A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner Essay Example for Free

A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner EssayThere are popular sayings that goes love moves in mysterious ways and love makes people crazy. The amalgam of those sayings would somehow serve as a raw description of William Faulkners report card A Rose for Emily. Since its publication, the story still captures the imagination of many contemporary readersalthough, in a disturbing way. The title is deceptively, and ingeniously for that matter, designed to make the story seem as a love story. It is important to note that a rose is a universally accepted symbolic representation for love. However, the story begins with the death of the protagonist.Actually, there are many points in the story that would lead the readers to the conclusion that Faulkners story is far from a love story. This reading will be standing beside the argument that A Rose for Emily is a love story that presents to the readers love in an unfamiliar form. Faulkner exquisitely described how Emily is frantically in love with mark. She even dreams of being married to him someday. Faulkners details resemble a layout of a typical love story. However, all of those beautiful renditions of Emilys love are just diversions to the authors twists.When Emily mentioned that she wants to be married to kor, he replied that he was not a marrying man (366). The reader could almost setting Emily as a rose whose petals are torn by the sharp gust of wind of Homers subtle rejection. This particular event of her life had significantly contributed to her impending insanity. And because Emily loves Homer so much, Emily had devised a plan to keep him beside her. She had poisoned Homer, paralyzing him for a moment, and then for eternity. She then set Homers lifeless consistency in her bed, then slept with himin every context of the word slept.Emilys version of love could be described as unconventional. The story begins describing how the townspeople of Jefferson (Faulkners fictional city) treated her a sort of fa ll monument (Faulkner 5). level off though the townspeople treat Emily in a revered manner, it would be problematic that they have love for her. In the first part, Emily is already dead and her pitiful yet gruesome downplay would be unfolded as the plot progresses. A safer claim to make about the townspeople treatment to Emily is that they feel for her at the same time disgusted by her life, or more particularly, her love life.The shocking ending, considered a classic, reveals to the readers that Emily had slayed the one she truly loves, Homer Barron. It is just meetable that the townspeople of Jefferson and the readers (of the real world) would raise the skepticism could this be considered love? If we would set aside the conventional notions of love (like couples promising to each other eternity, genuinely caring for one another, a mutual understanding, etc. ), Emilys version of love would certainly be dismissed. However, we could still interpret Emilys actions as out of lo ve, but to put it more succinctly, it should be categorised as unrequited love.It should not be disputed anymore that anyone is capable love, even those with hints of insanity. Moreover, it is a general notion that a person who loves someone needs some kind of returned love. And if love is unrequited, the most probable effect on the unrequited lover would be a seemingly incurable misery. Emilys murder of Homer is oftentimes interpreted as an act of desperation. On the other hand, it could also regarded as an response to the subliminal messages of her love and passion for Homer. As we know of love, through literature and real life, it could paint in our minds illusions of being easily loved back.Emily whitethorn have been genuinely convinced that she would someday marry Homer and that they would spend eternity in each others arms. The living Homer had rejected her proposal, she may have immediately though that the dead Homer may compromise. Moreover, she had set the dead body in a bed, a symbolism for marriage. In addition, it is implied that she had slept with the dead body of Homer. It is important to consider that the context of the story is a time period where the people are mostly conservatives, especially the aristocrats like Emilys family.It could be interpreted that she did not slept with the body out of mere lust, it could be something close to being love itself. Emilys life could be considered lacking love. The title, A Rose for Emily, suggests that she desperately needs to be loved. She loved her sorry lifestyle and her father who provides it for her. But when her father had passed away, she may have felt that all she loved had gone(p) to grave with her father, being left alone and a pauper, she had become humanized (366).Considering her mental state, she had found love in Homer, he does not want to be with her, it is just understandable that she would do anything to be with the one she loves. later on all, the topic at hand is love, a term and a concept with no satisfying definition. Even science admits that love is more than just chemical reactions. If we would delve further in this attempt to understand love, we might just end up mad like Emily. Works Cited Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. An insertion to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York Longman, 2001