Home in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the stories "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner and "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell and shows how each author makes use of the house in which the story is set as both a physical and a metaphorical space. In "A Rose for Emily," the huge house Emily inherits from her father becomes something that represents her to the world before and after her death. In "A Jury of Her Peers", the life of Mrs Wright who has lived in the house is reflected in the house itself, not directly but indirectly so that the women sense it while the men fail to see it. It looks at how both the protagonists, though both seem free to make their own choices are in fact they are hemmed in by circumstances and are not in control of their own fate.

From the Paper:

"Women in stories like "A Rose for Emily" are separated from men, and the mere fact that they are separated creates a tension between themselves and their neighbors. The people of the town look at Emily as a person who is not a complete human being. At the same time, her social position requires a certain sort of match to satisfy the town, and Homer Barron does not fit the bill: "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer" (Faulkner 317). Ultimately, though, a marriage with any man is better than no marriage at all: "Then we were sure that they were to be married. . . We were really glad" (Faulkner 319). In the atmosphere in which she lives, there is little for her to do once it appears she has been abandoned except to withdraw from all social discourse. Her father had chased away all her suitors, and now another male seemed to have abandoned her as well. Her father's death is also something of an abandonment, one she does not care to admit because she has been made so dependent on this male figure."

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• Analytical Essay # 27180 : "Death in Literature"

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