Betrayal

What is love when it appears in the face of death and abandonment? Betrayal within the stories of “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” tends to open our eyes and ears to the speculations of diminishing love. Love can be gentle, kind, and heartwarming, but is can also be life shattering as well, and proves to be true between Emily and Delia. Both characters are betrayed by there so called “lovers” which eventually leads to a tragic downfall. The interference of love can be due to a lack of trust, emotional and physical abuse, and a sense of hatred between the lovers.  
Although, diminishing love appears transparent in both stories, the themes of love are different in each story. “A Rose for Emily” was a story set back in the post-Civil War era. The theme of love told in the story, is that betraying love can lead to tragedy.   Miss Emily lived through a class system that treated her as royalty. “A Rose for Emily” is told from the point of view of somebody who lived in the town. During the time when Miss Emily’s father was alive, there house was the loveliest house on the wealthiest street. After Miss Emily’s father died, her house began to decay.   Faulkner writes, “...Only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons…an eyesore among eyesores” (714). The decay of the house foreshadows the gruesome murder of her thought to be lover, Homer Barron, and his decaying body. When Miss Emily buys the rat poison, it foreshadows Homer’s death because she considers him a rat. This foreshadows that she will poison him. “When she opened the package at home there was written on the box, under the skull and bones: ‘for rats’” (718). All of the plot events foreshadow the death of Homer Barron, and the inevitable mental delirium that crushes Miss Emily.
Just as the theme of betraying love played a crucial role in “A Rose for Emily”, “Sweat also uptakes a similar theme. “Sweat” is set in...