A Rose for Emily (Literature)

A Rose for Emily

By William Faulkner 

  Oh my god…I hate this story so much…but then I love it so much. I’m such a weird person. So when I first finished this story, my classmates and I discussed it and we came out with some question. What does the “Rose” from the title mean in this story? Is it truly that the rose is only a mean of pity? I believe that there are other explanations. During the time when A Rose for Emily was written, American was really fond of making dry flowers, and in there house, especially lady’s dressing table, there must be a vase of dry flowers. Dry flowers can be used to preserve the flowers you love, and wanted to cherish forever. So, we believe that the dead body in Emily’s house was actually a dry flower to her. Only by preserving his body in her house can she stayed with him forever. It’s so creepy. But I love this theory. Now, but why Emily kept H.B. like this? Why don’t let him stay alive?

  And then this comes out with another question, Emily’s statue in the town. One of my classmates did question that why Emily was so sad when her father died? But from out perspectives, Emily’s father treated her really bad, didn’t he? But that is the less problems of them all. I believe that since Emily’s whole life had been confined in the house, she had no ideas what the outside world was like. And, even though Emily might seem to be cruel to her, some part of Emily would always love him. In that case, she couldn’t accept the fact of her father’s death, which led to the later situation. In Emily’s idea, she no longer knew the difference between living and death, so no matter Homer was alive or not, as long as he was with her, Emily had no problem with that. However, there were other reasons that also stimulated her to kill Homer. From the story, we can see that the locals held different opinions for Emily’s marriage with Homer. They also said that Homer was a homosexual. The happy things for them was that the high statue in the village was about to marry, which is always a great things for them. Besides, homosexual wasn’t allow at that time, not to mention in such a traditional town, so I believe that their marriage would also prove the villagers that Homer wasn’t a homosexual, which satisfied them. However, Homer was a black man, and in southern America country, blacks were slaved. How could the villagers accept their high noble to marry such a man? Not to mention that she was supposed to marry out of benefit, not for love. So to Emily, the only way for her to be with Homer was to kill him, in that case, no one could say anything about their relationship, and she wouldn’t have to against her own education of the duty of being a high noble. Homer’s death was the only way for them to be together.

  And, now to the craziest part, I warn you, this might be a bit out of control to some readers. What’s the relationship between Emily, the negro servant, and Homer? And why did the Negro servant disappear right after the funeral? My theory was that both the servant and Homer were homosexual. Don’t deny me first, let me explain. Let’s assume that the servant was a normal person, being bought into the house as a slave and worked his life there for years. And from some perspective, the servant might be in love with Emily. But then, there were so many problems inside if it was actually true. First, we could see that after Emily behaved so strangely, the servant was the one that came out to buy food and maintain the household, which meant that he had the access to the outer world, and I believe that no normal person can stay in a house with a dead body inside for so long, not even when he truly love Emily. Besides, when the villagers went into Emily’s house when she was died, they found that the house was covered with dust, and apparently, no one had cleaned it up for a long time. If it was true that the servant was in love with Emily, how come he didn’t clean it up for her? And, some people might say that those black slaves had no free will toward their own life, and they couldn’t escape. However, as readers could read from the story, the male servant would definitely have the power to fight over Emily, especially under her circumstances. Now, come to the part that why he was also a homosexual and why it matter so much to the story. Those questions above for the Emily-servant relationship were often asked, and the relationship between Homer and the slave could explain them all!!!! Apparently, Emily isolated herself from the public, and what if the servant also had the same situation? His mind didn’t think like usual? Homer and the servant fell in love with each other, and been found out by Emily. Being stimulated and knowing that only death could they be together, Emily decided to kill Homer. This stimulation also gave Emily the stronger reason to kill Homer. And why didn’t the slave stop her? As I mentioned before, he might as well though differently from others, more like Emily. So he knew that two black male could never be together, so whether he knew Emily killed Homer or not, he decided to stay with them after Homer’s death. However, why did he left right after the funeral? He was, after all, a slave. The house would never be his, and I believe that he suspected the villagers would break into the house eventually and found the body. Since he was a slave and a black, the villagers were likely to blame his death and the unnatural behavior of Emily on him, so he left. I know this is a theory that not everyone can accept…but I love it.