Arsenic And Symbolism: The Poison Of The South
Arsenic and Symbolism: The Poison of the South
When William Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” the South found itself in a position of confusion. After the Civil War the economy was in a decline and Southerners were forced to question their ways of life and moral standards. Faulkner uses the life of a grim, southern lady to examine the tensions between the North and South and how he believed that it would be the ultimate downfall of the entire nation. As the main character Miss Emily struggles to break free from her upbringing, death and desperation control her life. Eventually she would use arsenic to kill her lover, showing a violent and psychotic side of the southern facade. Faulkner describes large scale issues by telling an ominous story …show more content…
Emily’s obsessive actions dominate her choices as can be seen when she buys the poison. “She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look.” (Faulkner 1071) Emily had the life sucked out of her by her father and empty relationship with Homer. She is described in the same way that you would describe the Grim Reaper, bringing death to those around her. William Faulkner wrote many stories telling the tales of the same town and people as found in “A Rose for Emily”. In each story the lives of those in this town decay around them, falling apart as more Northerners migrate to the South. But as the death of Homer illuminates, it is more than the North that will fail if the tumult in the nation continues. Homer and Emily’s relationship complexity promises a metaphorical death of the Southern ideals. Just as Emily had lost all of her moral standard by killing Homer, the South would lose itself in the strife involving the other side of the country. Faulkner displays a grim future for the nation if willingness for peace cannot be committed to and
When William Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” the South found itself in a position of confusion. After the Civil War the economy was in a decline and Southerners were forced to question their ways of life and moral standards. Faulkner uses the life of a grim, southern lady to examine the tensions between the North and South and how he believed that it would be the ultimate downfall of the entire nation. As the main character Miss Emily struggles to break free from her upbringing, death and desperation control her life. Eventually she would use arsenic to kill her lover, showing a violent and psychotic side of the southern facade. Faulkner describes large scale issues by telling an ominous story …show more content…
Emily’s obsessive actions dominate her choices as can be seen when she buys the poison. “She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye sockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look.” (Faulkner 1071) Emily had the life sucked out of her by her father and empty relationship with Homer. She is described in the same way that you would describe the Grim Reaper, bringing death to those around her. William Faulkner wrote many stories telling the tales of the same town and people as found in “A Rose for Emily”. In each story the lives of those in this town decay around them, falling apart as more Northerners migrate to the South. But as the death of Homer illuminates, it is more than the North that will fail if the tumult in the nation continues. Homer and Emily’s relationship complexity promises a metaphorical death of the Southern ideals. Just as Emily had lost all of her moral standard by killing Homer, the South would lose itself in the strife involving the other side of the country. Faulkner displays a grim future for the nation if willingness for peace cannot be committed to and