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 asking him numerous times to get rid of the snake Delia
finally voices her aggression and hate for her husband. He doesn’t hit her
this time, he makes a few threats and retreats out the door. When Sykes didn’t
return that night, Delia felt great, thinking maybe he was really gone for good,
freedom at last. While she is finishing her wash she spots the snake in a
basket, somehow it escaped from its soap box in the kitchen. Without a second
glance Delia ran out of the house and climbed onto the roof of the haybarn. She
slept there, too scared to go back into the house. In the morning she sees Sykes
go into the house and doesn’t warn him of the loose snake, and after a few
minutes she hears screaming that doesn’t sound of human nature. She watches
from the window as a struggle ensues, and as she approaches the door she sees
Sykes dragging himself half dead to get help, but she just looks, turns away and
waits for death to take its toll; comforting herself with the feeling that the
doctor was too far to save him. In both of these stories the women committed
murder. Emily poisoned Homer Barron . Delia watched her husband die, but
didn’t do it with her own two hands. Both are at fault morally but legally is
another question. Emily Grierson was of sound body and mind when she purchased
the arsenic she later used on Homer. Her killing him was premeditated, however I
don’t think that she fully understood the consequences of her actions.
According to the modern penal law which is based on U.S. vs. Brawner,471 F.2D
969(1972), if she did not possess “ substantial capacity to either appreciate
the criminality of her conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirement of
the law”. I personally think she knew what she was doing, but with all the
loop holes in the criminal justice system Emily could easily slip through with
the insanity defense. If that did not work for her, she could also use the “
diminished capacity “ defense which also examines mental competence,but it is
merely pleading to a lesser crime.Unlike Delia, who did not intentionally murder
Sykes. She didn’t place the snake in the house, nor did she lure him into the
house. Delia watched her husband die which is not a murder charge because she
didn’t actually commit the crime. According to Article 63 of Frances Penal
code “ Any person who willfully fails to render or to obtain assistance to an
endangered person when such was possible without danger to himself or others,
shall be subject to imprisonment...”, in the U.S. we have a similar law,
called the “ duty to aid “ law, but it is hard to prove that the witness in
question really heard or saw the endangered person. There was a famous case of a
woman who was stabbed 38 times in the doorway of an apartment building in broad
daylight with over thirty witnesses and not one person called the police or
tried to help the woman who died of blood loss. This woman laid there for forty
minutes and bled to death before the police arrived, when all it would of took
was simple phone call to save her life.I think that is very similar to what
Delia did and if she were prosecuted all she would have to say is that she
arrived after he was already dead. I don’t think the insanity defense applies
to Delia in any way. She was fully aware of what she was doing. Unlike Emily who
knew what she was doing, but somehow saw justification in keeping Homer’s
corpse in her bedroom, Emly doesn’t appear to be the most mentally stable
woman. Delia hated her husband and saw this as her chance for freedom, so she
let him suffer and die. Emily just didn’t want to lose him whether it be to
another woman or whatever other dillusional ideas she had.