Motivation For Murder In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

At first glance, Matt from Killings and Emily from A Rose For Emily, may seem like they have similar incentives for the murders that they commit, but these characters could not have more contrasting motivations. In Matt’s situation, his family experiences a loss that no family should have to experience. Emily’s situation is much different; she is virtually alone in life. She has no family to support her and no social position in her town. She is seen as an outsider to the real world. Each character’s motivation for murder differs, but both of their intentions were to attain personal gain. While both Matt and Emily had self centered motivations for murder, I feel more sympathy for Emily because of the contrasting motivators that include their personal situations, their social positions, and their mental conditions.

Emily’s situation consisted of loneliness and natural causes of death in her family. Her father had died and she had no family there to support her (80). Emily’s motivation was to provide herself with someone that would always be there, even if her intention was morbid. The murder committed by Emily was not out of anger nor spite, it was simply carried out to give her some feeling of not being abandoned. Matt’s situation, on the other hand, was quite different; he had just experienced the loss of his son and was seeking vengeance on his son’s killer (89). Matt was rightfully enraged by his son’s murderer and the pain that the loss had brought to their family. He wanted to inflict the same pain to the killer that was brought upon him. Matt was motivated by revenge; he was consumed by his anger. He knew that nothing good would come of his actions, yet he proceeded to take another life from the world. While Emily wanted someone to be there for her, Matt wanted the satisfaction of