A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily
William Faulkner

This short story explores the connection between life and death and their effects on the living. Emily was burdened by death. Her fathers death caused a great amount of grief for Emily. Emily even refused to give up his body for a few days saying that he was not dead. "She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body" (Faulkner).  Later, Emily faced the death of Homer. This suspicious death suggests that Emily killed Homer, but if so, why would she do this? Perhaps Emily felt like her father was taken away from her, so in order to stay forever close to Homer, she killed him and secretly kept his body in her house. Emily again denied his death by keeping his body in her house. An even more disturbing denial of death was that Emily layed next to Homer's body. "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair" (Faulkner). Emily wanted to keep Homer close, but she killed him to do so. Emily refused to accept death. In a way, this is slightly ironic because ultimately death accepted her even when she would not accept the death of others.