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Miss Emily Grierson as a foil character of Jig

Istiaq Ahmed Mehedi

Roohi Huda

English 201

07 November, 2014

In my analytical paper, I’ll write how Miss Emily Grierson is foil character of Jig. Miss
Emily is the protagonist of “A Rose for Emily” which is written by William Faulkner, an
American author. He won the Nobel Prize in 1949. He created many popular characters; Miss
Emily is one of those remarkable characters. In the story we can see Emily as a muted,
mysterious and dominating figure. On the other hand, Jig, is the female protagonist of “Hills
Like White Elephants”. This short story was written by Ernest Hemingway who was a talented
and accomplished writer. In this story we see jig, who is very sensitive, emotional and
dependent.

In my paper I’ll compare Miss Emily and Jig as characters with two different perspectives.
Miss Emily and Jig, both have difficulties and problems in their lives. Throughout the paper, in
order to compare between them I’ll discuss their characteristics towards their surroundings as
well as their problems in life and I’ll mention how they treat people around them.

First of all, from both the stories it is clear that Miss Emily is a dominant character and Jig
is a dominated character. In the story “A Rose for Emily” Emily was a dominating, arrogant and
cold natured woman. She had a tendency to hold on to the past. With her facial expression,
gesture and posture she made people realize how dominating she is. “I have no taxes in
Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city
records and satisfy yourselves.”(Faulkner 5) This conversation is about giving taxes to
government authorities. But Miss Emily who was very arrogant and dominating refuses to pay
taxes. She just tells them about Colonel Sartoris. Not only that when she went to the
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druggist’s, she started debating with him about the poison. “The druggist looked down at her.
She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag. "Why, of course," the druggist said.
"If that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for."(8)
Because of her dominating personality she doesn’t tell the druggist the reason behind buying the
poison and she manages to intimidate the druggist. On the contrary, Jig from “Hills Like White
Elephants” is dominated by American man. As she was very dependent on that man she had to
listen to what the man was saying. Their topic was about Jig’s abortion. “The American man is
just trying to convince her to have an abortion though she doesn’t want to. But she doesn’t say a
word. 'It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig,' the man said. 'It's not really an operation at all.
The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.”(Hemingway 2). The girl has nothing to
say against the man. She becomes calm and remains a dominated character.

Then, from these two stories we can see that Miss Emily is more selfish than Jig. Miss
Emily always wants things to work out in her favor. She is selfish and alone. But at last she finds
Homer Barron. He works for a construction company. She loves him and wants to settle down
with him. But Homer is probably a homosexual, that’s why he doesn’t want to marry Emily.
When Emily comes to know that Homer doesn’t want to marry her she kills him and she lives
with his corpse which is very abnormal. Not only that, she also sleeps with the dead Homer.
From this, we can imagine how much selfish she is. She doesn’t even think about Homer, she
just wants her love. On the contrary, Jig is also selfish. Though she loves the American man, she
doesn’t want to have an abortion. She thinks about herself and her child. Though the two
characters are selfish but Jig doesn’t commit any crime by wanting to keep the baby. In this case,
if Jig aborts it could be a crime where as Emily commits crime by killing Homer Barron. In
addition, Miss Emily is being more alone than Jig. Emily had been protected by her father while
he was alive.  Thinking that no man was good enough for her, he drove all her gentleman callers
away. When her father died, Emily was over thirty years old and discovered that he had left her
nothing except the house. It was a big torture for her because she had no one to share her feelings
with and no one to talk to. It’s very difficult for someone to live alone, as a human being is a
social being. This problem is also responsible for making her selfish. But Jig isn’t alone in the
entire story. She has the American man to share her feelings. Though her relationship is not a
healthy relationship, she gets someone to talk to about her problems where Emily gets no one to
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talk to. For these things, Emily has a tendency to become a selfish by being alone. That makes
Emily more selfish than Jig.

After that, both of them lead their lives according to their own decisions but in a different
way. In the story “A Rose for Emily” Emily takes her decisions several times by breaking the
law. Emily breaks the law by refusing to pay her taxes to city the authorities. She commits the
biggest crime in her life by killing homer Barron. She also breaks the law by not telling the
druggist why she needed the poison. On the other hand, Jig also takes a decision by her own but
she doesn’t commit any crime. By deciding to keep the baby she does not break any law. She
doesn’t even argue with the man. Afterwards, Jig acknowledges the passage of time from the
hints in the story. She moves on with time but not with the man. She wants to move on with the
baby. “Do you feel better?' he asked. 'I feel fine,' she said. 'There's nothing wrong with me. I feel
fine.”(Hemingway 3). From these lines we understand most probably that she made up her mind
to live with the baby and not with the man. On the other hand, Miss Emily has a tendency to hold
onto the past. When Miss Emily is thirty and her father dies she holds on to the dead body for
three days. She doesn’t want her father buried. She couldn’t move on. She doesn’t want to admit
the harsh truth of life. From these points we can say that they lead their lives in a different way.

To conclude, from above descriptions it seems that Miss Emily is a foil character of Jig.
Though their life styles and perceptions are totally different, two of them want to settle down and
both of them are very sensitive about their life. But Miss Emily is totally the opposite of Jig. We
can see that from their characteristics, their way of living and what they want to achieve in their
lives.
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Paper Outline

In my analytical paper, I’ll write how Miss Emily Grierson is foil character of Jig. Miss
Emily is the protagonist of “A Rose for Emily” which is written by William Faulkner, an
American author. He won the Nobel Prize in 1949. He created many popular characters; Miss
Emily is one of those remarkable characters. In the story we can see Emily as a muted,
mysterious and dominating figure. On the other hand, Jig, is the female protagonist of “Hills
Like White Elephants”. This short story was written by Ernest Hemingway who was a talented
and accomplished writer. In this story we see jig, who is very sensitive, emotional and
dependent.

In my paper I’ll compare Miss Emily and Jig as characters with two different perspectives.
Miss Emily and Jig, both have difficulties and problems in their lives. Throughout the paper, in
order to compare between them I’ll discuss their characteristics towards their surroundings as
well as their problems in life and I’ll mention how they treat people around them.

1. Miss Emily is a dominant character and Jig is a dominated character.

a. Gesture, posture and body language of both of them.

b. Symbolism in their behavior.
c. How they react with people around them.

2. Miss Emily is more selfish than Jig.

a. Emily always wants things to work out in her favor in terms of anything but Jig is not
desperate to have things in her favor.
b. Emily commits crime to achieve her goal but Jig doesn’t.
c. Emily was alone and she takes decisions by her own even if it is wrong but Jig is not
totally alone and she thinks before taking any decision.
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3. Both of them lead their lives according to their own decisions but in a different way.

a. Emily takes her decisions several times by breaking the law but Jig doesn’t break any
law.
b. Jig acknowledges the passage of time but Miss Emily has a tendency to hold onto the
past.