Preview

Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
486 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
The short story “A Rose for Emily” is a very queer narrative. Emily’s inability to have someone leave her again caused her to murder a man. In this story Emily loses her father to death; despite her negligence. She also finds a charming man named Homer Barron who she starts to fall in love with. She knows Homer will leave her and she cannot let that happen; so she poisons him and sleeps with his dead body for 10 years. She did these awful things because of her inability to let go of the past that crippled her and made her go crazy. Emily Grierson is a young woman that hates to lose someone. Her father was quite an old man. One day her father died and she tried to dissuade anyone that told her otherwise. “He’s not dead” was the sentence she always said when someone said he was dead. Eventually some men forcibly came to take the dead body away to be buried. No matter how many times she told everyone that her father was not dead; she ended up having to give the men the body anyway. Despite her abandonment issues she …show more content…

In both of the paragraphs, I talked about Emily’s father and about his untimely death. I also talked about her abandonment issues and why she did not want Homer Barron to leave her like her father. In the story people would always say “poor Emily” because of all the bad things that happened to her. Everyone that Miss Emily ever loved had or was about to leave her. Emily couldn’t allow Homer to leave her so she took the man's life with the arsenic she received from the alchemist. Emily Grierson is a mentally incapable woman who has abandonment issues. She killed the man so he could they could be with each other for all time. The entire time that Homer Barron was dead on Miss Emily’s bed she slept next to him. This shows that she is crazy and will do anything to preserve the ones that she lover because she cannot let go of the past and accept that Homer will leave

Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Chapter Summary In Faulkner's 'A Rose For Emily'
    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chapter Summary In Faulkner's 'A Rose For Emily'

    6.Emily has a hard time letting people go. She didn’t want to bury her father. Faulkner says, “She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctor, 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”. When she broke down it shows that she does have a hard time letting go. She does the exact same thing with Homer. In order to keep Homer with her , Emily murdered him with the poison she got.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Summary Of William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner skillfully depicts the changes of Emily, who becomes a victim of the transitional period from the old pre-war society to the new post-war society. The author depicts the process of how an aristocratic lady becomes a killer. The story revolves around the life of a troubled and stubborn woman named Emily. After the death of her father and the disappearance of her lover, Emily becomes increasingly isolated from the society. She persistently lives in her self-made shell so that she can preserve her past and protect herself from the changes of society. By using peculiar factors, overcast atmosphere, and the contrast of desolate and modern life, Faulkner exposes the isolation of a woman trapped in the past, her desire for a happy life, and the degradation of the South after the Civil War.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Rose for Emily: Why Ms. Emily Did Not Kill Homer Barron Essay Example
    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Rose for Emily: Why Ms. Emily Did Not Kill Homer Barron Essay Example

    Ms. Emily Grierson, a well know figure in her community has a lot of controversy surrounding her. Known for being reserved and quiet, Ms. Emily is considered to be the local crazy person. Her family is known for having members with mental illnesses, and she is quite bizarre also. After her love interest Homer is found dead in her house, everyone wonders if Ms. Emily killed him. Ms. Emily never really got the chance to have a male companion in her life, so when she met Homer Baron she fell in love. Homer showed Ms. Emily attention and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, therefore she had no need to murder him.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Characterization In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Characterization In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    In the story “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner uses characterization to portray Emily’s mental decline throughout her life. By being kept away from the real world by her father, to being free to venture out after his death to having to keep a murder a secret. Faulkner best characterized Miss Emily as snobby, crazy and secretive.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Miss Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page

    Miss Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    “A Rose for Emily” is a mysterious and unusual short story. William Faulkner creates a character, Miss Emily Grierson, who is so significant to the town that she is referred to as a “fallen monument” after her death. Miss Emily is an eccentric character, and although she physically changes, her character nor her personality do. Miss Emily is a static character, with internal conflicts, and has odd relationships with her boyfriend and husband. For instance, Miss Emily kept her late father's body and refused to give him up, showing an inability to let go. She keeps his body because she also does not want to be isolated, even though she avoids interaction by staying in her home. Miss Emily's isolation is external with society and also resonates…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Emily Grierson In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Emily Grierson In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    Her father was overprotective of her and forced all the young men away. She stayed single at the age of thirty when her father died. The people talked about the chances that could have been in her life, if Miss Emily’s father did not deprive her from marrying anybody at least and perhaps she could have somebody with her in times of grief. The people understood of course the situation she was going through assuming Emily’s state of mind was not right because of her lost and now alone with an empty house and could only clasp to what she had lost (34). Miss Emily refusal to accept her father’s death was significant because it took her three days before she finally buried her father. In this situation, I believed that Emily started to stop the time because by denying her father’s death, she could turn the clock around to manipulate her father and take control of him instead but unfortunately he was six feet underground. For this reason, Emily Grierson started taking in charge of her life by keeping it “still” in…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    How Did Emily Grierson Commit Murder?
    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Did Emily Grierson Commit Murder?

    On the outside, Emily Grierson may seem to lack motive, but she faces conflicts throughout the story that could have driven her to murder. First of all, she has lived with her father in her childhood home for decades. Through subtle hints and imagery, the reader learns that Emily’s life with her father was far from happy. Faulkner…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Rose For Emily Title Analysis
    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Rose For Emily Title Analysis

    This is presumably when Homer decides to come clean to Emily and finally confirm her suspicions about his sexuality. Emily is so distraught when she learns that the only man she has ever loved is actually gay that she panics. She realizes that she cannot have Homer as her lover and decides to kill him with the fear of losing him. The reader cannot come to this conclusion until it is revealed that Emily had been sleeping beside a deceased Homer in her home. Even this is assumed when the author describes the indentation and hair left beside his dead body. “Then we noticed that in the second pillow wa the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostril, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 473). While she sleeps beside Homer’s lifeless body, he still brings comfort to Emily until her own death.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Arsenic And Symbolism: The Poison Of The South
    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Arsenic And Symbolism: The Poison Of The South

    Emily’s obsessive actions dominate her choices as can be seen when she buys the poison. “She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look.” (Faulkner 1071) Emily had the life sucked out of her by her father and empty relationship with Homer. She is described in the same way that you would describe the Grim Reaper, bringing death to those around her. William Faulkner wrote many stories telling the tales of the same town and people as found in “A Rose for Emily”. In each story the lives of those in this town decay around them, falling apart as more Northerners migrate to the South. But as the death of Homer illuminates, it is more than the North that will fail if the tumult in the nation continues. Homer and Emily’s relationship complexity promises a metaphorical death of the Southern ideals. Just as Emily had lost all of her moral standard by killing Homer, the South would lose itself in the strife involving the other side of the country. Faulkner displays a grim future for the nation if willingness for peace cannot be committed to and…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis
    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis

    “A Rose for Emily” is a Southern Gothic story since the themes of murder and death are present. Throughout the story, the Faulkner describes Emily as lonely. “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough.”(Faulkner). When Emily goes into the store and buys poison this leads the readers to believe that something bad is going to happen. The ending of the story also makes it Gothic. Emily secret is revealed that she has had a dead corpse in her house for several years. Emily also slept with the corpse a long grey hair was found next to Homers decaying body. The Gothic elements help give this story a gloomy and creepy tone.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rose for Emily
    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rose for Emily

    In the short story “A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, it starts off with the unknown narrator explaining Miss Emily’s funeral and why the townspeople actually attended. From this the reader learns what type of character Miss Emily is. She does not like change and cannot handle denial. Her family’s name and the way she was bought up by her father is the explanation for this. Throughout the story the reader realizes how respected her family was and what lengths Miss Emily is willing to go to keep the man she loves by her side. The allegory in a rose for Emily would be the townspeople and Miss Emily. Miss Emily is stuck in the past and the town treats her as if nothing has changed. Miss Emily being so isolated in her home shows her unwillingness to accept that the South is changing even when the influences of the North are taking over. The new generation with their new ideas tried to change the ways of Miss Emily but failed. When they demanded taxes, she refused to pay, and she won. This is symbolic of Miss Emily’s efforts to keep the South’s culture alive. The conflict in this short story is internal. Miss Emily cannot understand the idea of death. When Miss Emily’s father dies she refuses to believe it. She also suffers a lot when denied because as soon as she thought her boyfriend, Homer Barron, would leave her she bought poison, the arsenic, and he disappeared. She killed him to make sure that he would never leave. The arsenic was a symbol of getting rid of something. It is used to “kill anything up to an elephant” (4) and for Miss Emily is was used to end Homer Barron’s life. Homer Barron is a FOIL character because he is constantly around Miss Emily giving her the impression that he wants to be with her and because of that Miss Emily falls in love with him. Miss Emily is an indirect character because we cannot understand her. For example, she wants to be by herself which is why she is never seen outside her house but she longs for a partner in life and when…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    rose for emily
    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages

    rose for emily

    Emily’s father had a significant impact on her daughter’s life. Mr. Grierson was the reason Emily was not married and he was also the reason Emily experienced attachment and control disorders later in her life. The narrator tells the readers that the Grierson’s had held themselves a little too high for what they were and that none of the young men were good enough for Miss Emily. The town’s people thought of the Grierson’s as a tableau, with Miss Emily in the background dressed in white and her father in the front with his back towards Miss Emily clutching on to a horsewhip. When Emily’s father died she had trouble letting go. For three days, when the town’s people came for the body, she met them at the door denying the fact that her father was dead. The narrator claims, “We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner 3). This is where the readers can first identify Emily’s attachment disorder. Later in the story, after Emily has passed away and the town’s people are let into the Grierson’s house for the first time they break down the door to the room of which no one had seen in forty years. In this room they find Homer’s decayed body lying in the bed. The narrator observes, “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. Once of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 7). In this final scene of the story, that readers can identify Emily’s attachment disorder once again. The readers can also identify a theme of control here as well. When Emily’s father was alive he was an overly controlling figure towards her. Mr. Grierson had driven away all young men from his daughter and now that he was gone she could finally have power in that aspect of her life. That is…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Does The Father Symbolize In A Rose For Emily
    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Does The Father Symbolize In A Rose For Emily

    She remained single up to his death not because she chose to, but, due to the fact that her father chased away all the men who tried to court her. (Pp. 18) He basically locked her away from any experience with love. As a result, her father ended up being the only person in her life that she would love and care for until she met Homer Barron. Emily's loneliness throughout her life was the cause of her inability to let go the one she loves. For instance, her father was the only person she had, so when he died, she denied his death so she could hang on to him. Thus, the reason why Emily killed Homer Barron was to keep him in her life, dead or alive, because he was the only person she had…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A Rose For Emily Mental Illness Analysis
    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Rose For Emily Mental Illness Analysis

    Emily’s issues of abandonment and loneliness lead to her feeling as though she had no choice but to kill Homer so that she could not leave him. The reader knows that Emily is lonely in page two when the townsperson states that she had potential suitors who she clearly cared for left her. Following her father’s death the only way people knew she was alive was because her servant Tobe had been seen at the market. When Emily meets Homer her loneliness doubled with her mental instability told her that the only way she would not lose him would be if she were to kill him. Every person that Emily had ever loved left her at some point, including Homer when he briefly returned to New York. This made Emily feel helpless and Homer returning to New York was the straw that broke the camels back as she began to be overwhelmed with the fear that he would do that again, so overwhelmed that she purchased arson.…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Self Destruction
    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Self Destruction

    During her entire life Emily’s father treated her as she was inferior to men because she is a woman, made her believe that she could not take care of herself, that way she always believed that she needed somebody else to protect her, to tell her what to do. In consequence of Emily’s father abuse, she did not know how to have a healthy relationship with any man, and that was proved in her relationship with Homer Barron, whenever he told her that he was going to leave her, she got desperately and the only solution that she saw was killing him. That way, he could not…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More