A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

Miss Emily Grierson

The short story elaborates on the encounters of Miss Emily Grierson whose funeral is underway. Many of the women wanted to see her grand-house since she was raised as an aristocrat. However Emily’s living conditions have deteriorated. Emily is an eccentric spinster who had an affair with her father and having kept many secrets. During her funeral, many of the town residents attend it. Men respected her and were obligated to attend the funeral to express their last respect but women on the other hand, had attended it out of curiosity to see Emily’s grand-house. Emily remains a fascinating character in the story and at the same time mysterious since she shifts from ambitious and optimistic young woman into a secluded and secretive one. She became lonely and distressed following her father’s death and is pitied by town’s residents. Her father interfered with her life by rejecting her suitors until she fell in the hands of a stranger, Homer Barron, who has no hope of marrying her as she got older. The elderly Emily with grey hair, ailing health and consumed by guilty of killing Homer cannot bear his rejection.

The character’s true identity is a mystery, unstable and flexible to the town residents since she remains secluded in a murky, grimy and shuttered grand house. She is bizarre and depicts her eccentricity as she drafts her own rules and behavior. On this note, she fails to pay tax and even decides to kill Homer with a poison she buys forcefully. Besides, her stubbornness is seen when she prohibits a sticker with federal mail number to be placed on her house. She dismisses the law that does not go well with her since the impact of her behavior is seen as she kills Homer since she cannot bear his abandonment. Emily is therefore, depicted not only a monument but also as an object of pity and offence since she secludes herself in sought of a utopian world. The town’s residents can only speculate and gossip about her undertakings such as when she engages in an affair with Homer without any wedding prospects. Emily eventually buys a poisonous substance while the town residents only suspect that it’s meant to take her own life. Astonishingly, they learn that her instabilities dictates her to kill her lover, a scenario that depicts Emily as a necrophiliac in the sense that she becomes sexually attracted to her dead lover (Napierkowski pr.2). This only emphasizes her over-controlling nature to a party that remains unresponsive since he lack the will and ability to resist. This trait might be have leant from her dead father who controlled her life and therefore, when he died, Emily decided to control any action with the dead body of her father for a while. This trait is taken to her lover whom she has affection with but is unable to take total control of him when he is alive. As a result, she sees that the only way out to gain his full possession is by killing him in order to have her desires fulfilled (Faulkner Ch.3).

This is Our Youth, by Kenneth Lonergan

Warren and Dennis

Dennis Ziegler and Warren Straub are young men who submerge in despair as a result of addiction to drugs, desires and sex. Their parents being had deteriorated family relationships which have great impacts on the children. This detaches children from their parents who pursues to explore their liberal world. The children pursue to escape their parents’ abuses or even familial insecurities. Dennis and Warren are not just wealthy teens who pursue to find their place in the world but also find themselves disillusioned by their behaviors and this makes them pessimistic in their teenage years. The young Manhattanites are just confused as they emulate bad traits from their parents. For instance, Dennis; fathers is a renown painter while his mother is a social activist and therefore, he engages in drug dealing business without his parents’ knowledge Warren’s father is regarded as “not a criminal, just in business with criminals” (Lonergan 34).

As a result Darren and Warren pursues to justify their actions in a world that they are liberals and have nothing to rebel against and one that is materialistic, here they set their own rules. However as they grow up to be adults while the liberal world changes and everything is set as a law, which impede the youth’s experimental lifestyle. Warren for instance is glad to grow in a time when he lived life to its fullest without any limitation although this created difficulties to transit from the extravagant life of a teenager into a more responsible life of adults. As teenagers, they pursued to fulfill their apparent desires without thinking of the future ahead as their parents insisted to be left alone. They therefore, engage in drugs and fulfillment of their sexual desires. Amid this, warren develops into maturity and pursues the essence of life and therefore, refocuses on his life. Self-interest is maximized by the capitalist society as depicted by the domineering Dennis who uses the capital from stolen cash on cocaine with the aim of making more money when he sell it while Warren hopes to use the cash to lure Jessica Goldman in exchange with sexual favors (Billington pr.9).

How the goals of different characters relate

The goals of these teenagers however, appears to be inflexible just as that of Emily. Initially, they engage in pot smoking as teenagers but eventually became responsible adults in a nation that disregards everything that they knew and believed in, during their upbringing of the Reagan Era. Warren for instance stole 150000$ from, his abusive wealthy father when he was 19 years of age. On the other hand, Dennis who is Warren friend and a drug dealer lays a strategy to use the stolen money. Therefore, the transition from adolescence into adulthood depicts a great shift of human conduct. Adolescents are submerged in their fantasy world having their own tactic and rules, which are beyond the parents’ realization but unfortunately less efficient.

In both cases, the characters .have abusive parents who care less about their children’s welfare but instead only pursue their self-interests. However Emily has over controlling father while Warren and Denis have parents who care less about their welfare. These aspects determine the goals of each character as Emily becomes secluded, confused and clinging to Homer as her only treasure, unable to be assimilated in the world. Warren and Darren spend extravagant lives since they have no one to limit their actions and can only learn from the world and therefore are lost in it.

In comparison with Emily Grierson, her character changed from better to worse from teenage to adulthood. Conversely, these teenagers’ flexibility of character change from worse to better in adulthood as they mature up and the world keeps changing. Unfortunately, Emily is unable to change with time and therefore, she is drowned in her own illusions in a fantasy world as she gets older unlike Warren and Dennis. Emily’s story not only depicts flexibility or instability of character but also unconventional lifestyle that Emily opts to lead as transitory. The changing times however, catches up with her as she becomes desperate due to loneliness and her outdated ideas such as painting lessons, which affects her cognitive behaviors. She shifts from a social icon “a tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner Ch.1). However her psychosocial development was deprived, which impeded her stability of psychological abilities that submerges her in a world of fantasy.

Works Cited

Billington, Michael. “This is our Youth.” The Guardian News and Media Limited, March, 2002. Web. July 21, 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2002/mar/18/theatre.artsfeatures>

Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. Print.

Lonergan, Kenneth. This Is Our Youth. Dramatist’s Play Service, New York: 1999. Print.

Napierkowski, Marie. “A Rose for Emily: Introduction.” Short Stories for Students. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Web. eNotes.com. January 2006. 21 July 2011. <http://www.enotes.com/rose-emily/introduction>