aspect of settlements and the establishment of different colonies, each establishing a new way of life, which the people came to accept and make it their own. The American south has had a central role in the history of the United States and has therefore been integral part in the economic, social and political changes in the country. Since, we cannot go into detailed depth about this history. This paper will only focus on the representation of the U.S. South in the following two texts “A Rose for Emily” which is a short story from 1931 by William Faulkner, and Tennessee Williams’ play from 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire: Both stories are cited from The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Our primary focus will be with the two main characters of the stories, Emily and Blanche. And how they each in their own way represent the South and its downfall.
The Southern culture had its rules and regulations regarding segregation of color and class differences. However strange some of the cultures and norms seems to us today, they were valued to the Southerners back then, and are perhaps nostalgic times for some still. The South as known to many was driven by the agrarian culture. And for that labor, they used slaves for the plantation farms. The whites on those days were divided into two main groups, slave owners, and non-slave owners. The slave owners were those who mainly had economic exploitation of black people and poor whites (who were non-slave owners). Here we can establish the patriarchy system that was known in the South. There was a clear distinguish between owner and owned, rich and poor, man and woman.
Irrespectively of women, whether they came from prominent rich families, they still had to adhere to the patriarchy system, which meant that they were always dominated by men. In the case of Emily Grierson, who was a monument for her society, since she represented the old South conforming to her confined environment that was controlling of women. Women’s goals and ambitions in those days were, becoming a wife and a mother to establish a family that was like one’s own. And in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche DuBois tries to achieve these expected norms of women in the South, as she desperately attempts to find the right suitor. Nevertheless, when we look at the two main characters of the stories. We notice that somehow, they try to break away from these norms. Blanche does so, by moving to her sister in New Orleans, who is married to Stanley Kowalski. Similarly, Emily attempts to escape her circumstances and tries to make a new life with Homer who is from the North. Even though both women’s stories end tragically, they each in their way represent the old South and its values of separation of classes and race.
Considering that Faulkner represents the South in Emily, it can be deduced that Emily is the topmost representation of the south in the story. Her interaction with others in the story brings out the southern culture that has been embedded in the minds of the people for centuries. In this regard, Emily represents the South by failing to change from the old ways. She refuses to come to terms that her father has died and remains in grieving mode for a longer period than it was socially accepted. When she receives the report that Mayor Sartoris has died, she still fails to believe and almost turns aggressive to the new regime. Likewise, she refuses to accept that Homer can live without her and that she can live without Homer, and that is the resolute, to have Homer at whatever condition, for herself in her lifetime.
Her interaction with Mayor Sartoris is in such a manner that Sartoris represents the old ways of the South in the government. This is because as a mayor, he had passed stringent laws, which required black women to wear aprons even in public (Faulkner p 2182). This serves as the insidious reminder of the old ways of the South that was defined by the hierarchical order of the society. Therefore, his relationship with Emily brings out the aspect of southern culture in her. On an impulse of chivalry, he exempts Emily from paying taxes to the Jefferson’s. This is in that the family of Emily has had a reputation for being among the wealthiest in the southern community and highly respected. This can be deduced in that they were probably slave owners in the olden days before the civil war. This might be the reason why Emily has had only one trusted negro employee who was a cook cum gardener. She prefers someone whom she will have at her grip and can fully control. Her relationship with the black servant and the secrets that prosper in the house are a representation of the expectation of the southern communities and their total demand of loyalty from slaves, or rather servants.
Consequently, there is a representation of the South in terms of Emily and her father; this can be ascertained to the fact that her father had insisted that she could not be married to a lower-class individual. Nonetheless, Emily’s involvement with Homer Barron seems to shake up the old traditions of the South. The coming of Homer into Emily’s life is a representation of the new ways in which South was constantly being bombarded with. However, her public involvement with him and denial of that he will marry her was an indication of how the new cultures were not willing to compromise with old traditions. The people of the town come to despise her, for her break into the new world, which they consider very immoral and a bad lesson to the future generation. She is here a representation of the innermost desire of the South to conform with the new world but held down by the social norms and expectations.
The townspeople fail to reproach her because she is probably the last remaining living monument of the representation of the South. She is a representation of their glorified past and the respect which they still hold to the Grierson’s family. In a public dimension, Homer entered her life, and the town ladies were not ready to tolerate her public show because she was setting a bad example, and that “young people” (Faulkner p 2186) and the relationship with Homer would be a “disgrace to the town” (p. 2186). Since she was a representation of the tradition of the South, and her family as the emblem of the aristocracy, the townspeople with their traditions and customs were not willing to let Emily have her sway and break out, and this led the affair into damnation.
When Homer attempted to break away from the relationship, Emily’s southerner attribute is manifested in the way she handles him. She refuses of let go off Homer, probably her only love after her father, and she was ready to clinch to what her father had robbed her, after chasing away most of her suitors. Therefore, she decided to poison Homer with arsenic, with the belief that he would leave her (Hsu, & Wang, 2014 pg 89). This is a representation of the length in which the people of the South would go to protect what they hold dear. Probably, this notion and belief were what culminated into the outburst of the American civil war. Emily adamantly refuses to let Homer go, and uses unconventional means to make him stay by her side, in her bed. When the civil war broke out, the South engaged it with the notion of protecting their ways of life. This, can be correlated to Emily murdering Homer after he disappeared from her for two weeks.
The northern people had the objective of conjuring and occupying the Southern territory and have a union with them. This can be the representation of Homer coming into the life of Emily, to conquer her, robe her dignity and the social standing in the community. She was a representation of the territory of the South, which the Northern people desired. When she resolves to kill Homer and keeps him in the house, the neighbors never confronted her, because it was un-southern to “accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad” (Faulkner pg 2183). They pour and sprinkle lime around the house of the Emily to sublime the smell coming from her house instead of confronting her. The respect people had for her were a representation of how the South respected notable women in the society, who valued the place and position of aristocratic society.
The description that comes to the author (Falkner), used to describe Emily seem to change as the story goes on. Emily is described as “inescapable, dear, tranquil, impervious and perverse” (p 2187). This shows the metamorphoses of the southern society from the early days of its time and settlement. At the end of it all, it had become perverse and was on the brink of collapse. The South could no longer shut herself out of the world, and its resistance to new world order was in vain. When the mayor died, and a new regime was installed, she refused to let the men install a card number to her house and erect a mailbox to her front door. This was a show of the fact that the South was refusing to change and conform to the new ways in which the North was approaching her to do.
Failure to reply or claim to tax report is the insistence of the South not to enter the union or the confederate that was being proposed. The South wanted to do things their own way, and a foreign authority other than theirs was not welcome. The southern ideals at the end were becoming perverted, and this was the culmination of the death of Emily, tired, old and alone in the house that had refused to be touched by fresh air or even sunlight. This was the idea of the author that the collapse of the South was invertible, especially when the strict adherents of southern cultures and ideals were laid to rest. It would simply remain to be remembered just as the old well brushed Confederates uniforms conversed of their association with Emily as if they had spent times with her (Faulkner pg 2187).
In the play of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche is an optimization of the South while Stanley is a representation of the North. It is learned that she grew up in the mansion, which was a stereotype of the southern culture and tradition, and was expected by those close to her to behave like a southerner, that is a Southerrn belle. Her stay in the new environment, does not equip her with the necessary skills to cope with the modern world, and how or integrates with it without showing her southern type upbringing. She needs to be protected and sheltered, just as the way women of the South would have expected. In her mind is filled with romantic notions, which she expects her men or rather suites to treat her with the gallantry and chivalry of her southern lifestyle.
The two lead characters in the play are an expression of how two cultures collide, and as it is expected, Stanley is used as a foil to make Blanche to show southern nature in her. Blanche, therefore, was a Victorian-style woman who deserved to be the angel of the house, and she was to be the custodian of the culture by continued expression of it through her actions.
It was in this manner that Blanche was grounded on the strict social class of the southern culture. The author describes her as white with origins in the aristocracy. Her character was that of a naive woman with the reflection of vanity and liveliness. She was obligated of very few tasks such as to sew, ride, be obedient and probably know how to read and write, which expected of the southern women in the olden days. Her mind was filled with notions of romance in that she fantasized having an innocent courtship, romances all of which would lead her to marry a real gentleman from the South (Matos, 2015 pg 130). Her mind-set in this regard was that she gave all her ability and skills to finding a real southern gentleman, who served as her first aspiration of her life. In this case, her life was based on the expectation of matters of southern gender, race, and class.
The back setting of this was the fact that it was in the era of racial exploitation and the Still presence of African American women. This was in the aspect that the southern woman had to appear superior in matters of race. The southern woman was expected to be paid homage by the African American woman who was racially inferior to the southern woman. Ultimately, the person who maintained her purity during those times was guaranteed to being inaccessible to some classes of men and inferior races. The glorification of the white woman of the southern upper class was that she was an identity of the South in its totality (Angie, 2010 pg 151). The woman in the South was the ornament of the South and was regarded as the crown jewel of southern society. Therefore, it was expected of Blanche in the way she behaved especially with her relationship with the Stella her sister and Stanley, her brother-in-law.
Blanche displayed this kind of mind-set, in the manner of her dressing and mannerisms. She is described as having had dresses with plates of solid gold and had numerous jewels on her body at any given time. This was the southern mind-set, meaning women had to be beautiful to increase their value and self-worth as far as marriage and courtship were concerned (Matos, 2015 pg 132). Blanche resented the marriage of her sister to Stanley who was a northerner, once a soldier and now employed in a factory. It is, therefore assumed that Blanche who is a southern belle would resent her sister’s marriage and attempt to split it, to preserve their culture and traditions.
When Blanche arrived at her sisters in New Orleans, she refuses to stay in a hotel and opts to stay with her sister. In this perspective, she displays the notion of the people of the South, to need protection, and human contact and refuge from people close to them especially family members. Kinship in the south, where the need for protection was gained from the association with others especially family members and with the motive to love, gain wealth and preserve the aristocracy.
Prestige was what the Southern women displayed in the society. Brought up as frail creatures who were dependent of males, they did not perceive of situations of sexual exploitation or violence from their husbands, brothers or servants (Matos, 2015 pg 137). When she moved into her sister’s house, they were expected to depend on her sister’s husband who held the notion of stamping his authority in as the provider and master of the house. Blanche’s move into their house would, therefore, mean the post-civil war life of the south when the tides of social, and economic paradigms were changing. Women were expected to work, get educated and vote. This was then a motivation for them to enjoy a greater personal and financial independence. It is in this time when Blanch realizes that she is a relic of the South, and that her involvement with matters of her sister’s family-life was an ideal she was unwilling to let go without a fight.
During the period of reconstruction in the post- civil war era was the moment when the divinization of women was beginning to change. The southern culture was taking hugedoses from immigrants, and the people from the North (Angie 2010 p. 143). The passive embodiment of woman was being demythologized of the southern woman with the virtues of virginity, asexuality, passivity, and beauty, where Blanche was beginning to be destructive and unstable. Deep inside Blanche realized that she had to become an anti-southern belle. Her subsequent lifestyle after failing to live up her dreams resulted to her obsession with alcohol and numerous love affairs. In this manner, she is a representation of the last of the aristocratic South and tries to blend in the modern society by indulging in alcohol, promiscuity, and madness (Matos, 2015 pg 147). We could say that the representation of the South was that she was feeling burdened by the sexual and racial sin perpetuated by her ancestors.
References
Angie Maxwell. (2010). Cataloging Southern Culture at Home and Abroad. The Southern Literary Journal, 42(2), 149-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/slj.0.0074
Hsu, C., & Wang, Y. (2014). The Fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian Analysis of a Rose for Emily. K@Ta, 16(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.9744/kata.16.2.87-92
Matos, X. (2015). Bodies that Desire: The Melodramatic Construction of the Female Protagonists of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. Em Tese, 21(1), 130. http://dx.doi.org/10.17851/1982-0739.21.1.130-149
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