A Rose for Emily
The story of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” revolves around the life of Miss Emily Grierson in the 1930s. William’s narration focuses on showing the environment and lifestyle Emily is brought up in and how they affect her adult life. Emily lives with her very stern father, whose traits make her lonesome and isolated. Emily gets used to being isolated that even after her father’s death, she still struggles to fit in the typical societal setting. Emily is growing old and is still unmarried. Her father’s death becomes traumatic to her, and she fails to accept his death since he was the only family she had. She later falls in love with Homer Barron. However, Homer does not hold the same intentions as Emily since he loves men. Emily later develops a mental illness and necrophilia as she longs to have a husband. Necrophilia is considered a disorder where one develops sexual feelings for corpses. This paper aims at proving that love hurts.
William’s story falls back in time to the late nineteenth century, where citizens have hard times following the civil wars. Pieces of evidence from the story show that Emily is a spinster from the south and a minority member. Her family is also an aristocratic one or a wealthy family, evident by her father’s feeling that no man within the locality was fit to wife his precious daughter. Emily is having many problems after her father’s death despite having some while he was still alive. The author does not talk about Emily’s mother. The audience is introduced to two cousins she had and shows that they were not close. Emily’s family becomes broke, and she is unable to drop her previous standards to ease her current state. She struggles to uphold her previous standards hoping she can meet a man within her social status. In her mind, Emily believes that love considers social status and recognition, leaving her disappointed in the end.
Emily discovers that she is all she got after her father’s death and fails to accept that he is gone. The author narrates how customs had ladies help and offer condolences to Emily the night her father died, but Emily shows up dress in her usual ways and no grief. She further claims that her father is not dead. She remains in denial for three days while the doctors in charge try to persuade her to let them do away with her father’s corpse. The doctors grow frustrated and intend to file a case when finally, Emily accepts the reality leading to her dad’s quick burial. Being raised by her father, she has so much love for him. Her father’s death leaves her hurt so much.
The author then introduces us to a new character called Homer Barron. He is a member of a crew that is repairing the town’s sidewalks. Homer comes from the north and is a foreman in the on-going jobs. Emily and Homer meet and grow fond of each other. They are seen spending time together during the weekends. Eventually, rumors start spreading that Homer and Emily would end up being married. When Emily is seen going to the drug store to purchase some poison, everyone thinks that “poor Emily” wants to commit suicide. Their assumptions are based on the fact that Homer had left the town. When Homer returns, he is seen for a short while and is never seen again. It is after his noted disappearance that Emily starts behaving awkwardly. She frequently locks herself in the house.
Moreover, she no longer goes to the market place by herself but instead has an errand guy who makes the purchases for her. Emily later dies, and it is after her death that the truth is unveiled. Homer had been dead for some time, and his corpse had undergone severe decomposition. Evident when the author says, “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust” (59). After examination of Homer’s corpse, the people establish that Emily must have poisoned him. Homer’s death results from him not sharing the same feelings as Emily had towards him. Homer finds himself a friend in a new town while Emily thinks she has finally met her husband. Emily, disappointed and hurt, decides to kill him and then keeps his body in her bed, where she lies next to him.
In the story, the author shows the audience how Emily ends up being hurt on many occasions. Williams first shows how Emily is disappointed to try to stick to her previous standards of being a prestigious family despite being broke and frustrated. She is further heartbroken by her father’s death and suffers severe denial showing how much she is hurt. Finally, when she fails to get Homer’s love, she is hurt and frustrated. Her frustrations make her kill Homer, but her love for him makes her keep his body in her bed. The entire contexts show how love ended up having Emily hurt.