Friday, June 8, 2012

“A Rose for Emily” By William Faulkner


           My initial reaction to this story was that it was a very tragic love story. I felt sad for Emily because I felt that she was afraid of loving Homer. She had finally broken free of her father’s rule and even though she loved Homer she was afraid she would lose her independence to him. This fear of losing her independence and the actions she took to keep her independence would untimely be her demise. 
What I found most interesting was that even after she killed Homer in a way she let him control her life. She killed him in her house and because she didn't want people to discover his dead body she never left the house. I also think she never left the house because she did truly love him and she didn’t want to leave him at all. So that house became her prison. And while she was in charge in that house she couldn’t leave. I think Faulkner wanted us to see that there are always consciences for our actions.  Even though know one knew that she had killed her husband she couldn’t bring herself to leave that house. Her fear of losing her independence to marriage actually made her lose her independence to the fear of being caught. She even tried to make her self believe that she was in controle her life by refusing to to pay her taxes and by not letting the new mayor and aldermen push her into paying her taxes. Another example of this is when they saw her standing in the window looking like an idol. She made everyone else think that she was independent and in control but in reality she is locked up in a prison that she crafted herself. 

What I don’t get is why she killed him? Instead of killing him she could have just not married him. She would have kept her independence that way.  How did she not see that killing him would only make her life worse?

2 comments:

  1. I'm not sure that it did make her life worse. I mean, I see you're point, but her life was already over. She was extremely lonely and miserable, and a bit messed up in the head. Back in those days, if a women got married she was financially stable and taken care of, in return for her soul basically. Many women made those decisions. It wasnt like it was today, where you can do just fine on your own. Still, I agree, it sucks for her either way.

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  2. I think she killed Homer because he was basically the only person left in her life who showed her love at some point. The author mentions how she had family but they never talked to her because of some family problems with her father i believe. After her father died Emily started making decisions of her own and falling in love with Homer was one of them even though she knew he was considered lower class. The author never really mentions why Homer was about to leave her, but we can only imagine what she would be like after so many years without interacting with any guys and people in general. I think she decided to kill Homer so that she could at least keep him close to her. She was probably scared of being left alone for the rest of her life because like i mentioned she had no relationship with anyone else.

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