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A Rose For Emily Grierson's Death

697 Words3 Pages

William Faulkners ' "A Rose for Emily" lures readers in on a suspenseful tale beginning with the death and hermit lifestyle of Ms. Emily Grierson. She is a seventy-four year old woman that still keeps the town she resides in under her finger until the time of her death. And it appears as with most matriarchs that most of their secrets die with them. Faulkners ' short story "A Rose for Emily" gives thought to how aristocrats of the South passed on a sense of entitlement and possibly separation anxiety even to the point of murder.
Emily Grierson is very set in her ways and all the towns people know its Emilys way or no way at all. "she told them her father was not dead" (98) but they did allow her time for grief in her own obsessive way. …show more content…

They just said "Poor Emily" (98). For Emily it is a perfect world with no one in her business. Even while she had the Baptist minister forced to call to her home "but he refused to go back again" (99) proves she is no match for anyone trying to take away her sense of entitlement. "I want arsenic" (99) and without hesitation she is given what she wants. "and that was the last we saw of Homer Barron" (99). Emily will take whatever she wants with no regard to others. She is going to be in control of her life and no elder, townspeople or preacher will stop her. The sense of entitlement she carries is the death of her own lonely demise, you cannot take it with you when you die.

Perhaps Emily is a murderer who feels like the world owes her something in William Faulkners "A rose for Emily", but it does not mean she doesn’t have to live by the rules the rest of society must follow. The narrator or narrators emphasis on Emilys traits of being a hermit, antisocial, once entitled aristocrat show that anyone that knows her would assume she may have mental issues. Faulkner makes it clear that Emily is not a saint and serious consequences have resulted due to her never being held responsible for her own

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