Why Emily Killed Homer Barron

Why Emily Killed Homer Barron

In William Faulkner’s short story entitled “A Rose For Emily”, Emily Grierson kills her lover Homer Barron after being in love with him for about a year. She then sleeps next to the body in the upstairs bedroom of her home, loving it as if Homer were still alive. She then closes up the upstairs, never seeing the body again. There are three different motives that can be looked at as to why Emily killed Homer. She wanted to exercise power, she couldn’t accept that Homer was a homosexual, and she didn’t want another man to be taken away from her.

Emily’s father controlled her life up until his death. Emily’s father believed that, “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” This shows that her father never let her make a decision on her own. The townspeople were not pleased that Emily was thirty and still single. They thought, “…even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.” Emily kills Homer when he returns to the home after being gone for a certain time while her cousins were at the house. Emily