With your partner, discuss the regionalism and gothic characteristics that you pointed out. Then discuss what you felt was the mood and why. Once you have talked through this, discuss this question: Why would Emily do what she did (that was discovered at the end of the story)? What details from the story help you answer this? Answer that as a comment on this post.
Talk with your partner about your list of events revealed in the story. (If you are confused by anything, or just like infographics because they look cool, take a look at this.) You will be submitting your order of events revealed vs. chronological order list here. You can create the list in Google sheets, or by creating a table in Docs. I haven’t tried the upload feature of Google Forms yet, so we’re going to give it a go…
Emily killed Homer because her father always sent away an potential suitors, so she killed him to make sure that he could never be sent away.
Lane and Leo
Emily did not get rid of the body of her husband because he was one of the few good things that were happening in her life. She lost her Father (who she also refused to part from) and all links to her family. She was alone in the world as she shut her self from the town.
Susan, Charlie, Calvin
Emily knew that Homer would never be able to truly love her, since he was gay, so she knew she would have to kill him to be able control him to be with her.
At the beginning of the story, it is revealed that Emily finds that no one is good enough to be with her, and when Homer comes around, Emily finds that he is the perfect one for herself. However, it is later revealed that Homer is an alcoholic and homosexual, and so she killed him because she did not want anyone else to have him except herself.
Justin and Seth
Emily did what she did because she is crazy and she wanted to have Homer Barron.
~Luke, Gracie, Linda
Emily was convinced that her and Homer were going to fall in love, but “Homer himself had remarked- he liked men,” and because of this she decides to do what she needs to do to keep Homer within her grasp.
She killed him because she didn’t want to lose him and she knew she would eventually lose him because he openly liked men (175). The women in her family all grew insane with age so she probably had so mental illness as well (99).
Suspense/Mystery/Insanity(hints)
Lonely and sad because she had her father chase away anybody that would try to love her and then he dies and clinging to him because no other family member wants anything to do with them she also chases anyone away that wasn’t already with her during her father’s death.
She has an issue letting go and it went so far as to do such a thing. Clinging to her father and buying the silver with H.B. on them was her way of grieving, but she just couldn’t let go of anything.
She does it because her father keeps men away from her and her previous suitor deserts her. “That was two years after her fathers death and a short time after her sweetheart- the one we believed would marry her- has deserted her.” (Fulkner 1069) She was afraid she would be left alone the rest of her life.
She is an insane person. Homer could also have been gay and that triggered her anger in some way resulting in his death.
Joey, David
She was an older woman who was alone. She wanted the attention of a man and had been left before. I believe that Emily poisoned Homer so that he would never leave her. Line: 155
Macy Moore and Olivia Brock
Emily murdered Homer Barron because he liked men and Emily wanted him to like her because she liked him, and this way he was hers forever. She slept next to him every night and continued to keep him even after he was decomposing (Line 274-275).
Emily’s father had previously scared away all of the men who were interested in her and now that he was gone she felt she had a chance with Homer. He was not interested in her but he felt he was a last chance. He tried to leave so she killed him and proceeded to live in a fairy-tale. She kept his decaying body in a room along with wedding decor and other relics of a married life. She would sleep by him at night which is shown by the fact that a grey hair was found on the pillow next to his skeleton.
Wyatt and Alicia
Regionalism: We saw the regionalism in the way that the townspeople acted toward Emily and in the way that they expected her to act. ANd in the terrible racism that occurred.
Gothic: The death and mystery and also the gross smells that go on throughout the entirety of the story.
We think that she did what she did because she was in love with Homer Barron and he did not love her back.
Mood: Grim, Dark, and Depressing.
Depressing- she was all alone in her old age, and somewhat forgotten
Dark- the poison, and a lack of joyful terms
At the end they found him in a bed, and a grey hair next to him, reveals the motive of his murder. She loved him and he wanted to be with someone else and leave her, so she killed him so he could never leave her.
The grey hair, the fact he likes guys, and the fact he disappeared after entering helped us determine this.
Rachel, Kasey
She killed him because she didn’t want him to leave when he wanted to. She loved him and didn’t want him to go.
“Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up”.