"Alas, that love, so gentle in his view/ Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof" (Romeo and Juliet, 1.1.193-194).  It is said that one of the best ways of knowing if one is in love with another is if it hurts to even think of the death of that person.  Love has driven people insane.  It has compelled people to murder.  It has driven friends, families, and even whole nations apart.  Like water, love is beautiful and terrible, necessary for life, yet dangerous to people who totally immerse themselves in it.  Taken from what is arguably Shakespeare's most famous play Romeo and Juliet, the above quote concisely sums up this theme of love being a cruel master.  This theme appears in a large number of literary works including William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and Joe Hill's "20th Century Ghost".  Featuring a gothic and sentimental mix of ghosts and romance, both "A Rose for Emily" and "20th Century Ghost" deal with love, loss, and the repercussions that occur when someone is in love with a dead person.  In "A Rose for Emily", the reclusive, eccentric Miss Emily locked herself away in her house following the mysterious disappearance of her only serious beau.  "20th Century Ghost" details the journey of one Alec Sheldon and his encounters with the ghost of Imogene Gilchrist, first when Alec was fifteen in the back of a movie theater, and finally kissing the ghost in the back of the same theater moments before his death.  Both stories can teach one much about love and loss, particularly about how love can go from being initially beautiful and innocent to obsession, which might then turn one or both parties into reclusive hermits and possibly lead to death. 

As it is with most love stories, these two tales begin with all the tenderness of young romance.  In the beginning of "A Rose for Emily", Miss Emily and Homer Barron, the road construction foreman, became close after Miss Emily recovered from her father's death.  It is said that the townsfolk "began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable" (Falkner, 229).  As their relationship progressed, the townsfolk became increasingly more critical of them, pitying Miss Emily and insisting that such a match was below her status in life, saying, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer" (Falkner, 229).  Yet, despite outside opposition, Miss Emily and Homer continued to grow closer.  Anticipating a wedding in her near future, Miss Emily went so far as to purchase a men's toilet monogramed with Homer's initials and a complete outfit of men's clothing.  While the romance of "A Rose for Emily" is very old fashioned, the romance of "20th Century Ghost" takes a far more modern spin.  Set in the back of a movie theater, Alec's first impressions of Imogene's ghost when she sat beside him are described thus, "his first thought was that she was very close to being a fox; his heart beat a little faster to have such a girl speaking to him" (Hill, 426).  In the true manner of a young boy trying to impress his first crush, Alec attempted to act like a debonair gentleman only to discover that said crush was a ghost.  This first date ended on a rather bad note for Alec, Imogene having successfully scared the living daylights out of him by bleeding profusely from her nose and reenacting her own death.  However, it was this first encounter that sparked in Alec a lifelong desire to see her again, a desire that would compel him to work at the theater where they first met and to seek out those who had also encountered her.  True to the typical form of romance, the courtships of "A Rose for Emily" and "20th Century Ghost" begin with what is generally known as the "Honeymoon phase".

The popular phrase "too much of a good thing is a bad thing" holds true in love as well as in many other situations.  As it regards the case of "A Rose for Emily" and "20th Century Ghost", too much love leads to an unhealthy obsession.  This is shown best in the final scene of "A Rose for Emily" in which, after Miss Emily is buried, the people of the town go through her house only to find a locked room concealing a disturbing secret.  The interior of the room is described thus,

Among [the items of the man's toilet on the dresser] lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed, which, lifted, left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust.  Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded, beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.  The man himself lay in the bed. (Faulkner, 232-233)

Eerier still, the corpse of the Homer Barron was not the only thing they discovered in the hidden room.  Upon closer examination of the bed, they "noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head.  One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair" (Faulkner, 233).  Heavily implied that the gray hair belonged to Miss Emily herself, it can be inferred from the fact that the hair on the pillow was gray instead of brown as it used to be in Miss Emily's youth, that she had recently slept in the same bed as her dead lover.  Hints of obsessive behavior in the protagonist, while exceedingly clear in "A Rose for Emily", become even clearer in "20th Century Ghost".  "Thoughts of her [Imogene's ghost] were always on his mind," it is said of Alec, "or just simmering below the surface.  She was his first and most strongly felt obsession" (Hill, 424).  Manifesting itself in more ways than just merely thinking about her a lot, Alec's obsession with Imogene drove him to actively seek out those with whom she had had contact.  "Those who had seen her don't come looking for Alec to tell him about it.  More often than not, he finds them" (Hill, 423).  Continuing on into adulthood, Alec even purchased the theater in which he first encountered the ghost so that he could be closer to her.  If one is not extremely careful, love can quickly turn to obsession.

If allowed to run on unchecked, one of the many adverse side effects of obsession is voluntary seclusion, wherein the thing one is obsessed with might slowly derange a one.  Like the legendary Boo Radley, as obsession and other such unhealthy behavior drove the protagonists of "A Rose for Emily" and "20th Century Ghost" mad, they became the town recluse.  After Homer went into Miss Emily's house and never came back out again, Miss Emily herself disappeared for a long while.  "For almost six months, she did not appear on the streets" (Faulkner, 231).  Not only was she missing for that initial period of time, but she also secluded herself in her house for much longer after reentering society for only a few years.  On the other hand, Alec did not put himself into total isolation.  Yet, divorced and hopeless, Alec moved into the basement of his theater and threw himself into his work and into depression.  It was said of his condition at this time, "He has a hard time sleeping, his head is so full of ideas   wild, desperate ideas   about how to keep the theater from failing." (Hill, 424).  The connection between Imogene and the theater, it being the first place he saw her and the only place she haunted, perhaps unconsciously spurred Alec to do anything he could to keep it going.  While not everyone becomes a crazy, depressed hermit when they go through loss of love, Miss Emily and Alec certainly did.  

Tragic or forgotten love is like a faded rose; a once beautiful thing upon which the tolls of time and of decay have long since laid waste.  Still possessing a rare and unconventional   beauty, the faded rose is far more delicate than the fresh rose, apt to fall apart with the least touch.  Like love, once the faded rose has fallen apart, there is no putting it back together again.  A new rose might rise from the remains of the old but the old one is gone for good.  The love in "A Rose for Emily" and "20th Century Ghost" is very much like a faded rose.  Both Miss Emily and Alec fall sweetly in love, only to have that love prematurely snatched away from them.  Not knowing how to deal with the crushing weight of loss, they became depressed and obsessive loners rather than moving on with their lives, as the damage to a rose, once inflicted, is permanent.  Finally, as a dead rose falls apart with a single touch, they died without being healed.  From the stories of Miss Emily and Alec, one can learn the valuable distinction between affection and obsession as well as the importance of knowing when to let go of a lost partner.  While no two loves are the same just like no two roses are the same, the lessons about love and loss learned here are applicable to many who have dealt with similar struggles.

