Tragedy- In the Eyes of the Beholder

In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson is a highly respected individual in her small southern town. Her over protective father shelters her from the world, and Emily never marries because of him. When her father dies, Emily is left to live a lonely life with nothing but, the home she grew up in. When Homer Barron comes along Emily is for the first time able to get close to a man other than her father. The two soon become the talk of the town, and rumors spread of the two getting married. Before that happened Homer seemed to leave Emily, and the town never seen him again. Emily is so highly respected that when a horrible smell coming from her house sends the town in an uproar no one wanted to approach her about it. Therefore, people from the town spread lime through her yard one night, believing that the smell was coming from a dead animal. When the smell diapered the town never thought to think twice of it and went on with their lives. Finally When Emily dies unexpectedly the towns people finds a shocking discovery in Emily’s home. Homer had rotted into her bed, and even worse Emily had killed him, and had been lying beside him.
Of course, when under the spotlight as Emily is it is inevitable that wherever she goes and whatever she does gossip will follow her. After analyzing the story, I found a strange correlation between what Emily was to the town, versus what she was in secret. As someone who can relate to being gossiped about, I began to wonder if gossip plays a negative part in your social class status, and if that is the case, how has gossip created false ideas of what Emily’s class and life is.
Throughout the story, we see a transformation of how the town views Emily. At the beginnin...

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... her by other people somehow always ended up becoming a reason for Emily to not be happy. It destined her to be a lonely woman desperate for love. You could even say that it drove her to kill homer, so she could hold on to the small part of life she had control of. There is no doubt that the town created a pedestal for Emily to stand on at the beginning of the story. Just as there is no doubt that, they created a hole for her to fall into at the end. The mix of gossip and the small part of Emily’s life she had control over created the “respect”, or “disrespect” that the town gave her. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” was the story of a tragedy. Not only to Homer Barron, but to Emily as well.

Works Cited

Meyer, Michael. A Rose For Emily. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 47+. Print.