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【Abstract】This paper approaches“A Rose for Emily”from the psychoanalytic perspective and tries to explore the proper and intelligible psychological motives for Emily’s abnormal behavior.Emily，instead of being a morbid character either provoking pity or disgust in readers，is in essence a woman who suffers from an undeveloped identity，torturing insecurity and loneliness for all her life.
【Key words】psychoanalytic； motives； undeveloped identity； insecurity； loneliness
In Faulkner’s short story“A Rose for Emily”，the heroine Emily’s behaviour is so extreme that many readers and critics deem her abnormal and morbid.As a critic has pointed out，“A Rose for Emily”is not the story of a woman who has killed her lover and lain for years beside his decaying corpse.（handout）But undeniably it is the very ending that has excited many readers and critics，prompting them to explore the motives and truth beneath the seemingly horrible ending.
Emily fails to develop her identity because of the particular conditions of her childhood.It is implied in the short story that Emily may have lost her mother at a very early age.The absence of a mother increases her dependence on her father for food，warmth and comfort.Her father becomes the overwhelming presence in her earliest days，the only one she could turn to for love and protection.As a natural result，she learns to obey her father and clings to him as if she was part of him.
Emily’s father，on the other hand，is domineering and has abnormal need to control his daughter.He drives away all the men that threaten to take Emily away from him.His abnormally concentrated attention on his daughter has caused the isolation of Emily from the outside world.Father and daughter cling to each other with great intensity，which disturbs the normal psychological development in the early period of a child.Emily remains a child psychologically，identifying with her father who has become part of her life.She does not grow to be a full and healthy mankind.She has to seek another man to merge with in order to feel secure and real.
Emily seems to suffer from what R.D.Laing calls “ontological insecurity”，that is an insecurity about one’s own identity.The ontologically insecure person feels his or her being to be bound up in the other person，the person he or she identifies with.He or she doesn’t feel real，alive and whole when not joined with the other.（1997：247）To an ontologically insecure person，the other person is necessary for his or her own survival.When separated，he or she will feel isolated from the whole world and become sullen，withdrawn and unsociable. This is true in Emily’s case.When her father dies，Emily appears“with no trace of grief on her face”and she tells other people that her father is not dead.She refuses to bury his body and does not admit that her father has gone until three days later when she breaks down.She is experiencing great agony as her very existence is breaking apart.The man she has identified with is dead，leaving a void in her heart.
Then Homer Barren comes into her life.According to Abraham Maslow，all humans have a set of basic needs that must be met if they are to develop in a healthy way.In the order of their potency，these are physiological survival needs，needs for safety，for love and belonging，for esteem，and for self-actualization.（1997：242）Emily is deprived of the source of love and the sense of belonging when her father dies，therefore the arrival of Homer brings meanings to her life since the man has the potential to satisfy her needs.
To Emily，a woman who suffers from an undeveloped identity，insecurity and loneliness is what she always feels.Love offered by Homer then gives her a feeling of security and meanings to her life.As Horney once said，“it will be salvation and redemption…to love，for her，means…to merge with another being，to become one heart and one flesh.”（1950：239-240）When Homer shows the sigh of leaving her，Emily is thrown into a psychological crisis.She has experienced a breaking down of her world when her father leaves and now she cannot afford to be left alone once more.
To merge with Homer is what she needs desperately and to separate means complete destruction of her existence.She feels that she has to stop him，to hold him beside her in order to be always together.Thus we witness a seemingly horrible ending.Emily kills her lover and it is in this way that she manages to merge with him，to identify with him，gaining a sense of security and wholeness.Emily joins with the dead Homer in a way that is beyond comprehension of normal people but proper to a woman with an undeveloped identity.
However morbid Emily’s behavior might seem，it is psychologically intelligible.Faulkner’s intuitive grasp of psychological phenomena proves to be deeper than readers and critics expected.His exploration into human’s mind have brought us better understandings of man as the most complicated species.
References：
[1]Maslow.Abraham.Motivation and Personality.New York：Harper and Row.1970.
[2]Paris.Bernard J.Imagined Human Beings：A Psychological Approach to Character and Conflict in Literature，New York and London：New York University Press，1997.
[3]Faulkner.William.A Rose for Emily.Class handouts.No publisher，no date.
【Key words】psychoanalytic； motives； undeveloped identity； insecurity； loneliness
In Faulkner’s short story“A Rose for Emily”，the heroine Emily’s behaviour is so extreme that many readers and critics deem her abnormal and morbid.As a critic has pointed out，“A Rose for Emily”is not the story of a woman who has killed her lover and lain for years beside his decaying corpse.（handout）But undeniably it is the very ending that has excited many readers and critics，prompting them to explore the motives and truth beneath the seemingly horrible ending.
Emily fails to develop her identity because of the particular conditions of her childhood.It is implied in the short story that Emily may have lost her mother at a very early age.The absence of a mother increases her dependence on her father for food，warmth and comfort.Her father becomes the overwhelming presence in her earliest days，the only one she could turn to for love and protection.As a natural result，she learns to obey her father and clings to him as if she was part of him.
Emily’s father，on the other hand，is domineering and has abnormal need to control his daughter.He drives away all the men that threaten to take Emily away from him.His abnormally concentrated attention on his daughter has caused the isolation of Emily from the outside world.Father and daughter cling to each other with great intensity，which disturbs the normal psychological development in the early period of a child.Emily remains a child psychologically，identifying with her father who has become part of her life.She does not grow to be a full and healthy mankind.She has to seek another man to merge with in order to feel secure and real.
Emily seems to suffer from what R.D.Laing calls “ontological insecurity”，that is an insecurity about one’s own identity.The ontologically insecure person feels his or her being to be bound up in the other person，the person he or she identifies with.He or she doesn’t feel real，alive and whole when not joined with the other.（1997：247）To an ontologically insecure person，the other person is necessary for his or her own survival.When separated，he or she will feel isolated from the whole world and become sullen，withdrawn and unsociable. This is true in Emily’s case.When her father dies，Emily appears“with no trace of grief on her face”and she tells other people that her father is not dead.She refuses to bury his body and does not admit that her father has gone until three days later when she breaks down.She is experiencing great agony as her very existence is breaking apart.The man she has identified with is dead，leaving a void in her heart.
Then Homer Barren comes into her life.According to Abraham Maslow，all humans have a set of basic needs that must be met if they are to develop in a healthy way.In the order of their potency，these are physiological survival needs，needs for safety，for love and belonging，for esteem，and for self-actualization.（1997：242）Emily is deprived of the source of love and the sense of belonging when her father dies，therefore the arrival of Homer brings meanings to her life since the man has the potential to satisfy her needs.
To Emily，a woman who suffers from an undeveloped identity，insecurity and loneliness is what she always feels.Love offered by Homer then gives her a feeling of security and meanings to her life.As Horney once said，“it will be salvation and redemption…to love，for her，means…to merge with another being，to become one heart and one flesh.”（1950：239-240）When Homer shows the sigh of leaving her，Emily is thrown into a psychological crisis.She has experienced a breaking down of her world when her father leaves and now she cannot afford to be left alone once more.
To merge with Homer is what she needs desperately and to separate means complete destruction of her existence.She feels that she has to stop him，to hold him beside her in order to be always together.Thus we witness a seemingly horrible ending.Emily kills her lover and it is in this way that she manages to merge with him，to identify with him，gaining a sense of security and wholeness.Emily joins with the dead Homer in a way that is beyond comprehension of normal people but proper to a woman with an undeveloped identity.
However morbid Emily’s behavior might seem，it is psychologically intelligible.Faulkner’s intuitive grasp of psychological phenomena proves to be deeper than readers and critics expected.His exploration into human’s mind have brought us better understandings of man as the most complicated species.
References：
[1]Maslow.Abraham.Motivation and Personality.New York：Harper and Row.1970.
[2]Paris.Bernard J.Imagined Human Beings：A Psychological Approach to Character and Conflict in Literature，New York and London：New York University Press，1997.
[3]Faulkner.William.A Rose for Emily.Class handouts.No publisher，no date.