America, if not the world, has always been infatuated with murder stories, movies, and shows. There are countless shows that revolve around solving crimes and finding killers and it seems like more and more keep popping up. There’s something about learning about a killers motives and why they’ve committed the crime that draws people in rapidly. Most people would think of killers as psychopaths. There are two stories that we read throughout this semester that, to me, seemed to have a psychopathic or somehow psychologically disturbed killer in them. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell show us two women who are seemingly harmless that end up being killers. In “A Rose For Emily” the narrator talks a lot about …show more content…
The townspeople were unaware of this. They had thought that the Colonel had left Miss Emily and never showed his face in town again. That’s probably why they were so shocked when they found his body in the upstairs room. The signs all pointed to Miss Emily having killed her lover. If going crazy did run in her family then she must have just snapped when her lover tried to leave her. The town mayor had gotten numerous complaints about an awful smell coming from Miss Emily’s house. No one even thought twice about what the smell could’ve been, instead the narrator says, “ 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.” (Faulkner 32). The men covered up the smell, which was most likely the horrid smell of a rotting corpse, and once the smell went away, no one thought about it again. Another sign that pointed towards Miss Emily having killed her lover was a strange encounter she had with the druggist in the town. She said, “I want poison” (Faulkner 33) and then went on to say “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind.” (Faulkner 33). She wasn’t even trying to hide what she was doing. She almost made it sort of obvious, yet no …show more content…
Wright seems to have suddenly had a psychotic break. She has very strange behavior and is not apparently normal for her. There is incredibly important dialogue between Mr. Hale and Mrs. Wright that show that she’s acting out of character. “I said, ‘How do you do Mrs. Wright, its cold, ain’t it?’ and she said, ‘Is it?’ – and went on kind of pleating at her apron. Well, I was surprised; she didn’t ask me to come up to the stove, or to set down, but just sat there, not even looking at me, so i said, ‘I want to see John.’ And then she – laughed. I guess you would call it a laugh. I thought of harry and the team outside, so I said a little sharp: ‘Can’t I see John?’ No’, she says kind o’ dull like. ‘Ain’t he home?’ says I ‘Yes,’ says she, ‘he’s home.’ ‘Then why can’t I see him?’ I asked her, out of patience. ‘Cause he’s dead,’ says she.” (Glaspell 852). The interesting thing about Mrs. Wright’s conversation with Mr. Hale is that she doesn’t necessarily try to cover up the fact that John is dead. She doesn’t say that she’s killed him or anything like that, but she simply states that he’s dead. She even laughs at Mr. Hale’s persistence to see john, which shows that she may have gone somewhat crazy. She doesn’t seem to feel any
The unfortunate death of John Wright was a mystery to all. A team of individuals consisting of the sheriff, county attorney, Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Peters were on a mission to find the purpose of the murderer. At this point, Mrs. Wright is the primary suspect. Mrs. Hale was asked to join the party in order to give Mrs. Peters, the sheriff s wife, some companionship. In the story, Mrs. Hale leaves cues of guilty feelings. As an example, the narrator states, Martha Hale had a moment of feeling that she could not cross that threshold. The reason being given that she had been too busy to come by but now she could come (Glaspell 2). Another instance to be noted is a conversation between her and the young attorney. During this conversation, he asked if they were friends since they were neighbors. Her answer was sympathetic, I’ve seen little enough of her late years. I ve not been it this house-it s been morethan a year. Then she goes on to explain, I liked her well enough. Farmers wives have their hands full, it never seemed a very cheerful place (Glaspell 6). At this point, Mrs. Hale s empathy toward Mrs. Wright is apparent.
As claimed by Crystal, "When she refuses to provide a reason why she wants to buy poison, the druggist scrawls “For rats” (809) across the package, literally and protectively overwriting her silence"(791). Although Crystal mainly argues the invasion of privacy shown in that statement, one could infer Faulkner's underlying theme based on the series of events following that statement. Evidently, after Emily had purchased the rat poison the townspeople stated,"So the next day we all said, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing"( Faulkner 808). Later on in the story, Miss Emily Grierson dies, and while the townspeople believed that she was going to commit suicide with the rat poison, it was revealed that she had not committed suicide with the poison, but she had committed murder. She had murdered Homer, the man that was thought to be Miss Emily Grierson's
Is being attached to something in a great abundance a bad thing? Well, it can be in some cases. Undoubtedly, many people in today’s society live constantly in angst with the fear of losing their loved ones and cope with their anxiety in a variety of ways. However, while many methods are accepted by society’s standards as of dealing with their stressors, some individuals have more extreme methods of coping with their separation anxiety. For instance, in “A Rose for Emily”, the main character, Emily Grierson, loses her father and fears a similar event will occur with her assumed lover. For that reason, it is easy for readers to assume that Emily has a separation anxiety. In this story by William Faulkner, she takes what modern day society would consider drastic measures to make sure the two never leave her.
Miss Emily was brought into the spotlight the same moment as her father died. Being the last remaining person from the high ranking Grierson family in town, she became the new ambassador of the old days. The people welcomed her with open arms, without actually knowing anything more about her than her admirable name. Her father's death also meant that Miss Emily's unrevealed secret was brought into the grave. It is well known that insanity is a hereditary disposition, and Miss Emily's great-aunt, lady Wyatt, had "gone absolutely crazy"(80) before she passed away a couple of years earlier. Emily's father had since then dissociated from that branch of the family, as if to run away from a dishonorable influence. I believe that he was aware of her condition, and he therefore had kept her from social life and driven away the long road of suitors to prevent her from causing another scandal, which could spot his and his family's remaining reputation.
"A Rose for Emily" written by William Faulkner and Trifles by Susan Glaspell wrote both stories about both women's experiencing the emotional and physical trials they went through throughout the story such as emotional break-down and being mentally ill. Both women in the stories are portrayed as murderous and mentally ill. In "A Rose for Emily," The main character, Emily Grierson is "the talk" of her town because the relationship she had with Homer. Her situation is similar to Minnie in the play, Trifles but both women are murderous. Although these two static characters Emily from "A Rose for Emily" and Minnie from Trifles have some similar character traits, they differ in a variety of ways.
In a Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, we meet a young woman that is surrounded by death. As the story progresses we find more and more death and decay throughout Emily’s life. This leads to the theme of Death and Dying. Through-out the short story the theme of Death and Dying is represented through many symbols. These symbols include dust, the house and Emily herself. This essay will examine how each of these symbols represent Death and Dying.
“I don 't know the question, but sex is definitely the answer.” This unambiguous quote, stated by actor and comedian, Woody Allen, can open a world full of questions, especially after reading two particular pieces of literature. William Faulkner, the author of “A Rose for Emily,” and Andrew Marvel, the author of “To His Coy Mistress,” have both composed works of seduction, and although the similarities between these two storylines are striking, their dialogues and approaches completely differ. They both illustrate a similar situation where both characters, Miss Emily and the unnamed narrator, crave for sexual intimacy. After reading the two texts, many questions arise. How does one sexually appeal to a corpse? Will a person literally do everything
Our society loves crime dramas. We have so many TV shows that focus on murder, police, and solving crimes - real or imagined. What’s always creepy about murderers on TV and in real life, however, is that they usually seem like completely normal people, and that makes their crimes so much more terrifying.
In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, Miss Emily poisons her lover, Homer Baron, and keeps his corpse on her bed for several years. She did this as she was afraid of losing him and being left with nothing. In Trifles by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Wright murders her husband, Mr. Wright, after he snaps her pet bird's neck. After many years of abuse, Mr. Wright snapping the bird's neck was the last straw for Ms. Wright. These women do not commit acts of civil disobedience but instead acts of rebellion, rebellion against both their husbands and society. In my opinion, Mrs. Wright took the strongest stand because she broke herself free from the oppression of her abusive husband, although through the use of murder, even if it was just for a few hours.
Concerning the contextualization of A Rose of Family as a sign of the times of women at that point, where cultural norms of women lead to a life in domestication. The recognition of the rose here as it is carefully placed in the title of the piece as well bears significance to the physical rose and what it meant to the young women in the South during the 1800s (Kurtz 40). Roses are generally given as tokens of love and affection by males to females. There are even remnants of it today where young lads also profess their love to women with roses; women still see it as an act of endearment towards them.
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
In today’s society, many women are powerful, independent, and for the most part treated equal to men, but before the 1920's women were restrained by the men. Imagine what being a woman in this era would be like. In Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles,” she addresses the life of women in the 1900’s by examining the marital relationships among the characters, specifically between Mrs. Wright and Mr. Wright, the Sheriff and Mrs. Peters, and last Mr. Hale and Mrs. Hale. Glaspell accomplishes this by separating the husbands and wives into different rooms in the home of the Wrights, leaving the women all together in the living room and kitchen, which is where they find the crime scene evidence. The point being is that the men did not consider what the
From her psychological issues, any sane person could establish that Miss Emily had a mental illness. She refused to bury her father, refused to explain her need for poison, and refused to let her lover leave. Miss Emily first expressed signs of mental illness after her father’s death; she was emotionally unstable and refused to accept that her father was dead. The story states: “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” he uses many literary elements to portray the life of Emily and the town of Jefferson. The theme of the past versus the present is in a sense the story of Miss Emily’s life. Miss Emily is the representation of the Old South versus the New South, mainly because of her inability to interact with the present or come to terms with reality. Holding onto the past and rejecting change into the present led Miss Emily into a life of isolation and mental issues.
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.