What Is The Issue In A Rose For Emily
William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily is a complex story of a southern woman and her life seen through the eyes of the town members. Miss Emily, as the narrator calls her, has passed away at the start of the story after not being seen out of her house following the disappearance of Homer Barron, the man she was supposedly with. Miss Emily was described as a “. . .hereditary obligation upon the town. . .” (Faulkner 32), which is basically what the whole town sees and judges her by. The viewpoint of the story makes it hard to interpret because of the lack of thoughts and opinions from Emily Grierson herself. However, this is not the main problem in the story. The main problem is the reasons for Emily Grierson’s murder of Homer Barron who she was
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They are described as a “. . .tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground”(Faulkner 34). The narrator, who is thought to be speaking for the whole town of Jefferson, observed that no man was ever good enough for Emily in the eyes of her father. The town recalled that they “. . .remembered all the young men her father had driven away. . .”(Faulkner 34). Emily’s struggle to find someone to please her father could be a sign of her father's dominance over her. Hsu Chenghsun and Ya-huei Wang agreed in their article, The Fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian Analysis of A Rose for Emily, that “Emily is the victim of her father’s patriarchal and aristocratic dominance. Even after his death, she cannot escape his domination”. After finally being with a man, Emily may have started realizing that Homer Barron is the type of man her father was trying to protect her from. Their outside relationship may have seemed like the perfect love story but no one knows what happened behind the closed doors of Miss Emily’s …show more content…
. .she went out very little. . .”(Faulkner 34) and it became known that “. . . the house was all that was left to her; and in way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily”(Faulkner 34). Emily had no friends and no one to talk to until Homer Barron came along and took a liking to her. The town was “. . .glad that miss Emily would have an interest. . .”(Faulkner 34), but mostly because they felt sorry that she was lonely and wanted her to resemble the other southern women in the town. Homer Barron, unlike Emily, was loved by all of the town members. He was a relatable man and always seemed to be the “. . .center of the group”(Faulkner 34). Emily’s jealousy of her new man’s popularity could have caused her to go mad and dating him only showed just how much of an effect he had on her stance in the town. After they had been together a while, Homer starts to see the real Emily and tries to leave but it's too late because Emily couldn't possibly handle another
They are described as a “. . .tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground”(Faulkner 34). The narrator, who is thought to be speaking for the whole town of Jefferson, observed that no man was ever good enough for Emily in the eyes of her father. The town recalled that they “. . .remembered all the young men her father had driven away. . .”(Faulkner 34). Emily’s struggle to find someone to please her father could be a sign of her father's dominance over her. Hsu Chenghsun and Ya-huei Wang agreed in their article, The Fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian Analysis of A Rose for Emily, that “Emily is the victim of her father’s patriarchal and aristocratic dominance. Even after his death, she cannot escape his domination”. After finally being with a man, Emily may have started realizing that Homer Barron is the type of man her father was trying to protect her from. Their outside relationship may have seemed like the perfect love story but no one knows what happened behind the closed doors of Miss Emily’s …show more content…
. .she went out very little. . .”(Faulkner 34) and it became known that “. . . the house was all that was left to her; and in way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily”(Faulkner 34). Emily had no friends and no one to talk to until Homer Barron came along and took a liking to her. The town was “. . .glad that miss Emily would have an interest. . .”(Faulkner 34), but mostly because they felt sorry that she was lonely and wanted her to resemble the other southern women in the town. Homer Barron, unlike Emily, was loved by all of the town members. He was a relatable man and always seemed to be the “. . .center of the group”(Faulkner 34). Emily’s jealousy of her new man’s popularity could have caused her to go mad and dating him only showed just how much of an effect he had on her stance in the town. After they had been together a while, Homer starts to see the real Emily and tries to leave but it's too late because Emily couldn't possibly handle another