Essay Example on A Rose for Emily: A Murder or a Suicide?

Introduction

Was Emily Grierson a victim of a murderer or an Arsenic poisoning? Police didnt find an answer to this question and now nobody knows if she committed suicide or was killed.

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A Life Shrouded in Secrecy

This old story is covered with mystery. Miss Emily was living in secrecy all her life. A poor woman lost her beloved father in an early adulthood and a man whom she expected to merry, her sweetheart deserted her. After these dreadful events she became unsociable. She had very few friends and didnt tell anyone about her life:

That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart-the one we believed would marry her -had deserted her. After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. A few of the ladies had the temerity to call.. (Faulkner W.).

The Strange Smell and Suspicion

One day Emilys neighbors noticed a strange smell from her house. They informed police but policemen advised to tell her to clean her house. Time passed, the smell didnt disappear and the neighbors decided that they had to do something with it themselves.

So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings (Faulkner W.). They didnt find anything. And After a week or two the smell went away (Faulkner W.). After this event people started to feel sorry for Miss Emily. They started supposing that she could lose her mind as her great-aunt. We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that-told neighbors. (Faulkner W.)

Concern for Miss Emily's Mental State

Miss Emily had got no contact with neighbors and relatives. Only once two cousins visited her. She lost her family and didnt have any contact with other relatives. No one knew that she was sick for a long time.

Once, a new man moved to their small town. Homer Barron made friends with his new neighbors and even managed to meet Emily Grierson. But soon their relationships became more than friendly. we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable(Faulkner W.)- from the written story told by the ladies, who lived near Miss Emily.

One day Miss Emily frightened all her neighbors. She bought arsenic and neighbors thought that she decided to commit a suicide.

An extract from the questioning of the druggist, who sold poison to Emily Grierson:

"I want some poison," she said.

"Yes, Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such? I'd recom--"

"I want the best you have. I don't care what kind."

[] "They'll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you want is--"

"Arsenic," Miss Emily said. "Is that a good one?"

"Is . . . arsenic? Yes, ma'am. But what you want--"

"I want arsenic" (Faulkner W.).

Was this poison for rats or not, nobody knows.

Unveiling the Truth: Emily's Demise and Homer's Fate

The neighbors thought that she would commit a suicide because of Homer Barron deserted her. But they understood that they were wrong when they got to know that Emily Grierson and Homer Barron got married. They were glad for them.

Miss Emily continued living in secret. They rearly saw her. But in some time she opened a little her door to other people. During six or seven months Emily was giving lessons in china-painting. A lot of children were visited her to study. But when her pupils grew up, she disappeared again. They didnt saw her for years until her death at seventy-four. And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, [] We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up trying to get any information (Faulkner W.)-said the neighbors and added: When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house (Faulkner W.).

In some days the town was shocked. Homer Barron disappeared. Policemen broke the door and found the man dead. Homer Barron was poisoned. He committed a suicide because he couldnt go through his deprivation.

Conclusion

I found notes about this dramatic story in archives of a police station and decided to find out what became a reason of their deaths. Did Emily die from her sickness or was poisoned or committed a suicide? Did Homer Barron commit a suicide because of his loss? There are no answers to these questions, but we can suppose that Emily died from her mysterious sickness and Homer Barron committed suicide.

References

Faulkner, W. A Rose for Emily. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html>.