Skip to main content

A Thorn for Emily

I have decided that William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is undeniably amazing and I will not be convinced otherwise. Let's look at the plot: Emily is a "middle-aged" (yeah, okay, sure) woman who needs to pin down a man because everyone says she does so obviously that means she has to. Her dad dies, so the town is like, "You know what, Em? Taxes? Don't even worry about 'em! We got it COVERED!" Then they come back and they're like, "Hey, remember how we specifically told you that you didn't need to pay taxes? We take it back. Jk, jk... unless...." And Emily's like, "Ha, hilarious that you think I'm about to pay you because I'm definitely not gonna do that." Then this Homer guy comes around and EXPLICITLY TELLS PEOPLE that he's gay, and they all talk about how hopefully Emily can "change his mind". Now, we don't have time to unpack how wrong that is, so let's move on. Emily buys Homer this monogrammed toilet set (so she basically proposed right there and then) and then no one saw him for a hot minute. Emily goes and ~casually~ buys some arsenic. When they ask her what it's for she REFUSES to tell them, which is not at ALL shady, and they decide it must be for rats. Her house starts to stink so, rather than ask about it, they go in the middle of the night and sprinkle lime around the house. You know, like all good neighbors do. She dies like 30 years later, and they find Homer's dead body in the attic on a bed, and they can tell that she's been sleeping next to the corpse. Okay, I know, Emily was insanely messed up. But come ON. You kind of can't help but root for her at least a little bit. The townspeople certainly did; it was so obvious she was doing something suspicious and they all just peeped between the blinds so they could see how far she'd go. Society essentially told her that, without a man, she was nothing. They wanted her to marry a GAY MAN just so she wouldn't be alone. She turned things upside down, and, while I obviously don't condone murder and sleeping with corpses, you've gotta admire her chutzpah. In conclusion, when patriarchal rules are enforced to such a gross degree, people get murdered with arsenic.

Comments

  1. SarahOctober 26, 2019 at 7:17 AM

    Scoreboard for A Rose for Emily:
    Emily-1
    The townspeople who clearly tried to force her to do stuff for their own amusement knowing they'd make her unhappy- 0

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ashley CarrNovember 15, 2019 at 1:06 PM

    Sometimes when I randomly throw out there that a character is secretly gay it actually sticks (I see you Homer).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Thoughts on ASL and Deaf Culture

 This semester, I am taking a course in American Sign Language. I've wanted to learn ASL for years but never had the opportunity before now. Taking this class, I have generated several opinions that I will now share. 1. The amount of facial expressions required in ASL is utterly impressive. I can't lie, I'm extremely timid with my expressions as I'm in an online class with about fifteen people that I've never met signing for the first time in our lives. However, it truly is astounding the difference that facial expressions make. Like the intonation of someone's voice, they can indicate a question, emotion, sarcasm, etc. Watching experienced people sign is mesmerizing, and I think that someone that signs well will always impress me. 2. Learning to sign is criminally underrated. ASL is a language, so of course it takes some practice to learn. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be learning it. In the U.S., approximately 600,000 people are deaf and only abo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Jury's Still Out on Aphra Behn

 Between Oroonoko and The Fair Jilt , I'm entirely puzzled by Aphra Behn as an author. In an entirely Swiftian manner, I simply cannot decipher if her writing is meant to be a commentary on unsatisfactory happenings or if she is actually racist and sexist. If you've read my previous blog on Behn, I further explained this situation in relation to The Fair Jilt and the different lenses it can be viewed through. Where Oroonoko is concerned, she could either be explaining the issue of the noble savage concept or genuinely have a type of savior complex by inserting herself into the narrative and humanizing a brutal story. I would be very interested to read different analyses of her works to see if there is an answer hiding in all of this.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Fair Jilt: Feminism or Misogyny?

 Aphra Behn's The Fair Jilt details young, beautiful Miranda's exploits as she ruins people around her to fit her fancy. At the beginning of the work, Miranda is portrayed as a frivolous girl with simply far too many options to settle down. Cupid supposedly curses her to fall in love with someone she simply cannot have as a punishment. However, this "punishment" barely phases her. She puts in some work and is still kindly denied, so she ruins Henrick's life. He remains composed and does not even attempt to rectify is wrongful imprisonment. When Van Brune is put to death because of her, he is apologetic for failing his assassination rather than devastated that he was about to die. No matter what Miranda did, Prince Tarquin stayed at her side. Miranda was constantly in the wrong, and no one ever seemed to hold it against her. Was she entirely wrong, though? Truthfully, she did not force anyone's fate except for the friar. Was she a ruthless gold digger or a fem...
Post a Comment
Read more