Women Murders Essays - Emily Grierson, Delia Matache,

Women Murders Marriage is a life long commitment between two people. Vows are taken as a promise to one another, " Till Death Do us Part" may be the most well known vow, but with the two women I will be discussing they take it into their own hands to speed up the process. The following stories are about two women who commit murder in some form, perhaps intentional or not who are not punished as far as the story tells us. Fortunately, we have a legal system that is designed to prevent these homicides and programs specifically designed to help women in cases like these that feel they have no other choice but to murder their husband to achieve freedom. As you will see these women were so desperate that they felt murder was their only option. One woman did it for freedom, and the other for companionship, both are murderers any way you put it. Emily Grierson, lived alone in an old " eyesore" of a house that no one had been inside of since she stopped giving china painting lessons ten years ago. She was considered a tradition in her town, and was shown special treatment thanks to a former mayor who'd pardoned her from the rules that applied to negro women at that time. However, the next generation didn't look upon Emily so kindly. Tax forms were constantly mailed to her home, the townspeople found the smell that seeped from her home so unbearable that they snuck onto her property to correct the situation. Emily had no contact with the townspeople, Until she met Homer Barron, a Northerner foreman, notorious for drinking and taking a liking to younger men. Within a few days, Emily and Homer were seen riding together in a buggy, and spending alot of time together. The townspeople thought that the they would marry, but when they heard that Emily bought arsenic they assumed she would kill herself and were happy for her, they said " it would be the best thing ". When the streets were done Homer disappeared, it was assumed that he went to prepare for his marriage to Emily. He returned a few days later and was never seen again. Miss Emily was seen buying a men's toiletry set along with men's clothing including a night shirt, from that point on it is assumed that they are married . Some time after that, Miss Emily passed away. A funeral was held, and once she was in the ground, the townspeople opened up the room that noone had seen in nearly forty years, what they found was quite disturbing. A room set up for a bridal with a man's suit and shoes looked almost as if it were just placed there, with the exception of the dust and discoloring. They found the man it belonged to laying in the bed decomposed with traces of an embrace that had long been unreturned.It was Homer Barron, and the pillow next to him had an indentation with a long strand of iron gray hair resting on it. Miss Emily was unavailable for questioning due to her death, so it is assumed that the arsenic from earlier in the story was not used for rats, but to keep Homer there with her, for fear of loneliness or perhaps she was insane, the author does not disclose this information. I think that she killed him in fear that he would leave her, and this is the first man she would be permitted to see since her father's watchful eyes were no longer around. This is truly a case of homicide, unlike the next story I will discuss where intentional murder is committed in a different way. Delia Jones is a washwoman in a poverty stricken area of Florida. She is married to a man named Sykes who is abusive to her in more ways than one. The verbal abuse is more evident than the physical aspect of it. Delia had to endure years of Sykes comments on her weight and profession, along with being assaulted and tormented by his cruel jokes. Sykes openly has an affair with a fat woman named Bertha. He was paying for her to stay in town, even though Delia was at home cooking and cleaning, trying to make a living. Sykes preys on Delia's fear of snakes from the beginning of the story, first with the whip resting on her shoulder, then he takes it too far and brings home a real snake. After