Love in A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner - Essay Example

"Love" in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner “A Rose for Emily” is a short story written byWilliam Faulkner which revolves around the occurrences in the life of Emily Grierson. Faulkner explains the impact of isolation on the life of Emily and how it affects her attitude towards life and love. The theme of love is important in the story and it has been illustrated in an intriguing manner in the story by Faulkner. The life of Emily Grierson circles around two important men that she loves which include her father and Homer Barron. The social circumstances and the way in which Emily was brought up had an influence on the way that she loved other people. In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner has portrayed the fact that the way in which an individual loves and expresses his love is dependent upon the way that he has been socially tamed and brought up. Emily Grierson was raised by her father as her mother had passed away. He isolated her from the society and the people of their town. He brought her up in his own way. He was a proud man who believed that he was superior to all the men in the town and did not interact and socialize much with them. He instilled these qualities of arrogance and proudness in his daughter as well. Such was his thought of superiority that he turned down all the proposals that came for Emily. This is explained by Faulkner when he writes, “People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” This environment in which Emily was brought up affected her emotions and the way in which she expressed her emotions of love. She was proud and lived her life as per her own rules. Emily was greatly attached to her father and his loss shattered her. She deeply loved him but her detachment from the society and her limited social environment prevented her from expressing her love for her father in a proper way. Emily did love her father but she was unaware of social norms and the ways in which she was supposed to communicate her love. Every individual wishes to keep their loved one safe and wants to be with the person that they love. It is through the experiences in the life of a person that he learns when it is truly the time to let go of your loved one. Emily loved but she lacked these qualities of showing her love. It is because of her love that she is unable to accept the death of her father and let go of him. When the people from the town came to share her grief following her father’s death, “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” She did not allow the burial of her father and it was through forceful means that she finally gave in and allowed for his burial after three days. She wanted to be with her father and it was difficult for her to accept the fact that the person that she loved was no more with her. Emily loved her father and it was for this reason that she shattered following her father’s death. She could not handle the grief of her loss and it laid an impact on her physically as well because she fell ill. Emily had lived a trapped life in a very limited circle and it is because of this that her emotional as well as societal responses were different from the other people of the town. She liked living her life in her own way and she had her own ways of expressing her love and hate. Her refusal of accepting the installation of the mailbox at her house as well as refusal to pay taxes explained her vague responses and inability to properly comprehend with people in her social circle. This can be clearly seen when she talks to the men who are sent for her to collect the taxes. "But we have. We are the city authorities, Miss Emily. Didnt you get a notice from the sheriff, signed by him?" "I received a paper, yes," Miss Emily said. "Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff. . . . I have no taxes in Jefferson." Like every other person, Emily was in need of love and affection. She fell in love with Homer Barron who was a part of the construction team from North that was visiting her town. She started spending time with him and she did not care about the talks that went behind her back in town. This act was a display of her love. They came in the notice of the people in the town which is understood when Faulkner writes, “Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable.” Despite of the arrogance and pride that Emily had been brought up with, her desire for love made her fall for a common man. The females in the town expressed their thoughts on Emily’s new love by saying, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer." This explains the fact that Emily’s loneliness and desire for being with someone made her fall in love with a man who was not considered to be her match. Emily started liking Homer Barron and she did not want to be separated from him. Every individual wishes to be with his loved one and the loss of a loved one puts a person in grief. Emily had already gone through the grief of losing her father. She did not want to suffer from the same pain again. Furthermore, she did not know how to cope up and face the loss of the person that she loved. It was her love which drove her to the level that she even chose to poison Homer Barron as he had probably decided on deserting her. This decision of Barron can be understood from the fact that Barron was a very social individual and he was known to be a gay. People in the town believed that he was the kind of person who would marry. This fear of losing her loved one again made Emily take the step of poisoning Barron with arsenic. She not only killed him but she also kept his body in her house for years with none of the people knowing about it. Even his presence was of importance to her. An individual is possessive about the person that he loves and Emily displayed her possessiveness by keeping his corpse with her for years. ‘A Rose for Emily’ provides a hidden picture of love. It has been labeled by many as a love story where Emily displays her love for Barron by saving his dead body for years. Her act of staying with the body and cutting all communication with the outside world is labeled as an act of loyalty (Priddy and Bloom 90). Many critics have labeled Emily as having necrophilia owing to her desire to keep the body of the person that she loved. This story of Faulkner is labeled by them as an example of necrophilia in literature. The acts of Emily are marked to be perversions rather than love (Harrisson 222; Rimmon-Kenan 90). Love is an important theme in the short story, “A Rose for Emily.” Love is when a person is strongly attached to someone and wants to be with them. It is a strong attachment and the loss of a loved one is very painful. Faulkner has explained the fact that even people who are arrogant and strong fall in love but their expressiveness of emotions is different from others. Isolation and a secluded upbringing greatly affected Emily. Her father was very dear to her and she loved him. When she lost him, she could not accept his loss and she did not know how to show her emotions. She did not want to be separated from him and thus she did not let him to be buried. His death made her even more possessive for the people that she loved. This is portrayed by her act of killing Homer Barron when he refuses to marry her. She poisons him not to take revenge but because she wants him to be with her always till the time that she lives. She keeps his dead body with her in her house and keeps it a secret. She does that so that the people of the town do not find out about it and dispose his body as well. Works Cited Harrison, Ben. Undying Love: The True Story of a Passion That Defied Death. Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press, 1997. Print. Priddy, Anna, and Harold Bloom. Blooms How to Write About William Faulkner. New York: Blooms Literary Criticism, 2010. Print. Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Web. 8 April 2013. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html Read More