“A Rose for Emily” Soundtrack

Peyton Wolonsky

“A Rose for Emily” Soundtrack

Part I – “Candle in the Wind” –Elton John

“And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind

Never knowing who to cling to

…Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did”

            I chose this song for the first section of “A Rose for Emily” because I feel that it expresses how many of the townspeople probably felt about Emily. I think that these would have been my thoughts as I attended her funeral, thinking of her legend and the stories that will live on about the strange woman for years. Everyone was a stranger to her and her a stranger to everyone, but she was like a flame no one could ignore. When she did interact, such as when she told the gentleman that she does not pay taxes in Jefferson, she had a strong personality that earned a legendary life story.

Part II – “Hush Hush” by the Pistol Annies

I chose this song for part two because it talks about the rumors and thoughts going on in people’s heads about other people’s lives. It reminded me of how the town constantly came up with theories about Emily but never did anything about it. They gossiped but in actuality stayed hush towards Emily herself. Emily went through many struggles especially when she passed through temporary insanity when her father passed. The town mentally tried to ignore her reactions and go about life like it was normal. Even when they smelled a foul odor they attempted to make up excuses for it. The tone of the song matched how I envisioned the other ladies of the town acting as they fluttered around to one another telling secrets and rumors, but then quieted themselves as not to be overheard.

Part III – “Just Because I’m a Woman” – Dolly Parton

           

            I chose this old song by Dolly Parton mostly because of the powerfully lines she sings that say, “Now a man will take a good girl and he’ll ruin her reputation but when he wants to marry well, that’s a different situation.” I felt the lyrics to this song connect and contribute greatly to part three because of Emily’s affair with Homer Barron. The town talks of her forgetting of her family pride because she has been seen with him. Also, I feel that the old timey sound and twang of this song fit accurately when it talks of their buggy rides around town and of the different values and views that people of Emily’s time had about partners. The book talks about how as the affair continues, Emily’s reputation becomes further compromised which is just as the song says a guy can affect a woman’s life.

Part IV – “Mama’s Broken Heart” –Miranda Lambert

“Leave it to me to be holding the matches when the fire trucks show up and there's nobody. 
Else to blame can't get revenge and keep a spot less reputation sometimes revenge is a choice.”

            When I started thinking about this part of “A Rose for Emily” where she uses arsenic because Homer was going to abandon her and what music I associated with it, “Mama’s Broken Heart” instantly came to mind. It is about a girl getting revenge on a man for leaving her. Many in the town believe that Homer and Emily are getting married, which could simply be a planned portrayal by Emily, but it is an unlikely. The song tells a story of a girl gone crazy that must act like she is put together for the rest of the world. Like Emily, the girl in the song does strategize a plan to cover up her actions of hate. I think that the stories fit together perfectly and the angry tone of the song could play insight into how I as a reader inferred Emily’s mind to be thinking.

Part V – “Love Don’t Die” –The Fray

“Bury it in the ground
You can close it off and turn it away
Try to keep it down, six feet in the ground
But love don't die

No matter where we go
Or even if we don't
And even if they try
They'll never take my body from your side
Love don't die”

This song by The Fray starts off sort of somber, the type of feeling that you get when find out that Emily had been sleeping by the Corpse of Homer in a position of embrace. To Emily even though Homer was dead she now always had him near her. The song portrays the exact same image that even if one dies their love does not die with their body. It can be argued that Emily poisoned Homer and that it was an attempt to keep him in her life. I think the sounds in the song and the tone display a feeling of desperation, the type that Emily must have felt when she resorted to poisoning Homer.

Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." American Gothic Tales. Ed. Joyce

C. Oates. New York: Penguin Group, 1996. 182-190. Print.