I found both stories, “A Rose for Emily” and “A Jury of Her Peers” to have more similarities than differences. Both the mood and time period seem to be about the same. Both narrators seem to be somewhat sympathetic to the women and their plights. They paint Emily and Mrs. wright to be delicate, and fragile round characters that suffer despite the crime they have committed. Ā As a reader I couldn’t help but feel sad for both women. Mrs. Wright’s crime Ā seems somewhat more predictable in her actions after suffering years of abuse from her husband. Emily, on the other hand, seems to have suffered from insanity which my evoked sympathy while reading the story, as mental illness is a disease. Her crime was suspected towards the end of the story, but still shocking to see the climax and the falling action. Both settings seem similar. Mrs. Wright’s abuse was acknowledged and overlooked, as was more the case then than it would be today. Homer Barton’s treatment of his workers, and his disrespectful and derogatory use of the n word, was commonly used to refer to African Americans in that time period which is now far and beyond socially acceptable in today’s society.
The one difference that I did think about was the different outcomes that both these women had, though both killed the men that they once loved. For Emily; her ending was final and filled with sadness. She died having never truly lived, or receiving the love that she wanted so badly from Homer.
Mrs. Wright, on the other hand, may have had a different ending. If the sheriff and young Henderson could not find substantial motive and proof, it is quite possible that she may go free, and go on to live the life that she couldn’t while married to an abusive husband. She may yet find love, peace, and redemption.
As far as the power dynamics in the story. It comes across that the men in Emily’s life seem to hold power over her. Her life’s happiness and her choices have revolved around both her father and Homer Barron.
“None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such”.
She waited to get married, and was her father’s companion. Perhaps, he meant for her not to get married and leave his side. Why had she not protested when she had more suitors? Homer was her last attempt to have the life in which her father had interfered. When it was apparent that he would not marry her, she took power back, one can say. She poisoned him, and held him captive in her house, and Ā held his body there.Ā She held him to her in the way that her father had held her to him. Maybe that one act was the one thing that she had taken control of, horrendous and crazy as it was, she grabbed power and control in whatever way she thought how.
When she purchased that arsenic, she showed her resolve and fierceness, she didn’t get nervous or cower before that pharmacist.
“Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went ingot the arsenic and wrapped it up”.
In that moment she got what she wanted and went on to do what she had decided. That is having power.
