The tragedy of Miss Emily's Life is a common reality that has been repeated in the lives of many beautiful women in the post-war United States. A combination of the lack of options for women to improve their lives and the snobbish nature of the upper classes of society condemned women to a life of waiting for the much sought after suitor. Upper class women, due to their education, were instructed not to accept as a husband a man who did not possess a certain amount of material goods. So strenuous was this training, and its implementation by well-meaning aunts and mothers, that the young women could be counted on to take care of it without any assistance once they reached adulthood. If Miss Grierson had been born into a more flexible social class, socialization among her peers would have been encouraged. Different peer groups tend to push or at least push each other in the right direction. Miss Grierson would have benefited from such attentions from young women her age who would have encouraged her to courageously ignore the maxims of her parents and her class and make her own decisions. Once he has made his choices, he will once again benefit from the attention of his peers as supporters of his right to make that decision. She wouldn't feel obligated to hide any decisions she made about her boyfriend. However, her era did not encourage such closeness or affection between high society women. Nor were courage and individuality encouraged aspects of the female character. A woman who insisted on doing things differently than society insisted she should do was judged to be fickle and irresponsible. Spouses had to be acquired from their own social class and not from beyond the fence (Ziff,...... middle of paper....... They were taught that meekness and a coy attitude were the right characteristics to embrace These would attract the attention of powerful men who would then try to "protect" them. Emily Grierson adopted such a pose ultimately, the same society that insisted she adopt such characteristics, judged her for not having a husband helpless in her snobbish nature, being too firmly set in her ways and unable to adopt other mannerisms that would aid her in her exposure to society. She became, tragically, a victim of herself. Works Cited Mc Cutcheon, Marc 1800: A Guide for Writers, Students, and Historians Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 2001 Ziff, Larzer: Life and Time of a Lost Generation Lincoln: University Of Nebraska Press, 1979