I really do not know what to think about William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” First and foremost, the ending was unexpected and rather disturbing. After thinking about the rest of the story however, it became slightly less shocking. Emily Grierson had a series of unfortunate events occur almost simultaneously; those being the death of her crazy aunt and the death of her father. When he was alive, Emily’s father was controlling and did not let her associate with any young men her age. He took away any opportunity she could have had for happiness. When Emily was finally freed of her father (after his death), she met and fell in love with a construction foreman named Homer Barron. Emily and Barron began to spend a lot of time with each other until he mysteriously disappeared and never returned again.
The townspeople believed Barron just left because it was publically known he was not into “marriage.” Little did they know that Emily killed him! She purchased arsenic from the local hardware store months before meeting Barron and decided to use it on him. She felt like she had to kill the man she loved in order to keep hold of him. As disgusting as it was, Miss Emily let Barron rot in her bed, and continued to sleep next to him for years upon years until she passed away at age 74. Emily was so accustomed to loosing things in her life; she couldn’t bear to part with Barron.
Even though the story was extremely troubling, I couldn’t stop reading. The chronological order of the story was very unique and I struggled a bit trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Faulkner jumped from one moment in Emily’s life to the next and back again so quickly I had a hard time keeping up. The narrator in the story also changed views several times. I got the impression the narrator was always a townsperson, but one who knew the entire story? I think Faulkner did a great job of contrasting points within the story. Miss Emily was portrayed as an aristocratic woman whom was admired by the community. Deep down however, she had so many unnoticed issues that came out only after she died. She never left her house which turned into a tomb. She also slept next to the remains of her love, Homer Barron, which is downright disturbing.
All in all, I did enjoy reading Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” I thought the story was very interesting and kept me engaged at all times. I had a feeling Miss Emily killed Barron early on, when “a smell developed” that the townspeople noticed. I had no idea that the ending would reveal what she did with the body for all those years. It is really sad to think she had to kill her love out of fear that he would leave her.
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