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A Rose For Emily And Story Of An Hour Analysis

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A Rose For Emily And Story Of An Hour Analysis
Using examples from their short stories, discuss the similarities or differences of Faulkner’s and Chopin’s use of death as a means of resolving conflicts having to do with love.

Expressing Love Through Death In the three short stories “a Rose For Emily”, “Desiree’s Baby, and “The Story of an Hour” death is used respectively as a means of expressing and rebelling against love. The stories, set in a post-Confederacy southern town, pre-condfederacy plantain, and timeless smalltown smerica, could not be more different upon surface level. However, all of these stories, through tragedy, reveal the author’s opinions of the true and terrible powers of love. In “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner, death is the only way Emily Grierson can express …show more content…
Desiree takes her baby and disappears into the Louisiana bayou, so hurt is she by her husband’s hatred of her. She loves him desperately, but he believes she is part African-American and despises her and their child for it. Romantic imagery-her flowing chignon, the sunset-reinforce Desiree’s disappearance as an act of love. Her love is so consuming she will kill herself and her child rather than displease her husband. Armand’s love is crushed by the social structure of a Louisiana Plantation and he refuses to prioritize love over his reputation. Unlike Emily Grierson, the reader is not given signs that Desiree is mentally unstable. This apparent normalcy makes her act more drastic subsequently her love more powerful to the reader. Desiree believes only her death and the death of her child can reverse the shame she has brought on Armand.
“The Story of an Hour”, also by Kate Chopin, takes a completely opposite viewpoint than that of the other two stories. In this story, death is used to escape love. The main character, Mrs. Mallard, loves her husband and he loves her. But at the news of her death she finds herself exhilarant. Love is a burden that has always restricted her. Upon the news of her husband’s death she is free to live her life as she pleases. “She said it over and over under her breath: ‘free, free, free’!”
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