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Infatuation With Death In Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Death is repeated throughout the short story, “A Rose for Emily.” In the beginning of the story her mother loses her mind then later dies of unmentioned causes. Shortly after her mother’s death her father chokes at the dinner table at dies from suffocation. After these incidents I believe Emily developed an infatuation with death. It took 3 days before she allowed them to come and collect her father’s body. Later, Emily meets a man while he is doing construction outside of her house and they fall in love and get married. The story leads you to believe that she kills her husband with arsenic the night of their wedding, although it is not stated. The home reeks with an aroma that the reader believes is her deceased husband’s corpse decaying.

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