Why Does Emily Kill Homer in "A Rose for Emily"?

In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, Emily Grierson murders her lover, Homer Barron, leaving him in a bed in her attic 40 years. Later, she passes away and Homer’s body is found to the town’s surprise. It was believed that they had been happily married all this time. Why does she commit such a heinous crime against someone she loves dearly? Emily kills Homer to bury the burden of her father’s control over her, regain her pride, and to gain control of their dying romantic relationship.

Emily’s father controls her throughout her life, even into her thirties. He believed “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily”. He wouldn’t give Emily any control over her life whatsoever. Not even giving her the opportunity to choose a suitor even though she was 32 at the time of her father’s death. Following the town discovering her father’s death, She told the town that her father was not dead. She did so for three days. Once her father dies, all of the control over her should have been lost. The town could see how strongly her father had a grasp on her every move. The townspeople concluded, “We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.” Thus, Emily’s murder of Homer allowed her to finally take control for once in her life, something her father would never let her do.

Her family’s legacy is left to her control as she is the last of the immediate Grierson family. While the Grierson’s were an upper class family, the townspeople “believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were”. Her father believed that they are the premier family of the town. Therefore, passing the immense pressure to maintain the family line is bestowed upon Emily. The town believed, “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort...