Clearly, Emily was tired of men controlling her, and although she could not control them while they were alive, she did have complete control over them when they died. Thirty years after Homer's disappearance and after Emily's demise, the villagers made a gruesome discovery; they found the remains of Homer, proving that Emily found a way to keep him and control him. "For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin." Indeed, Emily kept her lover and controlled her lover for thirty years. Works Cited Faulkner, William.
However, she soon discovers Homer does not want a serious relationship with her, so Emily purchases rat poison to kill Homer. After Emily died, the residents found the decayed body of Homer in her house. The author foreshadows the plot and applies first-person point of view to form the theme, which leads to an understanding of Emily’s behavior. The story opens with the townspeople attending Emily’s funeral, which informs the audience what happened to Miss Emily before the story developed. The introduction also begins with an exposition of the protagonist.
Community and culture play a large part in how a person presents them self, and how they are perceived by others. Perception is a very subjective process, and personal biases influence each person’s observations. In the short story “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner portrays the story of an isolated and emotionally stunted woman’s desperate attempt to not be alone as told through the eyes of the townspeople. First, Emily is isolated by her father then, after his death, by the townspeople who view her as a monument to tradition and not as a person. In Emily’s desolation, she poisons her lover, and proceeds to hide his body, in her home, for forty years.
The town didn’t think Miss Emily would be serious about him since Grierson’s don’t date northern people. So, they call Emily’s cousins to pay a visit so they can convince her to stop the relationship. While the cousins arrive Homer leaves town, after they leave he comes back. They later see Emily buying arsenic, rat poison, and they see her buying items for men and things with Homer’s initials. They never saw anyone go in nor out of the house besides Tobe.
She portrays her refusal to adapt to the present by not keeping up with the new mailing system and by refusing to pay taxes. She wanted to keep everything how it was when her father was alive. Emily was not willing to accept the new changes in her life, she wanted to live in the past where she was comfortable. Emily is very excluded from the rest of the town. Emily hardly ever came out of her house and refused to let anyone in on her life.
Then later four men are sent at night to clean up. They arrived at her house, opened the cellar door and applied lime everywhere. Since the story is out of order, we don’t know that Miss Emily has killed Homer, who the hideous order is coming from. If the story was in chronological order there would be no suspense or curiosity about what’s causing the smell. In the third section, the narrator introduces the relationship that develops between Homer and Emily Grierson.
Due to her father’s decisions he stopped her from meeting any guys. Therefore when she met Homer Barron she loved him so much she decided to kill him to keep him b y her side and to cherish his body as she cherished her fathers. She kept his body lying on her bed. The reason this is brought up is because it states in the story when she died they entered her home and found a barricaded door. When they opened it, Homer Barron’s body was laying on the bed and on the pillow next to him a stand of gray hair.
With hints of foreshadowing and learning about Miss Emily’s past problems with letting her deceased father go, the reader finds the story ending at her funeral with the discovery of the body of Homer Barron kept in her house. Miss Emily did not want to lose her new love, so she poisons him and keeps his body around, letting her maintain a relationship with him even though he has passed on. Characters: Emily Grierson – A young southern belle who adored her father and becomes a shut in after his passing. Set in her old ways, she is a constant focus of the town’s gossiping ways due to never leaving her residence and having a list of potential love interests rejected by her father in her younger years. As time goes on she is maintained by her single servant and eventually falls in love with Homer Barron.
However, the authorities of the town do not want to have a confrontation with Emily, so, instead, “they broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings” (31). The smell eventually subsides “after a week or two” (32). People do not think anything of the smell anymore. They do not think about the cause of it either; they continue with their lives. The story twists and tells about the time when a man by the name of Homer Barron comes to town.
Emily knew there would be consequences to her actions, so she hid in her house for forty years after the fact she killed him. In personal belief, when everyone noticed that Homer had not been see after the last time entering Emily’s house, law should have stepped in and checked Emily’s home for anything that could lead them to Homer. Emily Grierson is guilty for the murder of Homer Barron. The People of Jefferson, Mississippi tried to use the excuse that Emily was just insane. If everyone in the town believed this then more actions should have been taken, and Emily should have been hospitalized for her problem.