Examples Of Power In A Rose For Emily

Harley Zepeda
Professor Delaney
English 110
March 10th, 2023 Power Through the Lense of Relationships William Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily' is a short story about the reclusive Emily Grierson, a woman from a prominent southern family who becomes increasingly isolated and disturbed as she ages. Through Emily’s relationships with her father, the town officials, her past love interests, and domestic servant, Faulkner examines how power is gained, maintained, and challenged. Emily’s father, a wealthy southern man holds a lot of power over the town and his daughter Emily in the story. He is described as a "stern and haughty" man who does not allow his daughter to date or socialize

When Emily meets Homer Barron, a northern laborer who comes to town to pave the streets, she becomes infatuated with him as they begin to spend time together. However, their budding relationship is met with disapproval and criticism from the townspeople, who are opposed to a southern aristocrat being romantically involved with a working-class northerner. This disapproval intensifies after Emily's father dies, and the townspeople worry that she will lose her status in society if she marries someone beneath her social class. Emily's powerlessness in this situation is evident, as she is unable to assert her own desires and must conform to the expectations of others. Through this aspect of the story, Faulkner highlights the impact of societal norms and expectations on personal relationships and the ways in which they can be used to exert power over individuals. We also see an unfair abuse of power on Emily’s part, for she would rather Homer be dead than live a life without her. This is a way to exert power, for when he is dead, Emily is able to lock him in a room in her home for as long as she pleases, doing as she wishes with his corpse. This is a very eerie and gruesome example of the lengths some will go to have power in a situation. "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). This quote comes at the end of the story, when the townspeople discover Homer's decomposed corpse in Emily's bed, alongside a pillow with a strand of hair on it. The fact that there was a strand of hair on the pillow insinuates that Emily was laying next to Homer at some