Forever Emily's

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is about a southern upper-class woman named Emily Grierson who finds herself in need of something that she can not make hers with material wealth. She longs for the love that her father denied her of. When she finally does find this companionship in character Homer Barron, she decides to take matters into her own hands and solely determine their future by killing him so that he never abandons her. Because of this plot I do believe that an alternative title for the story would be "Forever Emily's."

In the time and setting that this story takes place, most women were married at a young age. It was a disgrace to not be suited and married before you were around the age of thirty. This is why townspeople gossiped about Emily. In paragraph 15, it is said that, "...after her sweetheart went away; people hardly saw her at all." This statement shows that Emily had been previously abandoned by a suitor. This traumatic deserting combined with her father's death makes her skeptical about suitors in the future.

Emily's overbearing father did not help with her skepticism. The townspeople "had thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a straddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horse whip [...]". This image was the epitome of their relationship. Her father always drove suitors away thinking that they were not good enough for his daughter. Upon his death she was left with nothing to cling to, and this is what drove her to try to obtain something that she could keep forever.

In conclusion, Emily's apprehension of ever lasting relationships was brought on by her father's selfishness and her being abandoned by her sweetheart. Emily only wanted something that she could have forever, and that is why I chose the alternative title "Forever Emily's."