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Essay on the short story “A Rose for Emily”
William Faulkner wrote this little piece of gem in 1930.Based in the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi, the story chronicles the life of Emily Grierson, a lady who lived a tragic life unbeknownst to others living in the same town. The author stated that he would give her a rose just to provide his sympathy, and that is where the title of the story originated. The story encompasses the whole life of a spinster, her issues, her ego, her yearning for love, her vanity, her limitations in difficult times, and most importantly her conditions to live life on her own terms, no matter how repulsive to others. All these characteristics are pondered on one by one as the story unfolds, and Emily’s character gradually comes more into picture.
The story itself begins with the death of Emily. Her funeral is hugely attended, as she had become quite an interesting figure for everyone due to her reclusive nature. Then the story marches past and forth, delving into the maddening characteristics of Emily. Her aging father, and she herself, hold on to the belief that their aristocracy is still as unblemished as ever; though they have fallen upon hard times after the Civil War. When she turns thirty, her father dies. Emily clings to her father’s body for days, and let’s go of it only grudgingly. She revives gradually, and befriends a man named Homer Barron, a contractual laborer. The friendship shocks everyone, as Emily and her father swore by royalty. Homer insists that he is not the marrying sort, quite openly. Emily’s distant cousins come to break this relationship, but the
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whole town feels the cousins are even worse than Emily herself. Homer leaves for a few days, and meanwhile, Emily gets rid of her cousins and buys herself some Arsenic. Homer returns, and is seen entering Emily’s house late one night. The whole town is disgusted with the idea, and avoids both henceforth. Emily, however, still behaves vainly and nobody can even question her about a foul smell emanating from her home. The men sprinkle lime at the dark of the night, and get rid of the smell. Emily gradually draws into her own shell, and never leaves her house. The story then snaps back into the present, where after the funeral, a few people enter her bedroom upstairs, and find the decomposed body of Homer, a pillow next to him, and a single thread of Emily’s hair. The story finishes on a shocking note, that deep beneath her reclusiveness and vanity, Emily was actually a Necrophiliac.
Emily is most definitely an outcast of sorts. She appears proud and haughty, just so that her real identity and trait remain hidden. She never leaves the house towards the end, because the house holds her darkest secrets, and she is scared to leave it for a moment, lest they leak out. She has complete disregard for the law, and refuses to pay taxes. But, underneath that vanity people learn to tolerate, is the disregard for the life of a human being whom she loved, and who didn’t want to marry her. Her sole purpose for buying that Arsenic was to kill Homer, and never let him leave her side. She feels romantically inclined towards the dead body, and takes control over it.Homer represents a gay and lively soul. He is open with his thoughts, and makes Emily happy. He states he doesn’t want to marry, and seals his fate. Emily kills him out of her overwhelming love. Emily didn’t let go of her father’s body for three days after his death, reinforcing that she was a Necrophiliac back then too.
The major theme of this story is death. The story begins with Emily’s death, and ends with Homer’s. The author describes Emily, towards the end, as a skeleton. She is an emblem for the death of the old charm of aristocracy, and her new found romantic relationship with Homer is the death of her refusal to
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acknowledge men beneath her class. Emily’s single strand of hair on the pillow in the climax, shows how much she loved Homer till her death. She truly considered him her husband, and only yearned to keep him next to her forever. When the people break into her bedroom in the end, we feel almost sorry for Emily. True, she is a murderess, and deserves no sympathy. However, deep down, she was a woman, with a severe identity crisis, and an urge to be loved deeply. She broke all the social protocols with her grotesque act, but the blatant intrusion into her bedroom, right after her death wasn’t justifiable, either. The townsfolk treated her as an object of curiosity only. She was endured and tolerated, but was that enough to break into her bedroom and open her secrets out in the open? We almost feel a grudging sympathy towards Emily. She had a sorry life, and her insecurities gradually pushed her towards committing a heinous crime like murder. Had she been more approachable, and had learned to live life like others, maybe she would have been happier.
“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner, William). The townsfolk treat her like an inheritance of one of the last respectable and aristocratic families, and excuse many acts of hers. She is relieved of her taxes, and is nothing short of a burden. Emily’s tragic life is displayed in these words, too. She has a pathetic life, and that added more to her urge to control; be it the people of Jefferson, or the dead body of Homer.
The climax reinforces all Emily’s instabilities and her grotesque act shocks everyone. In spite of living a supposed normal, though reclusive, life, Emily had committed a murder. However, there is still a sigh of remorse for the lady. She tried everything, yet could gain nothing; not even from the marriage to a dead body. Emily is a sorry figure, and the equally sorry murderess. Even, in killing the man she loved, Emily didn’t find any marital bliss. Even after her death, people were disgusted, and spoke ill of her presumably. So, a life not lived well, and a death followed by scandals, is what summed up Emily’s
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journey. Had she tried and found bliss in accepting the changes, rather than share a pillow with a dead man, her journey could have been much better.
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Works Cited:
- Faulkner,William. “A Rose for Emily.” Forum. 30 April 1930.Print.
