The Role Of Control In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

The negative implications of control are displayed with Emily’s relationships to her father, and later her lover, Homer Baron. While he was alive, Emily’s father controlled her relationships. To make up for the lack of the control she had, Emily held onto her father’s dead body to control death by denying its existence. Furthermore, Emily, now older, is controlling in her relationship with Homer Baron. When rumors begin that he will abandon her, Emily is unable to control Baron through marriage, so Emily kills Baron. Emily felt the intense need to control their relationship that she ultimately resorted to taking away his will and bonding with his dead body. “A Rose for Emily” addresses control as a way of order for the community. Even as the society evolves and change, Emily’s display of control reminds

The community respects Emily out of pity. Consequently, her need for control isolates herself from society, even more so when she refuses to get metal numbers for the mail, to give a reason for buying arsenic, or to pay taxes. “A Speech for the US Senate,” addresses control as necessary tool to establish power. Calhoun’s speech was written concerning the south’s stance on the debate over the Compromise of 1850. Northern aggressions convinced Calhoun that the north was against conciliation or compromise. To Calhoun, slavery was essential to the peace between whites and blacks. By stating that the subject was beyond the jurisdiction of Congress, the control was taken away from Congress. Instead, Calhoun reinforced that the American government had the right to determine the extent of their control and enforce their decision. The Compromise of 1850 was equivalent to the assumption of unlimited power on the part of the American government, and that would be the impression on the minds of the community in a large share of the Union. Emancipation was viewed as the