Comparing A Rose For Emily 'And Porphyria's Lover'

Would you kill someone to make a moment last forever? In the short story “A Rose for Emily” and the poem “Porphyria’s Lover” characters decide to kill to keep those they love with them forever. Due to both works having murder as a primary plot point, they have many themes in common. The works share and differ on three key points- death, the portrayal of the killers, and the impact of social class. The two works take a similar approach to the idea of death preserving a moment. In both works the murderers are motivated by their love for their victim and their wish to stay with them forever. In “A Rose for Emily” the murderer, Miss Emily, kills Homer Barron so he would never be able to leave her. She was driven to murder because Homer was not

Emily is higher class and she kills Homer, her lower-class lover. The speaker of “Porphyria’s Lover” is lower class and kills Porphyria, his higher class lover. Because of the different social statuses there is conflict in each relationship, so they could never truly be equal. Due to the time these stories were set in their relationships would always be seen as disgraceful, as a high-class woman marrying a low-class man was considered very shameful. Social class conflict is not a significant motivation to Emily, but it is to the speaker. The impact of social class is notable in “A Rose for Emily” to the extent that it made Emily lonely due to her father believing no man was good enough for his high-class daughter. In the poem, the speaker is bitter due to Porphyria not marrying him in fear of social shame. He believes she is too vain and is simply using him for entertainment. Once Porphyria shows the speaker that she does love him despite social class, he kills her so she could never change; the speaker takes comfort in her death as it froze the moment he felt she loved him. The speaker specifically describes Porphyria’s corpse as smiling and glad, so he believes she is happy and free now