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In "A Rose for Emily," why does the minister's wife contact Miss Emily's relatives?

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The minister's wife contacts Miss Emily's relatives due to Emily's behavior, which the townspeople find scandalous and improper. Emily is seen publicly with Homer Barron, a Northerner, without a chaperone, violating Southern social norms. The townspeople, particularly the women, view this as a bad influence and a threat to tradition. After the minister's unsuccessful visit to Emily, his wife writes to her relatives, hoping they will reestablish propriety and prevent further disgrace.

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The minister's wife, along with the townspeople (who are narrating the story), is offended and shocked at Emily's forward and uncouth behavior in regards to Homer Barron .  She is breaking conventional dating rules, and being improper by spending too much time with him.  The story states that the people thought that Homer was below her station because he was "a Northerner, a laborer," and so it was inappropriate to be seen with someone so poor and unapproved.  They spend so much time together that they believe "that she was fallen," which is a nice way of saying that they think she had slept with Homer.  Her continuing to spend time with him in public "was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people," so the minister goes to talk to her, and leaves upset, then the minister's wife writes for her aunts to...

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come to town.  They want Emily to have a chaperone in the house so that nothing improper can happen.  They want Emily to have guardians, and someone to enforce "proper" behavior, and family around to try to convince Emily that she needed to marry Homer to make their relationship legitimate.  So, the minister writing was a way of meddling in Emily's life, because the townspeople thought she was behaving inappropriately and being a bad example.  I hope that helps.

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The minister sends for Miss Emily's relations (female cousins) because of her seeminly inappropriate behavior with Homer Baron, a carpet bagger-type from the North.  They are seen riding in carriages without a chaperone which is not considered proper behavior for an unmarried Southern lady like Miss Emily.

Homer Baron is a northerner who is spending time with Miss Emily.  They are seen together in public and the rumors fly that maybe they will get married.  Miss Emily has bought a set of gentleman's toiletry items engraved with Homer's initials, and he disappears shortly after Miss Emily is seen buying poison for pole cats and rats in the local apothecary's shop.  Not long after that, the local men are having to spread lime in Miss Emily's yard because of the horrible smell of death that has gathered around the home.  Unable to investigate because it's not right to tell a Lady that she smells, the men did this under cover of darkness.

Later, after Miss Emily's death and Toby's disappearance, the corpse is discovered with a long, iron-gray hair on the pillow beside it indicating that Emily and Homer had actually "married" in some sense of the word.

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One of Faulkner's most obvious themes in "A Rose for Emily" is the struggle between tradition and modern thinking.  Emily represents the aristocratic Old South with all of its idiosyncrasies.  When she, a Southerner, begins dating a middle class Yankee, the minister's wife and other townspeople see this as a serious threat to their traditions.  She sends for Emily's relatives so that they can bring Emily back to her traditions and her deceased father's views. 

Homer Barron is Miss Emily's male friend or love interest.  Faulkner is unclear about how serious Homer is about Miss Emily, but she definitely plans to hold onto him.  Homer disappears the first time shortly after Miss Emily's relatives arrive in town.  Three days after Miss Emily's relatives leave her alone, thinking that they have accomplished their goal of running off Homer, he reappears.  The last anyone sees of Homer is when Miss Emily's servant "admit[s] him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening."

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In "A Rose for Emily," why does the minister's wife contact Emily's relatives?

When Homer Barron started going about with Miss Emily, they did not court according to acceptable social practices of the day. Emily and Homer Barron rode around town in his buggy unchaperoned. This was evidently considered inappropriate. The buggy was "glittering," and Homer wore his hat cocked and smoked a cigar while holding the reins and horse whip in his yellow-gloved hand. For her part, Miss Emily held her head high during these Sunday afternoon buggy rides. The ladies of the town thought that Miss Emily's flaunting of social custom was a bad example for the young people of the town. Perhaps seeing a single young woman who had no man in authority over her riding about freely with a man from the North, whose family no one knew, might give the young women and the young men the idea that they could also ride about the town unchaperoned and that women didn't need a male relative to oversee their social activities. 

Although the men of the town didn't want to make a big deal of it, the womenfolk pressured the Baptist minister to call on Miss Emily to convey their concerns. The minister would never say what had happened during that visit, but after that his wife contacted Miss Emily's cousins in Alabama. Although the minister didn't tell the women of the town how the conversation with Emily had gone, there is a chance he told his wife about the way Miss Emily was living. He may have seen things inside her home that disturbed him, or he may have picked up signs of mental illness in Emily. The fact that he refused to go back again suggests either that he was treated rudely or that he saw something disturbing--or both. When it was obvious that Miss Emily would not respond to the concerns of the townspeople as delivered through the minister, the minister's wife must have thought that the relatives should be made aware of what was going on. Whatever she said to them was effective; the two cousins shortly arrived in town to stay with Miss Emily.

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Why does the minister's wife send for Miss Emily's relatives?

In the short story "A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner, the author shows us how Miss Emily's relatives were sent for. However, it is important to note that it is the women of the town who send for them, the men are not so concerned. It is possible that the social norms were relaxing a bit and that times were changing. The women were more traditional and were more concerned - possibly for the safety of Miss Emily herself. It is also possible that they were not so much interested in exerting pressure on Miss Emily, but on Homer himself which is why he stayed away for a while. Perhaps this eventually worked and when he came back it was to tell her to end the friendship. Unable to let go because of her possessive personality, this could have spurred her to act and resulted in him not seeing the light of day again.

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In the William Faulkner short story, "A Rose for Emily," Miss Emily's "blood kin" family were sent for because of her supposedly scandalous behavior in courting the Yankee, Homer
Barron. First the Baptist minister visited Miss Emily; he refused to "divulge what happened during that interview." So, the minister's wife directly contacted her family in Alabama. The townspeople assumed that they would bring Miss Emily to her senses. Homer stayed away during this time, but shortly after the relatives returned home, so did Homer. His visit was short, however, and it proved to be the last anyone saw of him--at least alive, that is. 

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In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the minister's wife writes to Emily's relations because Emily is involved in what the townspeople think is a scandalous affair. 

Emily is seen in town being courted, they think, by an outsider and Northerner, Homer Baron.  Homer is not only an outsider, but, the town thinks, is beneath Emily.  He is just a "day laborer."  She is descended from aristocracy, of a sort, at least.  And the town and the minister's wife are trying to stop the affair. 

Paragraph 31 reveals this:

At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer."  But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige....

But Emily, apparently, does forget her place in society, and continues seeing Homer.  The townspeople then try to stop her.

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What I get from the story is that the people of the town thought that what was going on between Miss Emily and Homer Barron was improper (how they kept going around together without anyone to accompany them).  Because of that, they got the minister to go talk to her.  When that did not work, the minister's wife sent for some of Miss Emily's relatives to come up and live with her for a while.  In effect, the relatives were chaperones who were there to make sure nothing improper happened.  Here is the passage from the story where we see this stuff going on:

Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily's relations in Alabama.

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Why does the minister's wife send a letter to Miss Emily's relatives in "A Rose for Emily"?

The ladies want to write to Emily’s relatives to intervene for her in the matter of Homer Barron.

Emily had a man, Homer Barron, who was not the marrying kind—so he said. The townspeople were not sure who was going to win. Emily was strange enough that she might have won him over, but Homer was stubborn enough that he might have held out.

The case of Emily and Homer was complex. The townspeople were concerned that Emily was going to kill herself when she bought arsenic. The women of the town felt that eccentric Emily was a bad influence on other young ladies because of her relationship with Homer.

No one knew how to proceed. The men wanted to leave her alone. The ladies convinced the Baptist minister, who was not of Emily’s religion, to talk to her.

He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily's relations in Alabama.

We do not know what she said to this minister, but it must have been something that caused the minister's wife to write to her family. Miss Emily was peculiar, and not quite stable. Clearly the minister thought so, and so did his wife.

As a result, Emily had “blood-kin under her roof again.” However, Emily did not become a social butterfly after that, suddenly engaging with the town. The townspeople were not sure what was happening because she did not really communicate. She seemed to be preparing for a man, and then nothing happened. Homer was never seen or heard from again.

It was not until years later that they found out that Emily had killed Homer, and that he had been in bed next to her for years as a rotting corpse. She got to keep him after all, even though he was not the marrying kind.

The man himself lay in the bed.

For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace . . .

Emily never left the house, so no one ever realized what was in the house. When there was a strange smell, they just sprinkled some lime because it would have been rude to ask. The townspeople were afraid to confront this lady about taxes, so there was no way they were going to find out about Homer.

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In "A Rose for Emily," why does the minister’s wife contact Miss Emily’s relatives?

The debacle involving the minister, and then his wife, happens in part IV of the short story "A Rose for Emily" shortly after Emily Grierson meets Homer Barron and starts to show herself around town with him.

Sadly, Homer seems less than respectable to the town, and may be taking advantage of Emily. The townsfolk were basically very concerned to see Emily making a spectacle of herself with a Yankee, of all people. Therefore, they felt that someone had to intervene and make (or try to make) Emily desist this behavior which was affecting her reputation in such a way. 

 The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily's relations in Alabama.

Seriously makes us wonder: What in the world did Emily say to the minister that rendered him unwilling to return to her home? Was he disturbed by her behavior? Was she rude? The fact is that the wife of the minister had to become involved on behalf of her husband to be able to diffuse the situation with Emily and try to mend it. 

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