Opening Essay, Research Paper

This is coolAnalysis of “A Rose for emily”

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily,” Emily Grierson is a woman who is used to being controlled by her father. When her father dies, she believes that she has control over him. Forced to lay her father to rest, Emily turns to her father’s equivalent: Homer Barron. Homer is a gentleman friend of Emily. Emily soon finds that Homer does not plan on staying, so she decides to kill him. By killing Homer, Emily believes that she can keep him and control him forever. Emily Grierson wants to be in control but feels that she cannot tame the domineering men in her life, at least, not while they are alive, so she gains control of them after their demise.

Life is inconsistent and most people will be a casualty of circumstance and the times. Some people choose not to let circumstance control them and, as they say, “time waits for no man”. Faulkner s Emily did not have the individual confidence, or maybe self-esteem and self-worth, to believe that she could stand alone and succeed at life especially in the face of changing times. She had always been directed by, and depended on, men to protect, defend and act for her. From her Father, through the servant Tobe, to Homer Barron, all her life was dependent on men. The few flashes of her true character showed her ability to rise to the occasion, to overcome her dependency, when her own actions were the only solutions she had. Like buying the poison or gaining revenue by offering china-painting classes. Life is melancholy and full of dread; some of it is what we bring upon ourselves. It can be suggested that Emily’s over-protective father stands to represent Emily’s feminist struggle, the ongoing battle for women to have an equal place in society. Emily should be able to do as she pleases, but her dependence her father does not allow her to have that freedom. Her father’s over-protection is evident in this passage, “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (59). Her father robs her from many of life’s necessities. She misses out on having friends, being a normal “woman,” and her ability to make her own decisions.