Emily's Love With Homer example essay topic

Kemdra Lin Daniel Elizondo Critical essay May 26, 2003 Emily Grierson Faulkner!'s "A Rose for Emily" is told from the viewpoint of a resident of Jefferson. The story portraits Emily, the daughter of a south Grierson family as a cruel, and revengeful lady. Emily is a character living in the transitional period of the south. lb " Daniellb (c) On the one hand; she refuses to acknowledge her loved one!'s death and holds on her tax exempt status. Yet, as a victim of the old patriarchy, she ignores the old social norms by falling in love with a Yankee.

Her attempt to retain Homer while living in the past world is the reflection of such a contradictory character. However, Emily's love with Homer is doomed to be a failure because her body and soul are full of dust while Homer is such a candid, unfettered and uncultivated person. Her inability to reconcile these conflicts of her character eventually leads to the murder of Homer and her retreat to the world of past. Emily is the advocator of the old system.

She refuses to acknowledge her loved one!'s death and holds on her tax exempt status. After her father's death, people come to offer "aid and condolence" (Faulkner 41). However, Emily is not in a "grief" (Faulkner 41). "She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days! -" (Faulkner 41).

Her refusal to accept the reality of her father's death is an example of Emily's fear of the pass of time. For Emily, her father means everything. He is the only company in her lonely world. He turns away every suitor of hers, leaving nothing except the big house to her after his death. Emily's strong dependence on her father may be the reason why she would "cling to that which had robbed her" (Faulkner 41).

For her lover Homer, Emily sleeps with his corpse for forty years.! ^0 The scene of decay in Homer's! (R) tomb! is a symbol of Emily's refusal to move on! +/-. (Symbolism in! +/- A Rose for Emily! +/-, web) Besides, she declares that she had no taxes in Jefferson, basing on an agreement made with Colonel Sartoris, who had been dead for ten years.

(Celia Rodriguez, An analysis of "A Rose for Emily", web ) Just as Emily refuses to acknowledge the death of her father, she refuses to recognize the death of Colonel Sartoris. Nevertheless, dominated by her father!'s rule, Emily has the courage to fight against the old patriarchy and ignores the traditional marriage virtues by openly falling in love with a Yankee, Homer Barron. During his lifetime, Emily's father treats her as a "horse" (Faulkner 41). In a picture, Emily is an innocent girl with a "slender figure in white in the background" (Faulkner 41) while her father a "spraddled silhouette in the foreground clutched a horsewhip! +/- (Faulkner 41). Her father controls her life.

Not surprisingly, Emily found a boyfriend-a Yankee immediately after her father's death. However, in the southerners! eyes, Emily is "fallen" (Faulkner 43), because she sets a "bad example to the young people" (Faulkner 43). They want her to conform to their vision of the "last Grierson" (Faulkner 43), thus the Baptist minister is sent to persuade Emily. When it fails, the minister's wife writes to Emily's relations in Alabama, asking them to interfere (Faulkner 43). Despite her townspeople' accusation, Emily doesn't yield to them.

"She carried her head high enough" (Faulkner 42). She goes out with Homer in a yellow-wheeled buggy on Sunday afternoon; she buys jewelry and "man's toilet set", (Faulkner 43), preparing to marry him. "Thwarted her woman's life" (Faulkner 43) by her father, she is determined to justify her love. Emily's contradictory character is also hinted in her hostile attitudes towards the new city authorities and the druggist. When the deputation come to her for taxes, she answers them in a "dry and cold" voice (Faulkner 39), "Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff!

-I have no taxes in Jefferson" (Faulkner 39). In her mind, Colonel Sartoris is still her sheriff despite his death for ten year. This again reflects her unwillingness to acknowledge the changing of time. (Liu 116) However, inside her, she has contempt of old laws and orders. When she buys drugs, she does not want to explain for what purpose she wants arsenic". ! -but the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for" (Faulkner 42).

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". (Faulkner 42) She ignores the laws, convincing the druggist to sell the poison without asking more additional questions. Emily's attempt to retain Homer while living in the world of past is the reflection of her contradictory character. In her townspeople' eyes, as the last Grierson, Emily should not degrade herself to be in love with such an uncultivated Yankee (Liu 118), who "cocked a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow glove". (Faulkner 43) Homer has succeeded in seducing Emily.

However, he might actually have been a homosexual. (Jonathan Love, "A Rose for Emily" or something more? , web ) "Homer himself had remarked- he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club - that was not a marrying man" (Faulkner 43). When she is threatened with! ^0 desertion and disgrace!

+/- (Celia Rodriguez, An analysis of "A Rose for Emily", web), she kills him in order to remain together with Homer as if they were a married couple. Emily's concept is deeply rooted in the old aristocratic society. "She demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grieson" (Faulkner 42) she expects the townspeople to respect her love. If she had allowed homer to leave her, the town would pity her even more, which is the most unwanted.

(Liu 120) She tries to maintain her dignity and social status in the old society, at the same time, she wants Homer's love. These conflicts reflect the contradictory of her character. Emily's love with Homer is doomed to a failure because her house, her body and soul are full of dust while Homer is such a candid, unfettered and uncultivated person. Emily's house is a "big, squarish frame one" with the style of the seventies, "it lifts its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps -- an eyesore among eyesores" (Faulkner 38), which represents Emily's conformism. Moreover, her house smells of dust and has a dank smell. The leather of her furniture was "cracked" (Faulkner 38) and the "faint dust rose sluggishly, spinning with slow motes" (Faulkner 38).

Her body seems unhealthy. "She looked bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water and of that palled hue" (Faulkner 39) she is "obesity" (Faulkner 39). Her pale face seems lacking of sunlight. For forty years, she confines herself in the houses. Her mind is vacant except the past memory. Different from her, Homer is such an energetic, candid, unfettered person.

He "cusses" (Faulkner 41) the nigger in a "big voice" (Faulkner 41), he is in the center of people "whenever you heard a lot of laughing", (Faulkner 41) He drives Emily in a "yellow-wheeled buggy" and he "cocks his hat, reins and whips in a yellow glove with a cigar in his teeth". (Faulkner 43). The conservative of Emily and the liberal of Homer eventually results in the failure of their love. Emily's inability to reconcile these conflicts of her character leads to the murder of Homer and her retreat to the world of past. For the townspeople, Emily is an object of gossip, her love with Homer is usually of their concern. Homer fills a vacancy at her soul, but he betrays her.

(Liu 123)! ^0 When she was threatened with desertion and disgrace, she took Homer with her in the only manner possible -- death". (Celia Rodriguez, An analysis of "A Rose for Emily", web) Then she slept with his corpse for forty years. When people break into her locked room, ! ^0 they find Homer!'s skeletal body on a sumptuous bed, with Emily's iron-gray hair lying on the pillow beside his head.! +/- (Karen Bernardo, William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily", web) The conflict of her affection for Homer, his disgrace to her love and her attempt to maintain her dignity cause her to commit the murder.

Then she retreated into her "rose-tinted" (Faulkner 45) world of the past and seldom went out. For Emily, death takes away her father, the sole protector of her lonely world, which is already a big shock. Homer!'s disgrace to her love makes her become despair to life. Finally, she cuts her tie with the society, retreats to her little world and regardless any changes in the society. Emily is a "monument" (Faulkner 38) of the south.

She characterizes the whole of southern society at that time. Her ideas and values are deeply rooted in the past, which symbolize the denying changes of customs and the passing of time in the south. (Liu) Whereas, Emily's pursuing of free love, the introduction of machinery for road construction marked the transition of the south from the conservative to the liberal. (Daniel). However, in the end, ! ^0 death conquers all!

+/- (Celia). This indicates that the adherence to outdated world will have no way out.

Bibliography

Celia Rodriguez, An analysis of "A Rose for Emily! +/-, 18th May, 2003 web Dwight St.
John, Aiu Xiaozing", An anthology of American short stories", Guangdong, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, 2001 Jonathan Love, "A Rose for Emily" or something more? 18th May, 2003 1 web Karen Bernardo, "William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" ", 18th web Liu Cun bo, "The Fallen World in the South-a study of Faulkner's Novels" Sichuan, Southwest Teachers! University, 1999 Symbolism in! +/- A Rose for Emily! +/-, 18th May, 2003 web Kemdra Lin Daniel Elizondo Critical essay May 26, 2003 Emily Grierson Faulkner!'s "A Rose for Emily" is told from the viewpoint of a resident of Jefferson.
A Rose for Emily! +/-, 18th May, 2003 web.