Feminist Critique of "A Rose for Emily": The Theme of Gender

In “A Rose for Emily,” theme of male dominance and female submission is highlighted through the relationship that Miss Emily had with her father and through the expectations that the community held about how women had to be married in order to lead a normal life. Miss Emily’s father literally controlled her social life for as long as he was alive, never allowing any man to be with her, which caused her to be alone for a long time. The community, seeing that she was alone, judged her and thought she was strange for being alone. Oblivious to what anyone thought of her, Miss Emily eventually married a man that even death could not part from her, which remained a secret until she died.

In those times, women were either controlled by their fathers or their husbands because they were expected to be proper at all times, stay at home, be taken care of, and act like ladies. Miss Emily’s family was a prominent family in the community and her father was well known, but not always for good things. In fact, he was thought to be a maniac and was obsessed with Miss Emily’s social life. He never thought any man was good enough for her, which ended up hurting Miss Emily instead of helping her because not being with anyone made her get judged. In the story it says, “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a away people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily.” In other words, when her father died, she was just born, in a way, because people felt like her humanity was finally being exposed for being alone, lonely, and poor. This is important because it shows that without her father, a lady is considered lost.

Back then, the community would judge women for being alone and not having a companion, especially if they were older. If a lady was alone, something had to be wrong with her. In Miss Emily’s case, her father was the main reason she was alone, but the community made it worse by judging her for being alone. Aware of this pressure, Miss Emily began seeing Homer Barron, a loud and obnoxious man who the community did not approve of. In the story, the community says, “Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her.” This meant that she was ruining her family’s reputation by associating with Homer Barron. Still, it was the only attention that Miss Emily was getting from any man since her father died so she did not care what the community thought at that point.

The pressure that the community placed on Miss Emily and all women made her make decisions that shook the community once it was discovered. Miss Emily stayed confined in her home for the last forty years of her life. Once she died, the room that was locked up for forty years was opened and Homer Barron’s dead body was discovered, next to which was a long gray hair, one of Miss Emily’s. The pressure to have a man in her life pushed her to keep the only man she ever had, Homer Barron, even after he died. This explained the bad smell that was coming from her home earlier in the story.

Being a woman at that time came with certain societal expectations, the most significant of which was that a man usually defined a woman. In the beginning, Miss Emily’s father defined her and controlled her life. Later, Homer Barron defined her and controlled her life, even though he was dead. She lived for him and with him because he was the only man she was ever with. The community judged her when she was alive and will now continue to judge her after death because of her questionable decisions.