Consequences Of Grief In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Losing someone important in one’s life can bring devastating consequences, but what if the grief is so unbearable that the individual decides to live in that painful time for the rest of his or her life? Emily Grierson, in William Faulkner’s story, “A Rose For Emily,” did just that. Having no one close to her after the tragic loss of her father, she refused to go through the motions of time. Emily chose to experience grief for the rest of her life instead of experiencing nothing by refusing to give up the old, avoiding new things, and creating a fantasy world. Throughout her life, Emily Grierson lived according to the rules of her father. They were a wealthy family in their prime time and Mr. Grierson did not approve of any man being good enough…show more content…
When the town started paving the sidewalks, Ms. Emily became interested in a man named Homer Barron. They would be seen driving around town and having a good time. Unfortunately, he was interested in men and she knew that Homer saw her as a side entertainment in his life. It was then she created a plan to have Homer for herself, which involved killing him with arsenic. Before trying to take his life, Emily made sure he had nice clothes to wear as well as a toilet set with H.B engraved into it, making the town believe that they were getting married. Labeled on the box where the poison had been, the word “for rats” was clearly written. Because Homer would frequently go from town to town just the way rats did, Emily saw him as a pest and decided that the best way to kill Homer was the same way one would kill a rat. When the day of Ms. Grierson’s death arrived, no one was ready to come face to face with Homer Barron’s skeleton lying on the bed upstairs. On the pillow next to where he was resting, they found a strand of iron gray hair, the same colored hair that Emily had on her funeral. She had been sleeping next to a dead person to not feel lonely and have someone by her
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