the effect can be revealed in handicaps in learning how to get along with people, lack of responsiveness to the advances of others, lack of cooperation, and hostility
212. Emily’s bad relationship with others is also shown when she is talking
with the city authorities who come to her house. She likes to verbally attack others without listening to their explanation about the new policy about taxes in
Jefferson. Emily does not trust with everything that city authorities have explained to her. Emily’s thought about her taxes that should not be paid, cannot be
changed. She wants to defend her opinion. “I received a paper, yes,” Miss Emily said. “Perhaps he considers himself
the sheriff … I have no taxes in Jefferson.” “But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see. We must go by
the__ “ “See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson.”
“But, Miss Emily___” “See Colonel Sartoris.” Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.
“I have no taxes in Jefferson. To be” The Negro appeared. “Show these gentlemen out.” p.308
Here, Emily’s behavior shows her egoism in which she does not want to hear others’ opinion and idea, and feels that she is the one who is true. As what
Carroll 221 says that the individual who is egocentric dwells on himself and interprets every situation from a personal angle. Emily’s behavior also shows
inadequate interpersonal relations, which is shown from her feeling that assumes others are deceitful, and from her difficulty in behaving or thinking in new ways.
Kalish 171 explains that person who is having contacts with other people marked by hostility, arguments, tensions, suspicion, overdependence, and other
signs of inadequacy, she he is in inadequate interpersonal relations.
d. Emily’s Carelessness of Herself
People look Emily shows her peculiarity after Homer Baron--the man she loves--goes away. Many people look her as a person who does not care about her
own self. When people next see Miss Emily, she has grown fat and her hair is turning gray. During the next few years it grows grayer and grayer until it attains
an even pepper and salt iron – gray, when it ceases turning p.311. Her hair becomes not neatly. People are strangely looking at her because they know her as
a person who cares about her appearance. Emily’s body becomes fatter than before. It shows that she becomes not care about herself after her father’s death.
Her carelessness towards her own body shows her behavior that is opposite to her own. Her attitude shows reaction formation to defend herself from
the problem she faces. As what Morris says, that reaction formation is one of defense mechanisms in which people express with exaggerated intensify ideas and
emotion that are the opposite of their own 505. Emily’s condition makes her cannot be survived to live. She is dead and
becomes a memoriam for people who ever know her. She leaves the house, which she gets from her father. There are many people who come to her funeral and
many people who want to visit her house.
e. Emily’s Denial to the Reality
Emily cannot receive the fact that her father passed away. She tells to the people around her that her father has not passed away. She does not bury her
father for three days. Even, her face does not show any grief. Many people are
confused with Emily’s behavior which assumes that her father has not passed away yet. It can be shown:
Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that
for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to
resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly p.309.
Emily’s behavior shows her denial and repression to defend herself from suffering. Huffman states that denial is used to protect oneself from an unpleasant
reality by refusing to perceive it 451. Emily does not want to believe that her father passed away. She assures her thought to believe that her father is still alive.
Her behavior also shows repression because according to Kalish, repression is occurred when an individual is unable to recall or recognized something because
of consciousness needs to deny the awareness 155. Emily’s thought to perceive that her father is still alive, helps her to defend herself from suffering. Emily’s
thought makes her unable to recognize her father’s death. Emily’s behavior not to believe the fact that her father passed away also shows that she is in depression.
Kalish states that if someone feels that everything is going wrong, that nothing matters, that person is in depression 171.
f. Emily’s Possessiveness to a Man She Loves
Emily’s possessiveness to a man she loves is shown from her action when she kills and then hides a man she loves because she does not want to lose that
man. She does not want Homer Baron—the man she loves—leaves her. Emily
