What is an illusion? An illusion is something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality. Illusions are very common, we believe in something that is not really there. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” he implies that there is no relationship between the townspeople and Miss Emily through Miss Emily’s secluded life, the townspeople talking about her and the reason people attended her funeral. The relationship was nothing but an illusion.
The relationship that appeared to be between Miss Emily and the townspeople was not really there which was a result of many things. Miss Emily lived a very secluded life because of many harsh experiences which affected her relationship with the town. An example would be, “after
…show more content…
Eventually Homer was believed to have left. Miss Emily wouldn’t go to town herself as a result, instead she would send her servant. She was suffering and shut herself off from the rest of the town, and no one seemed to care. She began to live a life of solitude. After everything happened to Miss Emily people began to pity her and talk about her. For instance, “as soon as the old people said, ‘Poor Emily,’the whispering began.”(Faulkner 3) The townspeople said this without actually caring, it simply made them feel better about themselves. Another example would be when Miss Emily went to buy poison and the town’s reaction was less than concerned. “The next day we all said, ‘She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing.”(Faulkner 3) The town would not have blinked an eye if Miss Emily would have killed herself, they were expecting it. They were all tired of feeling sorry for Miss Emily and the women of the town really only liked to talk about her. When Miss Emily passed away the town was not aware that she was ill and their reasons for attending the funeral emphasized the lack of a relationship with Miss Emily. “A Rose for Emily”, begins by
Homer’s body was kept in that upstairs room for over fifty years. After losing her father, Emily did not want to lose the only other male figured she had in her life. Emily thought the only way of keeping him with her for the rest of her life was by death and keeping his
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is a short story that uses foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony. He uses the foreshadowing to hint at the story's shocking ending. Throughout the short story, Faulkner drops subtle hints that something is not quite right with Emily and her relationship with the town. For example, the descriptions of Emily's house and her mysterious behavior suggest that she is hiding something. Emily asks, "What's the best you have" in reference to poison, then later it says that Homer Barron disappeared never to be seen again, leading us to assume she poisoned him.
Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.
The loss of both her father and husband however would leave the most tragic imprint on her. In Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” he utilizes symbolism and foreshadowing to reveal the dark rabbit hole Emily would go down from the loss of both her father and lover; how she cannot accept their loss of them
“We remembered all the young men her father had driven away” (453). Miss Emily’s father drove away young men interested in her, not allowing her to have a love life and therefore a life outside of him. This controlling treatment of Miss Emily by Mr. Grierson coincides with Emily’s fight to control her love life with Homer. “Because Homer himself had remarked - he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club - that he was not a marrying man” (454). If it weren’t for the fact that Miss Emily murdered Homer, he would have left her, therefore she used the murder as a way to keep him close to
Emily lies about the fact her father has died “for about three days” until finally “she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (Faulkner 325). Emily had trouble with losing someone she loved dearly, therefore keeping the body of her father seem reasonable. The reader can be influenced by the town rumors about how she is going to kill herself with the rat poisoning but that is not the case. Now as the reader continues reading another clue is revealed when “Homer himself had remarked-he liked men” and “he was not a marrying man” (326). Emily loves Homer and cannot afford to be without him.
Emily was so messed up from her childhood that she was incapable of someone leaving her alive and feeling unwanted. The reader might believe that Emily was simply a killer, and that she killed Homer and possibly her father because she was afraid of being alone. Emily let the town believe that she was lonely and depressed, when she was just crazy and killed men who she thought was going to leave her. Faulkner wrote, “That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. 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.
If there was a missing person now, the people in the town would have been more suspicious and notified the police. The authorities would have questioned Miss Emily about Homer’s disappearance and searched her house since that is where he was last seen. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, it is important to have knowledge of the background history. In order to understand whats happening in the story and why Miss Emily acts the way she does someone must understand why she thinks she is above everyone in the first place.
Emily herself went mad when everything she had vanished within a matter of days. Her father, a dictator, and an abuser finally left her and she was free but she could very well be compared to a sheltered high school student that was finally free as a college freshman. No rules or guidelines she fell for the first man who gave her attention believing he wanted to court her. Homer Barron had come into town when the roads were bring built later on he was seen spending time with Emily everyone believing them to get married soon. Homer then left town only returning once more and had been seen to enter into Miss Emily’s home never to be seen again.
Miss Emily had a difficult upbringing, felt unloved most of her life, when she finally found love, it once again did not work out, and she was left to be alone once
In Love and In Death William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, centers around a reclusive woman named Emily Grierson who is the protagonist of this story. Emily lives in Jefferson, Mississippi with her strict and over protective father who turns away any male suitor who shows any interest in her as he believes them to be unfit for his daughter. Emily and her father are regarded as upper-class southerners who live in a very nice home. The townspeople see Emily as a mysterious individual, often pitting her.
She lived in an isolated world after her father’s death. Finally, she meets Homer; Homer was a man who knew what he wanted in life, and Miss Emily was not part of it. This drove Miss Emily to do the unthinkable, and she bought rat poison and killed Homer. Years passed, and no one knew that Miss Emily killed Homer and had him lying in the upstairs bed dead. It was intel her death that the towns people realized that miss Emily had become mentally ill with the death of her father and
To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,
Emily is judged for loving a man who is less fortunate than her . In the following line the townspeople’s reactions to their relationship is obvious, “’Poor Emily’, the whispering began. ‘Do you suppose it’s really so?’ they said to one another” (102). The townspeople did not to much care for the relationship between the two because of the barriers set up by social class saying poor date the poor and rich date the rich.
There was an indention of Emily head on the pillow with her beside him. This showed that she wanted to still be with him, though she didn’t want anything to change. Emily kept Homer’s body hidden inside her home without anybody from the town noticing. She bought the bathroom set and clothes for him to make it seem like they had married. The town believed that they had either married or Homer deserted her.