Essay Outline
I: Introduction & Thesis
II: Why Mrs. Grierson Is Not A Sympathetic Character
III: An Account of Mrs. Grierson’s Hardships
IV: Mrs. Grierson’s Secret
V: Conclusion
If there's an old saying that best describes William Faulkner's short story A Rose for Emily, it is that appearances can be truly deceptive. Almost always, there's more than meets the eye and this is true in the case of Ms. Emily Grierson that we soon find. So, the purpose of this essay is to argue that Ms. Grierson is not a sympathetic character because of the personal choices she has made and for which she herself has to blame for. Even if she has gone through hardship, like most of us, and which can make people feel sorry for her, it the discovery of Homer Barron’s body in her home after her death that puts paid to any kind of sympathy that people might feel for her. (Have mentioned the argument, counter-argument and refutation of the counter-argument in the following three paras - kindly delete this line.)
At first impression, Ms. Grierson remains aloof from people for the most part of her life stemming from a sense of haughtiness and which leaves the people of the town, for the most part, guessing as to whether she is happy or not. It’s clear that she behaves in an almost aristocratic manner throughout the story and which can be attributed to her father’s reputation (Roberts). Up until the time she died, she rarely ever left her house nor did she meet people and which extended for several years leaving people to wonder, at times, whether she was crazy or had passed. One thing was for sure: they envied her and she probably knew that too. While her arrogance might seem as a cover-up for the tragedies in her life, the truth is that she struggles to cope with these changes but is unwilling to accept any help as she prefers living in the past. While the death of her father is truly devastating, and due to whose presence, she remained single in her thirties and well beyond, she was also known for being too particular about the kind of man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Now, speaking of her father, who was exempt from paying taxes, she continues to dismiss tax notices long after his death even though the times have truly changed in the town that she lives in (Shmoop Editorial Team). There's also the impression that people get that she has run into hard times as she struggles financially – an issue that she hardly understood when she was much younger and under the protection of her father. Of course, she also gave lessons in china-painting and which she had to stop as the times changed and people moved on to other hobbies (Faulkner). This meant that apart from being lonely, she really never had much to do given how important one's sense of work is to their purpose in Life. Of course, she might have not found it necessary either given how her home was considered to be one of the most grand in town. Still, this is how life turns out for most people and given the comfort that she enjoyed, one can hardly feel sympathetic for her since most of these issues that she has to cope with – latter financial losses and being a spinster well past her thirties – is partly due to her inability to make choices for herself. As harsh as this might seem, the author remarks that it was her father who robbed her of the privilege of being married and living a normal life pending which, she had no choice but to live with him henceforth until he passed (Faulkner).
Of course, there are certain instances in the story where you tend to feel sorry for Ms. Emily, thanks to the condition of her home, the smell that the townspeople cannot stand and complain about, the falling out with her family in Alabama as well as the sudden disappearance of her lover, Homer Barron, who most people were certain she would get married to (Faulkner). Given these embarrassing circumstances that she finds herself in, one can't help but feel sorry for her lonely condition but for the company of Tobe, her Negro manservant, who remains with her until the day she passes away. It almost seems as if all these events are merely an outward manifestation of her life that is clearly in decay, and which she does not admit openly even if she feels it strongly ever since the passing of her father (Faulkner).
Yet in stark contrast, Ms. Grierson is very capable of keeping a secret and which probably points to why she preferred to live in utter solitude in her final years after painting the town red, in a manner of speaking, with Homer Barron. Given her penchant for secrecy, no one knows what happened between the two as they were touted to be a couple and one where Ms. Grierson had met her match. Of course, that was not to happen as Barron disappeared as soon as he came, much to the sympathy of those who thought how she might have felt about his imagined departure. As soon as she passes, people break open a room beyond the stairs to find his decayed body lying in bed with signs of her presence in that room. If that wasn't enough, and the reader discovers, she probably used the rat poison that she obtained in one of her visits to a chemist and where she requested for the strongest stuff that they had for rodents. Of course, as it turned out, and as the simple townsfolk discover, it was for Barron who fell for her and met his demise as a result of being with a woman who wasn't really all that pitiable after all. Given this finding after her death, it's hard to imagine how one can feel sympathetic for Ms. Grierson since she committed murder in a fit of possessiveness. If anything, one can clearly understand her reclusive behavior for all these years once they discovered the body of Homer Barron.
As mentioned earlier, Ms. Grierson was responsible for her own choices and one finds it difficult to imagine why her father was so possessive about his daughter. Of course, and as most people discover in the end, the trait runs in the family where she, probably in a fit of being possessive, kills her lover – where her reasons for doing so is something that she takes to her grave and which ruined the life of an innocent ma. One can't help but think about her Negro manservant who leaves at the time of her death while not uttering a single thing about the incident and his loyalty to her. It's hard to feel sympathetic for her plight after this discovery given that she definitely had a secret to keep and did everything in her power to keep it so.
In closing, there's no doubt that while Ms. Grierson had to cope with decisions that did not turn out in her favor. However, there were others where she clearly had control over – to not poison Homer Barron, no matter how difficult it might have been to do without him if he left. It's through this action and in keeping it concealed that one can clearly what kind of a person she really was. To be sympathetic to her plight is to not see how diabolical and twisted she truly was, even if she lost out on being loved and having a family of her own. Keeping Barron by her side by poisoning him was hardly the way to find love in the first place (Sparknotes Editors). While it might seem harsh to judge her so harshly for the hardship that she faced, it's inexcusable to look the other way when it comes to a crime of passion. If anything, one can't help but feel that Ms. Grierson got what she deserved – just as all of us do as we live and age in this lifetime.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." University of Virginia. 30 April 1930. Web. 21 January 2017. <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html/>
Shmoop Editorial Team. "A Rose for Emily Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.
Roberts, James L. CliffsNotes on Faulkner's Short Stories. 21 Jan 2017
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SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Rose for Emily Homer Barron.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 20 Jan. 2017. <http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/a-rose-for-emily/character/homer-barron/>
