Love, Self-Discovery, and Death as Themes in Stories

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The theme of Love in A Rose for Emily and The Quest for Iranon
The theme of love is outrightly displayed in the two stories, A Rose for Emily and The Quest for Iranon. Love can be defined as an intense emotion of liking towards someone or something. In both stories, love plays an integral part in developing the plot as well as the significant blocks of story and in the characterization of individuals. In A Rose for Emily, the author explicitly shows how Love and lack of it was a substantial factor in the development of the main character, Emily. Her desire for romantic love clashes with the less functional love experience from her father during her childhood (Faulkner 8). It is worth to note that Emily’s childhood experience with love shaped her attitude towards love the rest of her life, even though, a considerable part of her strongly yearned for romantic love in her adult life. When she meets Homer, later in her life, she tries to love him, using her definition of love, and what she believes is the right way of showing affection (Faulkner 18). Homer, on the other hand, is not so sure on their relationship with Emily, just like Emily is, and there is confusion whether they should call it a plutonic or a romantic relationship. In The Quest for Iranon, Lovecraft manages to show the significance of pursuing lost love through his characterization. Iranon, who is an exiled prince is genuinely in love with his native home (Lovecraft 6). The author manages to create the exact image and intensity of that love to the writer from Iranon’s memories.
In both stories, the authors portray the theme of love, even though from different perspectives and angles. In the two texts, love has shaped the lives of the main characters in a way that it has directly affected how they relate to the world and people around them. In A Rose for Emily, the author portrays the type of love which has had an impact on Emily. It is love between one human and the other. Emily did not have a great relationship with her father before he passed away. This distorted her meaning of love, and as a result, made her stay a single life of isolation for many years (Yang 12). When Homer comes her way, and people see them together, they begin talking of a possibility of marriage, and whether she had found the love of her life. But again, it turns out, and this never came to pass. Emily's experience later turns painful and tragic. Whereas she sees a possibility of a romantic relationship, between, her and Homer, he does not have the same feelings, and considers their relationship a plutonic one, as just friends (Faulkner 29). Love can cause pain; it may also lead to tragedy. Emily is scared of rejection which leads her to buy wedding items, invites Homer for dinner and poisons him with acerbic. Her love turns tragic; she doesn't take rejection, something which leads to the death of another human. On the other hand, the writer of The Quest for Iranon portrays another kind of love. One’s love for their land, or country. Iranon, even though exiled, still has a strong love for his motherland. His love for Aira city is portrayed from his narrations. "Oh, Aira, the city of marble and beryl, how many are th...