Motionless as an Idol - Columbus State University

Bullock 15We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white inthe background, her father as a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back toher and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung frontdoor. (77)Like any portrait or painting, the subject is forever objectified and immortalized in oneattitude. The people of the town had defined the role Miss Emily was allowed to fillandthey grew antagonistic when she tried to defy it.Her role, as pictured in the description ofthe tableau, is one of traditional Southern femininity. She is meekly posed behind hermale authority, clad in virginal white, under the manipulating violence of her father'sintimidating figure and horsewhip. The posing of the tableau communicates the nuancesof how Miss Emily's posture is crafted by the male authority and exhibits a "[paternalistideology [that] works to create a social world and individual subjects that fulfill thepaternalist^ psychic needs. Thus, masculine fantasies can be said to become projectedoutward onto social reality" (Railey 89). The masculine fantasies seen through thetableau are those of ultimate authority and domination through direction of women'sbodies and wills. Miss Emily's father fulfills a natural authoritative role butsimultaneously represents the male role for his society and demonstrates the societal maledesire by posing his daughter in the submissive posture in which she is framed andremembered. The tableau suppresses the independence and voice of Miss Emily, whilealso commenting on her sexuality through the white dress and posture of submissionbeneath her father. The white dress, symbolic of virginity, typifies Miss Emily into therole her father and the collective male-dominated society ordained for her as a young,unmarried woman. The white dress, coupled with her submissive posture beneath her