Essay on Theme of Murder in A Rose for Emily and Killings

“A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner and “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro are two different stories that have similar thematic characteristics. Both stories involve trying to get satisfaction with main characters. “A Rose for Emily” and “How I Met My Husband” are trying to live a happy life. Both Miss Emily and Edie try to keep their loved one close to them and would do whatever it takes to keep it that way. Although there were many plot twist throughout the characters, they tried to remain happy even though they weren’t. The protagonist for “A Rose for Emily” is more sympathetic than “How I Met My Husband” because the narrator in “A Rose For Emily” does not have the safe vantage point of the past as in “How I Met My Husband”, but instead is reflecting on her hardships as she lives them, and was never given the

When Miss Emily finds somebody, though, it quickly pushes her to desperation. Her relationship with Homer Barron is a result of the life and death of her father. Ironically, he is a northern, roughneck Yankee, the exact opposite of any connection a Grierson would consider. Unsuspectingly, Emily is attracted to him, which is an oddity itself considering her lack of personality and his obvious charisma, for “whenever you [hear] a lot of laughing...Homer Barron [will] be in the center of the group” (560). He is also the first man to show an interest in her without her father alive to scare him off. The town is doubtful that the pair will remain together, but Emily's attachments are extreme, as seen when she would not surrender her father's body. The circumstance exhibits how her feelings are greatly intensified towards Homer. However, he is “not a marrying man” (561). When it appears as though he will leave her, she kills him with poison. While seemingly the opposite effect of love, killing Homer is quite in line with her obsession. If he is dead and she keeps Homer all to herself, Emily will never lose him; he can never leave her. Other such details that express her extreme attachments appear as she buys him clothes and toiletries before they are even considered married. There is also the revelation at the end of the story that she has been keeping his body for over thirty years and sleeping with it, clearly demonstrating her overt desperation

Killings and A Rose for Emily were both stories that used love as an excuse for violence. In A Rose for Emily, she killed a man because she loved him and didn’t want to lose him. Matt, in Killings, killed his son’s murder; Matt’s wife had to face her son’s murder daily. Matt decided he loved his wife enough to kill that man.

Not only did Emily Poison him, but gray hairs was found next to his skeleton, revealing that she had been sleeping with a corpse for years. People thought that anyone in their right mind would not do such a thing as sleep with a corpse, especially for that long. Emily's stubbornness to accommodate to the new town officials and their request of taxes supports the argument that Emily is unable to deal with conflicts because she is unable to let go of the past. Along with her refusal to pay taxes, Emily murders Homer Barron, which also emphasizes her inability to be alone or to deal with pain and rejection. At this point Emily is trying to stop time, and embrace the joyous moment she has with Homer still there with her. The killing of Homer, gives Emily the feeling that she has a relationship with a man that she can never be with for a long time .

Emily was obsessed with holding on to the past and to avoid change. When her father dies she is really sad. She then meets a man named Homer Barron. She is afraid she will lose him too because he is not the kind of guy to settle down. So if she kills him she could at least still be able to see him after he is dead because she will keep his dead body in her house. By her keeping the body in the house it shows she had a hard time of letting go. Emily kills because of her extreme love.

2) What does the title of the story suggest about the townspeople’s feelings toward Miss Emily? Why do they feel this way about her? (Or: What does she represent to them?) Is there anything ironic about their feelings?

It is believed that she would want to keep Homer Barron for herself, like a prize or trophy, and even though her father believed that no one would ever be good enough for her, Homer could never be hers because of his interests in young men. So, Emily would, devise a plan to murder Homer, she feared that should would be left alone again and allowing the townspeople to believe the two are married. The acts committed by Emily are comparable to those of Jeffery Dahmer in that he kept his victims as trophies. According to Encyclopedia

She knew Homer was homosexual and still flaunted him throughout town like an accessory in trying to convince both herself and the townspeople she could move on from her father’s death. However, her relationship may have got into deep with Homer and she had to kill him to make sure he didn’t leave her side as her father did. After Emily kills Homer, “a window that has been dark was lightened and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her” (p.395). This image shows Emily has now become her father in a way and took dominance in her life by murdering someone else, which causes an internal self satisfaction. She keeps the corpse of Homer almost as the resemblance of a trophy for her work. Emily was wealthy woman who appeared to have it all however, she never accomplished close to anything in her life except for taking the life of Homer. The lost of her father signified the lost of herself, in an attempt to find herself emerged a dark character who became mentally and physically consumed by her pain that she was left to fight alone.

The first reason why everyone overlooks Miss Emily as the suspect in the murder of Homer Baron is because of her gender. Women of this time usually take part in some sort of marriage. It isn’t normal for a woman to not have a husband back then. It is the woman’s job in a marriage to take care of the husband and fulfill all his needs. Also, women are supposed to make sure that the husband is happy and feels safe. The last thing a woman does is kill her husband! Miss Emily is not capable of doing such a thing like that; at least that is what everyone thinks. Woman are typically known to be a little less dominant than men are, especially during the time that this story takes place, which is set around the 1800’s. Women play the more softer roles in society. Men

Both the murders in Killings and A Rose for Emily were premeditated. The plans were carefully thought out so that there would be no bumps along the way. Matt was motivated by revenge for his son's murder. Emily killed for revenge as well except hers was so that the man she loved wouldn't leave her. Matt attained more sympathy from the readers I think because he was unable to control the death of his son. Neither he nor Emily were able to cope with their losses of son and father respectively. Both responded with murder. Matt murdered the man responsible for his son's loss and Emily murdered the man she felt responsible for ruining her possible new beginning. Both were motivated by their own selfish desires. Matt could not forgive Richard for

The main symbolism running throughout A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, is the theme of how important it is to let go of the past. Miss Emily clings to the past and does not want to be independent. The Old South is becoming the new South and she cannot move forward. The residents of the South did not all give in to change just because they lost the Civil War. In A Rose for Emily time marches on leaving Miss Emily behind as she stubbornly refuses to progress into a new era. In the story, symbolism is used to give more details than the author actually gives to the reader. Symbolism helps to indicate how Emily was once innocent but later changes, how her hair, house, and lifestyle, helped to show her resistance to change. The story is not

At the end you find out she has been sleeping next to him all these years, denying to herself that he is a corpse and no longer her lover. The denial of reality can also be seen by the townspeople. They see her buying arsenic at the store and then Homer is last seen entering her house. Then, there is a bad smell reported coming from her house. Emily’s actions show us that she may have some problems deep within herself.

The townspeople felt bad for Emily and thought the reason for her craziness was because her family had a history of it. Emily also waits three days before revealing the death of her father. Emily allows the dead body of her father to lie in her home rotting away. Another crazy action that Emily does is when she goes to the pharmacy to purchase “rat poison”. When Emily goes to buy the arsenic she doesn’t tell the druggist what exactly she is going to use it for, but stares him down making him feel uncomfortable. “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up” (213). One of the most extreme actions Emily performs is being responsible for Homer Barron’s death. But, after fully reading the story the reader understands that Emily not only kills Homer but sleeps with his corpse. “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay… Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (215) There the reader’s thought of Emily sleeping with the dead body and her psychotic tendencies is confirmed.

The townspeople often gossip and whisper about her, and there are many things they do not know about Miss Emily. They whisper, “‘Do you suppose it’s really so?’ they said to one another. ‘Of course it is. What else could…’” (Faulkner 4). There are many more examples of the townspeople making assumptions about Miss Emily, because she is a complete shut-in and speaks to quite literally nobody. Throughout the entire story, there is almost a veil between Miss Emily and the rest of the townspeople and the reader. It is only somewhat dropped at the end of the story, when the murder and body are discovered. Nobody really even knows Miss Emily’s feelings and emotion. The reader only knows her actions, and that is not enough to assume most of her feelings. However, if the story was written in the first person point of view of Miss Emily, by the very nature of the narration, the reader would be clued into every emotion that passed through her mind. This way, they would be able to understand her, and maybe why she did the things she did, like staying confined within the walls of her home for most of her life. This may also make the ending more predictable. Instead of the reader’s initial reaction being shock, horror, and disgust, it may now be a grim reality that only slightly shakes the reader. Miss

Many people face death in their families where letting go and changing to a different person can be shifter for the others around you. In the short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner the main character Emily Grierson who lives in Jefferson is a wealthy girl who is also in denial and possessive after her father’s death.