A Rose for Emily Analysis

Critical Analysis

A Rose for Emily

Throughout life people face many hardships, including life and death, letting go is such a hard thing for these people to do. In the story, A Rose for Emily, Faulkner writes about love and the effect it can have on a person . Faulkner writes about how Miss Emily loses her father and he is the only person she has in her life. Later in the story, Homer Barron came to their town to fix the streets. People begin seeing Miss Emily and Homer together and believe that they are going to get married. The time comes for Homer to leave and it was believed that Miss Emily will kill herself if she loses another person she loves. Homer disappears and Emily never exits the house, all everyone sees is the Negro entering and leaving the house. Throughout the years everyone wonders what happened to Miss Emily and Homer; in the end when Miss Emily dies they find Homers body in the upstairs room of her house. This story shows that when a person truly loves someone they will go to extreme measures to do what they have to do to keep that person in their life.

Miss Emily finds herself to be very alone after the death of her father and is willing to do what she has to do to keep someone she loves in her life. In the beginning of the story Faulkner writes that after Miss Emily loses the two sweethearts of her life she is seen very rarely. This showing that Miss Emily was lost because her two loves were gone. After her fathers death the women and minister call the house to send their condolences and Miss Emily refuses to believe that her father has past away. She kept claiming that “… her father was not dead (104).” Three days after Miss Emily’s father passes on she finally broke down and let them dispose of the body. Miss Emily didn’t want to accept the fact that her father had past on because she was so close to him and he was all she had.

Since Emily truly loved Homer, and didn’t want to lose him like she did her father she went to the extreme measure of getting arsenic and poisoning him so he couldn’t leave. Homer Barron comes to Miss Emily’s town to fix the streets, and as the story goes on Miss Emily and Homer begin being seen around town together. As the time for Homer to leave nears, people begin to talk about how they believe Miss Emily is going to kill herself if she loses another person she loves. Miss Emily goes to the drug store and tells the druggist she wants to buy some arsenic. The druggist asks Miss Emily why and receives no response other than she just wants to buy some arsenic. The druggist tells Miss Emily he can’t unless it is for the rats, but he knows that it isn’t and figures it will be for the best. When the time for Homer