Death is a factor that changes people’s lives and affects them greatly, which is a motif that Faulkner and Joyce use throughout their stories. “Eveline” speaks of death figuratively, but also expresses the purpose women have at the time this story is set. Throughout “A Rose for Emily”, death is a recurring motif and also shows the loss of culture in the Old South. Death does not only mean the end of a life, but also the demise of something such as an idea or belief. The previous statement reveals itself to be true in both of these stories. In “Eveline” and “A Rose for Emily”, death becomes a barrier which constantly influences peoples’ actions. Eveline must choose between marriage, which will be the end of her life as a free person, or staying where she is know and facing the world by herself. Emily faces the loss of her culture and resorts to killing to achieve her desires.
“Eveline” is set in Dublin, Ireland in the early 1900’s and highlights the oppression women received. During this time, marriage could be seen as the death of a woman’s life as a whole. Mary Wollstonecraft, a famous English writer and philosopher who wrote about subjects such as equality and women, discussed the life of women in marriage. She engaged with writers about how women were suppose to live, writing, “I cannot avoid feeling the most lively compassion for those unfortunate females who are broken off from society, and by one error torn from all those affections and relationships that improve the heart and mind” (Wollstonecraft). Wollstonecraft explains how during marriage, females experienced a breaking from society and it affected their lives dramatically. During this story, Eveline experiences Wollstonecraft’s thoughts and ends up rejecting the path which is routine for women in her society. When she is about to board a ship, which symbolizes her leave from freedom, she comes to realize what would have been the end of her life. “All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her” (Joyce 3). Eveline is being led to her death, and in this passage she finally realizes the impact it will leave on her. She rejects the role she was meant to claim and therefore rejects the society she was born into. Eveline’s barrier was her fear to be independent and go against what she learned, and she overcame this fear by staying in Ireland. Death was a huge factor in Eveline’s life, as it finally led her to freedom as a woman unconstrained to the pressures of marriage.
Unlike “Eveline”, “A Rose for Emily” brings up death immediately and it is evident throughout the story. One example of this is how Emily is shown to represent the South as a whole. As the story goes on, she becomes less respectable and outdated, much like her culture being led to its ultimate demise. Emily tries repeatedly to stop time, trying to stay in this cultural bubble. Mark Miller, a writer for the National Review, wrote about culture in the South, emphasizing how they try to hold on to their culture. “Southernness is elusive, but the one certainty seems to be that it consists, in large measure, of a preoccupation with being Southern” (Miller). He is saying that Southerners are extremely occupied with trying to retain their culture and they often forget that culture changes with or without them. Her attempt to save her culture failed, but that was not her only goal. Death usually is a factor that distances a person with another, but Emily did not let that stop her. When she falls in love with someone who is obviously not into her, she kills him and keeps the dead body in her room. She ultimately conquered the boundary of death by maintaining her relationship with him. “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love… cuckolded him” (Faulkner 6). Faulkner describes how Emily, after killing Homer, would lay with his body and was able to form a one-sided connection with him. She conquered death in this way because, even though her methods were grotesque, she was able to connect with someone with whom she dreamt of being with.
Death has been shown to be a powerful force, but in “Eveline” and “A Rose for Emily”, some characters have managed to barely slide past it alive. However, both of these stories haven’t fully succeeded. Even though they had success, they both fell short of their ultimate goal. Eveline was finally free of marriage and was ready to lead an independent life, but because of the culture she lives in, she would be practically unable to lead. Emily was able to remain with her true love, but she was unable to fully connect with Homer. Her attempts to combine life and death into a marriage failed and she was ultimately overtaken by death. Their stories connect in this way, as they are able to overcome death, even if it is only a small portion of it. One may win a battle against death, but in the end, death will win the war.