On Miss Emily and J.K. Rowling

Miss Emily in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is a woman with a problem. And no, I am not speaking of her problem with necrophilia. (Though, that is related to her larger problem.) Miss Emily is a character who simply cannot let go. She cannot bear to see the people she loves leave her and that is what compels this lovely, Southern woman to act in ways one would not think possible.

Grief, and the feelings of loneliness that accompany them, are experienced by all people. The way others choose to deal with these feelings, however, vary from person to person. Miss Emily has difficultly moving past the first step of grief: Denial. When she experiences the death of her father, Miss Emily refuses to even acknowledge his death for three days! This denial is even brought to the extreme when she kills Homer rather than lose him, and even refuses to let go of the dead body, preferring instead to lie with the corpse night after night than admit to herself that he, and her father for that matter, is dead.

This fear and hatred of death is nothing special and haunts most cultures around the world. Miss Emily’s unwillingness to admit that those she loved have left her reminds me of “The Tale of the Three Brothers” mentioned in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This story is about three brothers who, after cheating Death out of their lives, are each granted a wish. The eldest brother asks for a wand more powerful than any in existence. By this reasoning, he considers himself more powerful than Death. His wish is granted and he receives the wand, but shortly enough, after bragging to all around him of the wand’s power, the eldest brother is killed and his wand stolen. Thus, Death claims the first brother. The middle brother, whose love had perished, asks for a stone that can return those who have died to the living world. With it, he calls back his love from Death. However, this woman is not the one who left him. She is a soul trapped in the mortal world and curses her fate. The middle brother is thus driven to suicide by watching the woman he once loved suffer. Thus, Death claims the second brother. However, the youngest brother asks for an invisibility cloak. He then hides from Death for the rest of his long life, fathering a son, and in turn passing the cloak to the boy when he is finally ready to walk with Death as his equal.

Miss Emily is most similar to the middle brother. Both of the two refuse to let the ones they love pass “through the veil.” However, the obsession they have is unhealthy as it prevents them from moving on with their lives. Both unable to even pass the first stage of grief cripples the two to a point of stasis. The two are both very relatable though, despite the fact that one is a borderline necrophiliac, as who would not wish a dead loved one to return?

Death haunts us all. We know of no way to escape it or reverse it. This is what makes it imperative to find ways to deal with it. Society usually frowns upon necrophilia, so it’s best to find a more suitable way to deal with your insecurity about lost.

Simply put: If you can’t deal with loss, I suggest you seek professional help rather than kill your lover and sleep with his dead body. Just a thought. (593)