A Rose for Emily: Provoked Emotions
While reading the story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the main character, Emily Grierson, brings out many emotions in the reader. A life of solitude made her for one bizarre character. But the question “Should the readers feel sorry for her or should they abhor her?” is a very simple one for me. For this reader, the only emotion that I was struck with was complete sorrow.
This woman grew up rather isolated by her father, who mostly kept her locked away inside his extravagant home. Ms. Emily can be considered an outsider due to the fact that she never let anyone get to know her. After her father’s death, she pulled further back from society and reality. After her sweetheart supposedly abandoned her, she hardly left the house at all. Of course, Emily denied her father’s death when some of the neighborhood ladies came to offer condolences. This just added to the sorrow I felt for Ms. Emily, a grieving daughter with no one to comfort her.
Ms. Emily’s character herself is a bizarre woman, almost deranged. She seems to be rather unbalanced and full of strange mystery. One might even think no one took the time to teacher her how to properly interact with other human beings. Her home seems to reflect her character, too. It is the last of the Victorian style houses still standing on that street. It seems to me that the fact that the house is still there among all the change in society should mark Ms. Emily’s stubbornness. The inside of the house smelled of dust and disuse much like Ms. Emily had been among her town. The house was said to smell foul at some point soon after her father’s death. Some can associate this with her grieving and not taking proper care of herself.
The upper room of her home speaks of her character than anything. This room, locked for years, holds the remains of her lover, Homer Barron. As readers, we can assume that Ms. Emily used the poison to murder Mr. Barron. The room itself is covered in...