Roses Are Red...
...f her own. Her father forced her to live a life pretending that the Grierson family still stood above the rest. “Emily” rearranged spells “my lie”; so even Faulkner’s choice of the name “Emily” hints that Emily felt stuck in the middle of two worlds, not knowing to which she belonged. Her father’s seclusion along with his power, ruined Emily’s life, leaving her lost when he passed away. Emily, alone and desperate, clung to the first chance of love she encountered; that chance coming with the arrival of Homer Barron. Homer Barron’s name also holds significance; Homer gave Emily a hope of a new life, her own life, free to love, free to be happy; he gave her the chance to finally know where she belonged, to feel at home. Barron, or barren, symbolizes how desolate Emily felt once she realized that Homer did not share her romantic feelings. Faulkner foreshadows that Emily will go mad with the mention that “old lady Wyatt, [Emily’s] great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last”(25). Two paragraphs later this assumption reappears when Emily would not allow her father’s body to be disposed of for three days (27). This also starts the foundation for the image of corpses wasting away in the house, along with Emily’s...