A lot of questions arise when one reads “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner for the first time. What motive did Emily Grierson have to commit murder? What bred a murderer in her? What conflicts did she face that led to this, and how were they resolved? If one examines the events of Emily’s life, the conflicts she faces, the setting she is in that speaks to her character, what changes she experiences throughout the story, and the narrator’s perception of her, then one can answer these questions.
Plus, if one examines the types of critical-reading trategies at one’s disposal, there is a specific strategy that offers a fresh outlook on Faulkner’s story. On the outside, Emily Grierson may seem to lack motive, but she faces conflicts throughout the story that could have driven her to murder. First of all, she has lived with her father in her childhood home for decades. Through subtle hints and imagery, the reader learns that Emily’s life with her father was far from happy. Faulkner portrays her father as the dominant figure and she the submissive figure.
The townspeople picture him in the forefront with an aggressive stance and a horsewhip, and they ee Emily behind him as a subdued figure in white (Faulkner 82). He does not allow her suitors, so she does not find a lover until she is in her thirties (Faulkner 83). Even when her father dies, Emily faces hardship. Despite his ill treatment of her, she keeps his body and insists that he is alive for days, until the townspeople finally pressure her into burial. After that, his portrait follows her throughout the story-in her house, and even over her grave (Faulkner 82, 87).
Emily lives alone in the same decrepit house for years afterwards, shut way, until the townspeople become convinced she is insane. She has a mysterious lover, but one day he vanishes (Faulkner 83). The rancid smell lingering around her house after his disappearance suggests she murdered him (Faulkner 84). Perhaps she killed him because the first suitor she could have in all her life, the one man she had finally been able to love, decided to leave her. At one point, Emily teaches a china class, which a few of the locals attend until they have completed the course, and then, they also disappear from Emily’s life (Faulkner 86).
Every so ften, someone will have the “temerity” to visit the woman feared by the entire city, but secretly they wish she would die, so the “hereditary obligation upon the town” to include and support her would resolve itself (Faulkner 83, 82). When she purchases arsenic, the townspeople pray that she will kill herself with it (Faulkner 85). Perhaps this is why she mourns her father, because although he denied her a life of her own, he was all she had. The last conflict Emily faces is Homer Barron, her final lover. It seems he also tried to avoid marrying her, as the first weetheart did, and he met the same fate (Faulkner 85, 87).
All the conflicts in “A Rose for Emily” are resolved by death-the father, the sweetheart, the townspeople’s duty to Emily, and Homer Barron. Death is the final chapter of every incident in Emily Grierson’s life. Emily’s history made her a murderer, which one would think holds the potential to create a complex character, but it actually has the opposite effect. Evidently, she is still stuck in that life: she imagines her father is alive, she stays inside all the time with few visitors, and she lives in the same house (Faulkner 82, 83). Her house is another insight into her character: it is dated and derelict.
It is a thing of the previous generation, encroached upon by the current generation. Since she is stuck in the past, she cannot change, and she remains the same creepy, cold, and distant figure throughout the story. She shows no emotion at all, not even when city authorities show up at her home, which contains the body of her dead lover. One would think that she would show fear or anxiety in this situation, but she is as impassive as ever (Faulkner 83). Of course, it is very possible that Emily was very anxious, but he city authorities were oblivious to it.
To them, she is an eccentric, deteriorating old woman and a burden on the entire town. The townspeople narrate the story, and therefore the descriptions of Emily may be unreliable. After all, her sweetheart disappears and her cellar begins to smell, yet the people do not become suspicious (Faulkner 83-84). Even later, when Homer Barron vanishes right after Emily purchased poison, no one even considers foul play (Faulkner 86). They are completely stunned when they barge into her room after her death and find a corpse on her bed (Faulkner 88).
The townspeople may be describing Emily as exactly what they expect her to be, even though the murders prove that she is more than they thought. If a critic examines “A Rose for Emily” with a feminist mindset, he or she will recognize that the time period is very important. The story takes place in the late nineteenth century, which was a very misogynistic era. When their mayor invents a story to exempt her from paying taxes, the narrator says: “Only a man… [like] Colonel Sartoris … could have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it” (Faulkner 81).
Her father’s trictest rule is that she has no suitors, and as soon as she is free of him, she tries to find a suitor. Although it is a stereotype that women require a husband to be happy, perhaps Emily feels this way as a rebellion against her father. The feminist strategy for critical reading could also explain why the townspeople think so little of her: she is an old woman; she is independent save a manservant named Tobe; she is unmarried; she rejects their attempts to integrate her into the community.
Obviously, the first conclusion the townspeople jump to in order to explain why Emily is not like other women is that she is insane (Faulkner 84). One would expect nothing less of the repressive era that Emily lives in. In short, external forces play a great role in Emily Grierson’s life. Her father, her lovers, and the townspeople make her the reclusive, creepy killer that she is. The solution to every problem in her life is death, which is about the only noticeable change in “A Rose for Emily. ” Although the townspeople’s biased perspective can affect the reader’s understanding of Emily, they may be correct in their diagnosis of insanity.
The setting and time-period she lives in are also very important. Her home reflects her character: aged, faded, and part of history. The time period is an interesting factor, because it requires one to consider the gender roles of the late nineteenth century. Overall, Emily Grierson faces serious conflicts that could have bettered her character, but instead, she morphs into something eerie, unreadable, and dark. Of course, because of the unreliable narration, one can only speculate about her character; one cannot speak with certainty on the matter of Miss Emily.
