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A Rose for Emily is a short story by William Faulkner first published on April 30, 1930. It is distinctive for its unusual use of first-person plural point of view and non-chronological ordering of episodes. This story takes place in Yoknapatawpha County, an often revisited setting of Faulkner's. It was controversial at the time.
A Rose for Emily is the story of an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson. An unnamed narrator details the strange circumstances of Emily’s life and her odd relationships with her father who controlled and manipulated her, her lover Homer Barron, the townspeople of Jefferson who gossip about her, and her horrible secret. In her upstairs room, she hides Barron's corpse, which explains the horrid stench that emits from Miss Emily's house. The story’s subtle complexities continue to inspire critics while casual readers find it one of Faulkner’s most accessible works. The popularity of the story is due in no small part to its gruesome ending. The story explores many themes, including the society of the South at that time, the role of women in the South, and extreme psychosis.
In the story, the townspeople's points of views on Emily actually reflect the society's value at that moment to some extent. Although the townspeople don't have direct contact with Emily, their views on her and her family greatly affect her life. Their praises and admiration influence her father to keep her sheltered longer than she actually needs to be. Her father controls her thoughts and lifestyle. Emily feels that she is released when her father is dead. She dives into love with Homer and neglects people's judgments on her. When she realizes that Homer intends to leave her again, she makes sure that he would always be with her, whether he is alive or not. In his death Emily finds eternal love which is something no one could ever take away from her.
Speculations
1) Some have speculated that Homer Barron is homosexual due to the following excerpt:
- "Homer himself had remarked--he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club--that he was not a marrying man."
2) There are many arguments and ideas about what actually happened. For example:
- It is accepted (even though it is not explicitly stated in the writing) that Emily poisoned Homer Barron (using the rat poison bought earlier in the story).
- It is also therefore conjectured, especially because he is described as "not the marrying type," that he would not marry her, which supplies her motive for the poisoning (keeping in mind that her family had a history of insanity, and that she wanted Homer to stay with her as her husband, whether he was alive or not).
- Her response to her father's death (when women come to the door to give their condolences, she sends them away saying that her father was not dead.) foreshadows her actions involving Homer's corpse (denial of death, acting as though they had married and he was still alive).
- Some say that she had sexual relations with his corpse, which explains the gray hair found in the pillow next to it. Others argue that she did not have sexual relations with the corpse, but slept next to it, as if he were still alive.
- One very rare opinion is that she only lay with the corpse at death/shortly after death. This opinion is supported by the fact that they had to break into the room, and that it appeared as though it had not been disturbed for 40 years. However, it seems to be clear that her hair began to turn gray after Homer's disappearance.
External Links
- "A Rose For Emily" Complete short story
"A Rose for Emily"