Emily the Criminal Mastermind Essay

In the story A Rose for Emily, Emily murders her lover  using poison. The readers are led on to think that she kills him  because she does not want him to leave her, which is what he intends  to do. Her relationship with Homer Barron, her lover, is a normal  relationship; nothing indicates that their relationship is in any kind  of trouble. Having examined her relationship and characters, Emily  can be seen as a master criminal. As opposite as they are of each other, they are attracted to one  another. Although the relationship between Emily and her father is  dysfunctional, her relationship between her and Homer is a healthy  one. Homer works with a construction company, and he is in the  leadership position in his workplace. He can be seen as a joker as he  makes everyone laugh wherever he goes. He is a popular person because  he makes himself well known to everyone in town. Wherever he goes,  little boys would follow him to hear him talk and tell jokes. She, on  the other hand, is always quiet. She doesn’t talk to anyone in town. There are gossips of her but she would never confront them; instead,  she just ignores them. As opposite as Emily’s personalities are to  that of Homer’s, they get along with each other. This shows that she  can be sociable. After all, she can get along with the most popular  guy in town.  She is very calm, cool and collective. After her father  dies, some people visit her to offer sympathy, yet she is â€Å"dressed as  usual with no trace of grief on her face.† Even though she has killed  Homer, when the people in the town visit her because she doesn’t pay  her property tax, she speaks to them as though there isn’t anything  wrong. When she goes to buy the poison to kill Homer, she speaks with  certainty that she wants to buy the poison. â€Å"I want arsenic,† she  says. This indicates that she has contemplated to kill Homer. When  the druggist insists that she tells him what she is going to use it  for, she silen ces him with her look. She knows what she is doing. She can be seen as controlling and manipulative by the  silence of the Negro, her house keeper. The Negro goes out to the  store every now and then to buy food from the market, he doesn’t talk  to anyone. Though the author does not indicate whether the Negro  knows about Homer’s dead corpse in the bedroom, it’s hard to imagine  that he doesn’t know about it. The neighbors complain of the smell,  which they do not know that it’s from a dead body. For the duration  that the body has been in the house, it’s impossible to imagine that  the Negro has no knowledge of it. Assuming that he knows, yet he  doesn’t talk to anyone about it shows that she has control over him. Ruling out that she’s suffering from insanity, one can  only conclude that she’s criminal mastermind. Even though her father  is abusive, she is able to have meaningful relationship. Her  relationship with Homer shows that she can be sociable. After her  father’s death, she shows no grief. While having Homer’s body in the  bedroom upstairs, she attends to her guests as though nothing is  wrong. At the same time, she is able to keep the butler from talking  to anyone about anything. Planning to kill Homer, she buys the poison  without any hesitation even though the druggist asks her many  questions. Using the control that she has over the person under her  and her environment, she gets away with murder.