What makes a murderer? This question has often confounded many researchers, scientists and criminologists. Understanding the underlying motivation of a killer is important to researchers, scientists and policymakers to create responsive laws and policies that could minimize the instances of this crime. Some believed that murder, like some diseases, runs in the family. This means that if one has an ascendant or ascendants that committed murder or had killed in the past, then it is likely that the person will also commit a similar crime. Others, however, lay the blame on the environment in which a person has been raised as the underlying cause of that person’s tendency to commit criminality, such as murder. Many studies have been conducted by sociologists, criminologists and other researcher to provide proof for one or the other theory. As a matter of fact, there were famous family studies that tried to show that violence and criminality runs in the family. However, other studies have also shown that the environment is a significant factor that influences a person to commit murder. This essay will emphasize that the propensity to commit murder lies in between – that is, between heredity and environment or the point where one meets the other.
In A Rose for Emily, a short story written by William Faulkner, a surprise awaits the readers at the end of the story when the story’s protagonist is eventually revealed as a murderer. The story revolves around Emily Grierson – the last descendant of a proud and privileged family in a southern town. Emily was raised by a strict and imperious father who thought that no man was good enough for his daughter. No suitor of Emily passed his stringent judgment that by the time he passed away Emily, already in her thirties, was still single and penniless. There was a rich aunt in the past, but she had gone mad and later died. All the relatives of the Griersons are in Alabama and unfortunately, Emily’s father had managed to alienate himself from them leaving her all alone by herself. She has a faithful servant – a black man who also keeps mostly to himself - by her side until her death. Emily’s solitary existence, however, is broken when contractors from the north came to town to work on the town’s sidewalks and Homer Barron, their foreman, insinuates himself into her life. The sight of Emily and Homer driving around town in a yellow buggy on Sunday afternoons starts to regale the townsfolk, which sends tongues wagging because it has been known that Homer is not the marrying type and may even be a homosexual. Gossips heighten when Emily buys arsenic spurring speculation that she is going to commit suicide. This dies down when some relatives pay Emily a visit and she buys afterwards some men’s jewelry and clothing. However, after being spotted going into Emily’s house one evening, Homer suddenly disappears from the scene entirely. It is only learned after her death and when some neighbors go up the second floor of the house that Homer has been murdered and his corpse is lying on one side of the bed with an imprint of presumably Emily’s head on the pillow beside his.
Although the story does not literally spell it there is only one conclusion that can be made from its ending: Emily murdered Homer with the arsenic she bought from the drugstore. In her case, the nature versus nurture discourse is not applicable if this means choosing one over the other. This is because elements from both sides exist. As mentioned earlier, her aunt became insane. It is believed that a form of insanity may be hereditary. If it is, or even if it is not, Emily has certainly shown some signs of tendency towards mental imbalance. When her father died, for instance, she refuses to have him buried because she believes he still alive. When neighbors knocked on her door to commiserate, she “met them at the door dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner 652). That is certainly a sign of mental imbalance. That instance is not the only time that Emily has shown mental imbalance. Her refusal to confront issues, such as tax notices, her inability to keep up with the present – she does not even know that Sartoris has been dead for ten years – and the fact that she refuses to admit that she is no longer as privileged as before. Worse, she has been sleeping with a corpse for years! However, her mental instability and her refusal to face reality could also be blamed on her environment. Her father’s arrogance and snobbishness had led to her to an isolated life and ill-prepared her for reality. Her isolation from others and her utter loneliness could have also fueled her to murder Homer so as to secure his presence in her life forever. Perhaps when she asked him to marry her after her relatives reprimanded her for making a spectacle of herself he refused her. This could have been the last straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak, and she decided to murder him. However, loneliness does not necessarily make a person murderous. There are murderers in history who are extrovert and outgoing and there are people living on their own who are law-abiding. There are also persons who have relatives who are crazy, but have not succumbed to mental insanity themselves. The only conclusion that can be made in the case of Emily Grierson is that she became a murderer because genes and environment worked together hand-in-hand to make her one.
A murderer is a murderer because of the confluence of not one, but several factors that push a person beyond a certain threshold and commit the act of murder. Genetics alone cannot explain why a person commits murder. People may inherit insanity from their ascendants, but this does not necessarily push them to commit murder. They may commit suicide or go around aimlessly, but not necessarily murderous. Similarly, environment alone cannot justify a murderous streak. There are people who were raised under extremely rough circumstances with very unsupportive family, but may even use this to succeed in life. In other words, there is no clear and single underlying causes for a murderous mind – there could be several.
Work Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: The Human Experience Reading and Writing. Eds. Richard Abcarian, Marvin Klotz and Samuel Cohen. 11th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2012. Print.
