English 1C
25 April 2012
“A Rose for Emily”
People will go great measures to avoid letting a loved one go. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” dreams collide with the real world. Miss Emily Grierson was raised by a narcissistic father who created an isolated woman. Her father secluded her from the rest of the world by assuring no one was good enough for her. After her beloved father’s death, she struggled to let him go. Later in her life, she meets a man named Homer Barron, who was in town to fix the town’s streets. The unknown narrator, who lives in the town, and fellow townspeople notice Miss Emily’s happiness with Homer and believe that they will get married. The townspeople specifically thought Homer and Miss Emily were married when Miss Emily bought a men’s toilet set in silver. However, when Homer disappears, Miss Emily loses another person she loves. In “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily’s dreams of love collide with the real world.
Miss Emily loved her father and he is the only person by her side. He is the only person in her life because her father is narcissistic. Faulkner suggests that Miss Emily’s father abuses his daughter. This may be the reason “none of the young man were quite enough” for her (Faulkner 439). The way Miss Emily acts with her father, the town “thought of them as a tableau” (Faulkner 439). After Miss Emily Grierson’s father passed, Miss Emily became the last of the Griersons. Unable to accept the death, it is only after three days that Miss Emily allows the coroner take her father’s body away because she is unable to let him go. However, the town understands Miss Emily’s decision by including that, “she would have to cling to that which robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner 439). Miss Emily’s father was successfully able to keep his daughter by his side and nobody could disturb their close relationship.
Even though a life was lost, the town was glad for Miss Emily when her father passed away. The reason they were glad was because they could finally pity her and “she had become humanized” like the rest of the town (Faulkner 439). She now has to deal with being alone and “would now know the thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less” (Faulkner 439). The narrator and the town want Miss Emily to experience what it is like to be on her own and not being controlled by her narcissistic father. Miss Emily is now a free human, like the rest of the townspeople, and has to deal with the hardships in everyday life.
The house is all that is passed on to Miss Emily from her father. The house is the greatest building on the street, even though it is falling to part as it ages. The narrator’s description of the house resembles Miss Emily. When he included that the house was “stubborn and coquettish,” these characteristics also describe Miss Emily (Faulkner 437). The house is also described as “an eyesore among eyesores” and Emily is described as the same way, for example, her eyes, which “looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough” (Faulkner 437-438). The narrator’s description of Miss Emily is of death in life.
Homer Barron is a northern day laborer, which at the time is one step above a black man in the south. He comes to town as a worker for a construction company that is contracted for paving the town’s sidewalks shortly after Miss Emily’s father’s death. The town is glad to see that Miss Emily has an interest in Homer because after her father’s death, she did not leave her house very often, if at all, and her only family remaining are cousins in Alabama. Although she has family in Alabama, they did not contact each other and even did not attend the funeral for Miss Emily’s father. Homer resembled Emily’s father and many people from the town believed that she liked this man because he reminded her of her late father. Although there was a clear difference between them in class, he became Miss Emily’s sweetheart. Many people of the town also believed that Miss Emily was married to Homer, especially after she “ordered a man’s toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece” (Faulkner 441).
Unfortunately for Miss Emily, Homer “liked men” (Faulkner 441). Thus, there is a suggestion that Homer is a homosexual, and therefore he is not a marrying man. If Miss Emily dreams of marrying this man, her sweetheart, it is not going to happen. The town noticed this problem and the narrator spoke for the townspeople when he said, “she will persuade him yet” (Faulkner 440).
Once the town’s streets were finished, Homer left town for a couple of days and the townspeople believes that “he had gone to prepare for Miss Emily’s coming, or to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins” (Faulkner 441). Just as the town predicts, Homer returns after three days and is let into the kitchen part of Miss Emily’s house by a Negro man, according to a neighbor that witnessed his entering. The narrator claimed that the neighbor’s sight of Homer is the last time anyone ever saw him. Knowing that her life was falling apart, Miss Emily buys poison from a druggist. At the time she was in her thirties and unmarried. Being in her thirties, her life according to society is basically over and her chances of marrying are little to none. Many people of the town assume that she has bought the poison to kill herself. Even the druggist, who tries to get Miss Emily to claim what her purpose for the rat poison is, acted in fear. He tried to make her assure him that she is going to use the poison for its true purpose. The poison, which was a rat poison called arsenic, is given to Miss Emily by a Negro delivery boy, instead of the druggist, and was specifically noted “For rats,” under the picture of a skull and bones. Instead of using the poison to kill herself, Miss Emily actually uses it to kill Homer Barron. Emily robs Homer of his life, just as her father took hers. In both cases, a person holds on to another by not allowing them a choice of freedom. The only difference is that Emily actually killed Homer to keep him by her side. She prevented the loss of another loved one to fulfill her goal of happiness with her sweetheart, Homer. Her dream was kept intact because she is able to be with Homer forever, but love with a corpse is an illusion, not reality.
After the complete disappearance of Homer Barron, Miss Emily rarely left her home and neighbors around the house began to notice a bad smell that is originating from Miss Emily’s house. One night townsmen gathered up to take care of the smell when they “broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime in there, and in all the outbuildings” (Faulkner 439). After a couple of days, the bad smell successfully went away. Miss Emily was seen watching from the window while the townsmen sprinkled the lime, but never made an action. The smell caused some of the town’s people to believe that Emily was starting to become crazy. She had an aunt that went crazy as she aged and many believe that Emily will follow her aunt’s footsteps. This was a point where the town started to feel sympathy for Miss Emily.
The town had feelings for Miss Emily because after her father’s death, she represents the last of the Griersons. Faulkner expressed the town’s sympathy for Miss Emily by referring to her as “Poor Emily” (Faulkner 440). Her way of living, however, did not change. This was a problem because there was no source of income as she did not work. However, unlike the rest of the town, Miss Emily did not have to pay taxes. According to a story given by former mayor Colonel Sartoris, Miss Emily does not pay taxes because her father loaned money to the town. Remitting her taxes is the way the town will repay the Grierson family back. Along with the remitted taxes, Miss Emily clings to a confederate southern past, because it was how she was raised. Her ways are outdated and she realistically could not change the way she was after her father’s poor guidance.
After Miss Emily Grierson’s death, many of the town’s people attend her funeral. Miss Emily is very private in her later years and the only other person who has been in her house before the funeral is her servant Tobe. The townspeople searched Miss Emily’s house after her death. This led to the discovery of Homer Barron. Homer was found in Miss Emily’s upstairs room, which no one has seen for forty years, laying in bed dressed up. While examining the room that is decorated for a bridal, the townspeople notice an indent from a head in the pillow next to Homer’s corpse. Suddenly, a town member noticed that the indented pillow contains “a long strand of iron gray hair” (Faulkner 443). This discovery shows that Miss Emily could not let another person she loves go and she is able to keep Homer by her side. Miss Emily’s pursuit of love ended in conflict because the man she wanted to be with is suggested to be a homosexual. Miss Emily accomplishes her goal just as her father accomplished his of keeping her away from other people.
Distorted views of reality, or illusions, create conflicts. Miss Emily Grierson’s life was taken from her by her father, who kept people away from her, claiming they were not good enough. Once he died, Emily was alone. After several years, Homer Barron enters her life and they enjoy each other’s company. The town is glad to see Miss Emily’s happiness with Homer and even believes she marries him. This, however, did not happen because there is a suggestion that Homer is a homosexual. For Miss Emily, love had distorted her spirit and soul. To secure her love, she kills and robs just as her father had done. People will go great measures to avoid letting a loved one go. Miss Emily lost her beloved father and was going to lose Homer, but killed him to keep him forever by her side.