The Illusion of Love in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily

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William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” takes the setting of an old shabby house, in which Emily poisons her lover to death. Though some people suggest the house should be a symbol for isolation, I believe the house, like the rose, is the emblem of love. Both of the two symbols are meant to be of promising connotation, but egoism takes happiness away from love.

House is commonly referred to as another word for warm home and love. Since the house Emily lives in is the only property her father leaves her with, memories and love of his father must be sealed in the house. However, Emily’s house is not cozy or beautiful, but rather an “eyesore among eyesore” (Para.2), with “a smell of dust and disuse” (Para.4). What darkens the once well decorated house?

The tarnish is fake love. None of Emily, her father and Homer grasps the true essence of love—sacrifice and giving.

First, the father’s love is selfish. As written in the last paragraph of the second chapter, his father “drives away” all the pursuers, (Para.14, Chapter 2) showing his love is so overwhelming that it keeps Emily away fr...

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