Rose William Faulkner
What is the Rose in William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily”?
After reading, William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” the reader is left to their own devices in wondering exactly what the rose is that Faulkner is referring to in the title. There is no mention of the rose in the text. The only times we find “rose” mentioned is as a verb, “They rose when she entered” (84) and “a faint dust rose sluggishly” (84) and then as an adjective referring to the colors in the upstairs room, “the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights” (86). We see that Faulkner never really comes out and says why he chooses the title “A Rose for Emily”. This interpretation is for the reader to decide. There are numerous different speculations on what the rose actually is in “A Rose for Emily.”
One might jump to the conclusion that the title is simply referring to Emily's funeral, which is where the story starts, and the flowers that would have been there. Without a doubt there would have been townspeople bringing roses as well as many different beautiful flowers to Emily's funeral. This is exactly what I thought when I first started reading “A Rose for Emily”. Once I read the entire story, I found the real rose that Faulkner refers to in the story. When asked what the rose was, Faulkner said that it was a salute to a real Emily. A recounting of what he said when asked:
A good friend of [Faulkner's], Emily Grierson … invited a gentleman in her home to live with the promise of marriage. After a few months… he decided to end their relationship. He told her he was leaving …And that was where the story ended until word reached Mr. Faulkner. As a token of his esteem, he wrote "A Rose for Emily" and presented this to her. (Rose)
Faulkner's statement may be his original motivation for the story, but if “A Rose for Emily” is carefully read, it becomes apparent to me that the rose Faulkner is referring to is actually Homer Barron, who Emily kept in the upstairs room.
Emily's father manipulated her life, chasing off boys that would come to call “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away” (84). After her father died, Emily was finally able to meet a suitor. Homer is a supervisor on a work crew that had come to town to lay sidewalks. He became her first and only love. Homer may have been the life of the party but “that [Homer] was not a marrying man” (85). This caused a great deal of conflict for Emily. It is widely accepted that Emily poisoned Homer when he refused to settle down. Emily could not endure the prospect that Homer would not marry her. She wanted Homer to be with her forever and refused to let him go.
When Emily realized that, she was going to lose Homer and that he had no intentions of settling down and marrying her. Emily did the only thing she thought that she could do, she devised a plan to keep Homer. She purchased Arsenic, we conclude, to poison Homer, the text does not come out and say this but speculates that she would kill herself and since that did not happen, we can speculate that the arsenic was for Homer. The choice of arsenic was a calculated decision and requested by Emily at the pharmacy “I want some poison…I want arsenic” (84-85). Emily states in the story. One of the former uses of arsenic is that it is a preservative in pressure treated lumber as noted in Wikipedia:
“CCA [chromated copper arsenate, one form of arsenic] timber is still in widespread use [for treating lumber]… where there was a risk of rot, or insect infestation in untreated timber. (Arsenic)
Using Arsenic as a poison and a preservative Emily preserved Homer, her rose, to keep and cherish for the rest of her life.
In the story, we learn that she lay with Homer “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from [the pillow]…we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (87). Emily refused to let Homer go. Homer was the one bright thing, her rose if you will, in the otherwise hard life of our protagonist.
Much as a debutant or a prom queen would dry and keep a rose or their bouquet to remember their special night. Emily did the same thing, morbid, as it may seem, she kept and cherished her rose to have for the rest of her life. The rose in Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” is Homer Barron, who Emily Grierson saved and preserved to cherish forever in the room at the top of the stairs.
Works Cited
"A Rose for Emily." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 7 Feb 2007, 16:49 UTC.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 8 Feb 2007.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rose_for_Emily>
"Arsenic." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 Feb 2007, 06:20 UTC.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 8 Feb 2007.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic>
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