Emily Killing Homer: A Crime of Passion or an Act of a Frightened Girl

“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 1). Emily, a member of the town’s elite class, relied upon her father when growing up and after his death, she refused to pay her taxes, stating that her father contributed much to society. But it was evident that she didn’t pay them because of a lack of maturity - financially and socially. When she was younger she pushes herself onto Homer Barron, a Northerner with no interest in marriage. Throughout the story, Emily is conflicted over societal change, and clings to her privileged manner even after finding herself in poverty. Yet, she becomes involved with a man from a lower social class, and a Northerner as well - hinting that he has different beliefs and values. The townspeople, however, believe the relationship it too modern when there is a possibility they are having physical relations despite not being serious about marriage. The community’s inability to commit to progress, contribute to the confused Emily’s decision. In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner uses the symbolism of Emily’s house and her hair to demonstrate her emotional instability and physical deterioration, illustrating the outcome of his story.

William Faulkner once said, The article describes the fate of a southern town after the American Civil War. As the patriarch of the family, Emily's father leaned heavily to maintain the rank and dignity so he drove all the courtship to love Emily and deprived her of her right to happiness. After the death of her father, Emily fell in love with a foreman northerner that was building the railway for the town. But Emily still did not get rid of the shackles of family dignity and her father's influence on her approach. When she found that Homer Barron had no intention to marry her, she poisoned him with arsenic. Since then, Emily closed herself in the old house, and lived with his dead father for 40 years, until she died. The town residents found the secret at the funeral of Emily. William Faulkner is a pivotal figure in the history of American literature, known as the head of the Southern Renaissance and the leader of the Southern literature. "A Rose for Emily" is Faulkner's most classic short story. In this novel, Faulkner used a symbolic, like rose, Emily and the shadow of father, to reveal the contradictions and conflicts between the American old-age cultural minds and the northern industrial civilization after the civil war. He shaped a fallen southern aristocratic lady “Emily “in the tragedy of personal and social, realistic and traditional tragedy.

In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose For Emily”, Miss Emily kills homer Barron because of her loneliness and her refusal to accept change. We first see Miss Emily’s refusal to accept change when her father died. When the townspeople spoke to her about her father’s death, “she told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner,_____). She was aware that he had passed, but she chose not to believe what had happened. Emily was having to face being alone and having to deal with this big change in her life, therefore, causing her to enter a state of denial.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” starts out at Emily’s funeral and then goes onto a story about taxes, which Miss Emily is exempt from paying for life by Colonel Sartoris. During her life, Miss Emily’s father kept her isolated and ran off any potential suitors with a horsewhip. When her father died, Miss Emily refused to acknowledge the fact for three days. Soon after, Miss Emily met and started dating Homer Barron, “a northerner and a day laborer.” The town goes from being happy about the relationship to thinking of it as indecent. Homer seemingly deserted Miss Emily shortly after she bought poison. All is quiet for the next 40 years until Miss Emily’s death when Homer’s corpse is found sealed in an upstairs room (Faulkner 323-327). This paints a picture of a lonely, desperate woman. Miss Emily was isolated with just a butler for company. That does not make her a murder. Emily Grierson is innocent of murder because any evidence is circumstantial or illegally obtained, Tobe cared for Miss Emily enough to kill for her, and Miss Emily is legally insane.

The author, William Faulkner, has a collection of books, short stories, and poems under his name. Through his vast collection of works, Faulkner attempts to discuss and bring awareness to numerous aspects of life. More often than not, his works were created to reflect aspects of life found within the south. Family dynamics, race, gender, social class, war, incest, racism, suicide, necrophilia, and mental illness are just some of the aspects that Faulkner explored. In “A Rose for Emily” the aspects of necrophilia and mental illness along with the societal biases that were observed in a small-town setting are seen to be a part of this captivating story. These aspects ultimately intertwine with the idea of insanity that characterizes “A Rose

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the reader enters the early 1900’s, following the life and death of Emily Grierson through the eyes of the townspeople. People in the town of Jefferson thought of Miss Emily as a tradition and a duty that was passed on from the older generation (323). The townspeople thought that she would not hurt a fly, but they had not known what she had done until after her death. The decayed body of Homer Barron was found in one of the upstairs bedrooms, with a strand of grayed hair beside him (327). First degree murder, as stated by the group Thomson Reuters, “is defined as an unlawful killing that is both willful and premeditated” (FindLaw). Emily Grierson is guilty of first degree murder because she willfully bought the arsenic, her abandonment issues caused the murder to be premeditated, and she confessed to the Baptist minister what she was going to do with Homer.

While “A Jury of Her Peers” centers on the ramifications of societal standards in marriage, “A Rose for Emily” focuses more on the consequences of societal standards in the family. When she was younger, Emily Grierson was controlled by her father. This control is described in this visualization: “ Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip” (866). This image exhibits how Mr. Grierson overpowered Emily in all aspects of her life. Mr. Grierson, similar to the large silhouette, is seen as looming over Emily, and the horsewhip shows that only he possesses the power to choose all decisions in Emily’s life including her spouse. Faulkner conveys this societal standard as extremely harmful, as Emily becomes mentally unwell. Even though she has seen her father’s corpse, Emily repeatedly “told them [townspeople] that her father was not dead” (866). Mr. Grierson’s lasting effect is also seen throughout Emily’s relationship with Homer Barron, a black day laborer from the north. Although the townspeople believed that “a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner” (869), Emily continues to desperately pursue the forbidden relationship because she believes it is her last hope of having a relationship. Not long after, Homer leaves her but when he comes back to town, Emily makes him stay permanently by poisoning him. Emily’s mental instability all

In William Faulkner's short story entitled "A Rose For Emily", Emily Grierson kills her lover Homer Barron after being in love with him for about a year. She then sleeps next to the body in the upstairs bedroom of her home, loving it as if Homer were still alive. She then closes up the upstairs, never seeing the body again. There are three different motives that can be looked at as to why Emily killed Homer. She wanted to exercise power, she couldn't accept that Homer was a homosexual, and she didn't want another man to be taken away from her.

William Faulkner is a well-known author, whose writing belongs in the Realism era in the American Literary Canon. His writing was influence by his Southern upbringing, often setting his stories in the fictional Southern town, Yoknapatawpha County. “A Rose for Emily” was one of Faulkner’s first published pieces and displays many of the now signature characteristics of Faulkner’s writing. The short story provides commentary through the use of many symbols. In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, the author uses the townspeople as a representation of societal expectations and judgments, Emily and her house as symbols for the past, and Homer’s corpse as a physical representation of the fear of loneliness.

William Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” to showcase the changes in society. Faulkner’s story is about Emily Grierson, a southern woman, who is watched upon by the towns’ people of Jefferson from her earlier days until her death. Emily is a stubborn woman because she refuses to listen to the warnings about Homer, a northern man, she claims she does not have to pay her taxes, and leaves her father’s dead body in the house for three days. Emily also becomes secluded over the years only having two people in her life Tobe, her servant and Homer, her lover. The town’s people began to become suspicious when an awful smell was coming from Emily’s house. When Emily died, the people of the town went into her house, and they found the decayed body of Homer. William Faulkner comments that, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” This is a direct reflection on how Emily lives her life because she does not want let go of her past, just like the south not wanting to let go of their tradtion. A decline of the south is the theme of the story and it is shown by the use of characters, conflicts, and symbols.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, Emily, the protagonist, is shown as someone who’s life is falling apart and brought down by society. Emily in this story could be described as a victim to society and her father. Emily Grierson’s confinement, loss of her father and Homer, and constant criticism caused her, her insanity.

Also, Faulkner represents the old southern values through his story A Rose for Emily, when Emily starts seeing Homer Barron. The author Thomas Dilworth refers in his journal A Romance to Kill for: Homicidal Complicity in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", "By entering a love affair with Homer Barron, Emily briefly rebelled against southern values and then, by ending her affair with him, at least as far the townspeople were concerned, she conformed against those values"(Dilworth). The older townspeople believed that Emily forgot her "noblesse oblige". They disliked Barron because he was a Northerner "Yankee". Faulkner's own Southern culture and value are present in his story.

William Faulkner writes “A Rose for Emily”, which is a tale about the peculiar events in a small town in Mississippi. The protagonist, Emily Grierson, is an eccentric lady that encounters tragedies throughout her life. Unexpectedly, she meets Homer Barron whom she considers the love of her life. In this tragic love story, Faulkner reveals the true identities of these individuals. The main character, Emily Grierson, in the story “A Rose for Emily”, is portrayed as a dynamic character, an anti-hero in the story, and a mysterious citizen in the small town of Jefferson.

One of the creepiest and most corrupt parts of the Faulkner’s story is Emily’s necrophilia. Since she wanted to be with her lover, Homer Barron, she decides to marry him. She fantasizes herself living with Homer as she buys “a complete outfit of men’s clothing” for him, however Homer is “not a marrying man” (Faulkner 798). Refusing to accept this, Emily poisons and kills him in order to “live with him”, even if he is a corpse. Although the phrase loving unconditionally applies here, her love, nevertheless, is still defying the laws of ethics, and to add to the creepiness level, her “long strand of iron-gray hair” is found on Homer’s corpse, which means she had frequent visits with him (Faulkner 800). Her perverse idea of love holds no justification, thus her idea of love is wrong. Not only did she not respect

A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner. Its plot focuses on Emily Grierson, a representative of the family of previously rich Southern aristocrats. The woman obviously had inherited mental problems, which resulted in the murder of Homer Barron, Emily’s first and only mentioned potential bridegroom. After the crime she turned into a complete anchoret and spent many decades in the house with Barron’s body. There were many factors that contributed to the tragic fate of Emily Grierson. Besides obvious class-specific and psychiatric issues, the list includes the perception of gender roles in the society of the time. Women played second fiddle despite their