A Rose for Emily Narrator First Person (Peripheral Narrator)

out of the pieces. We can see all that loud and clear in "A Rose for Emily."

A Rose for Emily Tone

The fascinating narrator of "A Rose for Emily" is more rightly called "first people" than "first person." Usually referring to itself as "we," the narrator speaks sometimes for the men of Jefferson, sometimes for the women, and often for both. It also spans three generations of Jeffersonians, including the generation of Miss Emily's father, Miss Emily's generation, and the "newer generation," made up of the children of Miss Emily's contemporaries. The narrator is pretty hard on the first two generations, and it's easy to see how their treatment of Miss Emily may have led to her downfall. This lends the narrative a somewhat confessional feel. While we are on the subject of "we," notice no one townsperson is completely responsible for what happened to Emily. (It is fair to say, though that some are more responsible than others.) The willingness of the town to now admit responsibility is a hopeful sign, and one that allows us to envision a better future for generations to come. We discuss this further in "Tone," so check out that section for more information. Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?

Ironic, Confessional, Gossipy, Angry, Hopeful

We can think of a bunch more adjectives to describe the tone of the story, these seems to be the dominant emotional tones the narrator is expressing as Miss Emily's story is told. (Keep in mind that it's also the town's story.) The irony of the story is closely tied to the rose in the title, and to Williams Faulkner's explanation of it: [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a saluteto a woman you would hand a rose. (source) It's ironic because in the story Miss Emily is continually handed thorns, not roses, and she herself produces many thorns in return. This is where the "confessional" part comes in. Since the narrator is a member of the town, and takes responsibility for all the townspeople's actions, the narrator is confessing the town's crimes against Emily.

A Rose for Emily Genre Horror or Gothic Fiction, Southern Gothic, Literary Fiction, Tragedy, Modernism
Even before we see the forty-year-old corpse of Homer Barron rotting into the bed, the creepy house, and the creepy Miss Emily let us know that we are in the realm of horror or Gothic fiction. Combine that with a southern setting and we realize that it's not just Gothic, but Southern Gothic. The Southern Gothic genre focuses sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly on slavery, or the aftermath of slavery in the South. You can definitely see this in "A Rose for Emily." Since author William Faulkner won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice(first in 1955 for A Fable, and then in 1963 for The Reivers), and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1949) we'd also have to put it in the category of "Literary Fiction." Even if Faulkner hadn't won all those prizes, we'd still put "A Rose for Emily" in this category. The story is masterfully told, and it's obvious that much care and skill went into it. It's also strikingly original and experimental in terms of form. This is part of what makes it a classic Modernist text. The Southern Gothic is a perfect field on which to perform a Modernist experiment. Modernist is all about what happens when everything you thought was true is revealed to be false, resulting in shattered identities. Modernism tries to make something constructive

Confession can be another word for gossip, especially when you are confessing the crimes of others. (Here one of the big crimes is gossip.) The chilling first line of Section IV is a good representative of the elements of tone we've been discussing so far: "So the next day we all said, 'She will kill herself'; and we said it would be the best thing." This is where the anger comes in. Because this makes us angry, we feel that the narrator too is angry, particularly in this whole section. This leads us back to confession and hopefulness. The hopefulness of the town is the hardest for us to understand. It comes in part from the title again if we can put ourselves in the same space as Faulkner and manage to give Emily a rose, to have compassion for her even though she is a murderer, to recognize her tragedy for what it is, this might allow us to build a more compassionate future for ourselves, a future where tragedies like Emily's don't occur. This also entails taking off our "rose-colored glasses" (as we discuss in "What's Up With the Title?") and facing the ugly truths of life, even confessing our shortcomings. Hopefully, we can manage to take those glasses off before death takes them off for us.

A Rose for Emily Setting

Where It All Goes Down

1935 Miss Emily dies at 74 years old. Tobe leaves the house. Two days later the funeral is held at the Grierson house. At the funeral, the townspeople break down the door to the bridal chamber/crypt, which no one has seen in 40 years. This doesn't answer all the questions by any means. Since nobody in the

A creepy old house in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, 1861-1933 (approximately)

Setting is usually pretty rich in Faulkner. SimCity-style, William Faulkner created his own Mississippi County, Yoknapatawpha, as the setting for much of his fiction. This county comes complete with several different families including the Grierson family. "A Rose for Emily" is set in the county seat of Yoknapatawpha, Jefferson and as you know, focuses on Emily Grierson, the last living Grierson. For a map and a detailed description of Yoknapatawpha, click here. OK, so the where is pretty easy. Though Jefferson and its inhabitants are unique, we can see their town as any southern town during that period. The situations that arise in the story develop in large part because many southerners who lived during the slavery era didn't know what to do when that whole way of life ended. Imagine if suddenly you are told and shown that your whole way of life is a sham, an atrocity, an evil. Then heap on a generous helping of southern pride, and you have tragedies like this one. This story also explores how future generations deal with this legacy. To really feel the movement of history in the story, and to understand the movements of Emily's life, it important to pin down the chronology of events. The dates we use, other than 1874, are just a little rough, but in the ballpark. 1861 Miss Emily Grierson is born. 1870s The Grierson house is built. 1893 Miss Emily's father dies. 1893 Miss Emily falls ill. 1893 Miss Emily's taxes are remitted (in December). 1894 Miss Emily meets Homer Barron (in the summer). 1895 Homer is last seen entering Miss Emily's house (Emily is "over thirty; we use thirty-three for our calculations). 1895 The townspeople become concerned about the smell of the Grierson house and sprinkle lime around Emily's place. 1895 Miss Emily stays in for six months. 1895-1898 Miss Emily emerges and her hair gradually turns gray. 1899 Miss Emily stops opening her door, and doesn't leave the house for about five years. 1904 Miss Emily emerges to give china-painting lessons for about seven years. 1911 Miss Emily stops giving painting lessons. Over ten years pass before she has any contact with the town. 1925 They "newer generation" comes to ask about the taxes. This is thirty years after the business with the lime. This is the last contact she has with the town before her death.

town ever knew what was really going on in Emily's house, there are numerous holes and gaps in this history. Still, you can use this as a guide to help make sense of some of the confusing moments.

William Faulkner told an interviewer what he meant by the title: [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a saluteto a woman you would hand a rose. (source) We think this perspective is very important, not just because it provides a straightforward explanation, but also because it persuades us to indulge in a more compassionate reading. It's easy to judge Miss Emily, and maybe to forget she's a human being who has had a tragic life. For a look at how this explanation exposes the story's irony, check out our discussion of "Writing Style." Needless to say, there are many possible interpretations of the title, "A Rose for Emily," and you can feel free to think creatively when trying to figure out what this title means.
CHARACTERS: Emily GriersonThe object of fascination in the story. A mysterious

figure who changes from a vibrant and hopeful young girl to a very secretive old woman. Devastated and alone after her fathers death, an object of pity of the townspeople. She ultimately poisons her potential suitor Homer and sealed his corpse into an upstairs room. Homer BarronA foreman from the North. Large man with a dark

complexion, a booming voice, and light-colored eyes. A gruff and demanding boss, he also wins many admires in Jefferson because of his gregarious nature and good sense of humor. She develops interest in Emily and soon townspeople view him as a poor, if not scandalous, choice for a mate. He disappears in Emilys house and decomposes in an attic bedroom after Emily kills him. Judge StevenMayor of Jefferson. He attempts to delicately

handle the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson property. To be respectful of Emilys pride and former position in the community, he and the alderman decide to sprinkle lime on the property in the middle of the night.

Mr. Grierson-

Emilys father. Controlling father, he wanted the

In section III, the narrator describes a long illness that Emily suffers after this incident. The summer after her fathers death, the town contracts workers to pave the sidewalks, and a construction company, under the direction of northerner Homer Barron, is awarded the job. Homer soon becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, which scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. As the affair continues and Emilys reputation is further compromised, she goes to the drug store to purchase arsenic, a powerful poison. She is required by law to reveal how she will use the arsenic. She offers no explanation, and the package arrives at her house labeled For rats. In section IV, the narrator describes the fear that some of the townspeople have that Emily will use the poison to kill herself. Her potential marriage to Homer seems increasingly unlikely, despite their continued Sunday ritual. The more outraged women of the town insist that the Baptist minister talk with Emily. After his visit, he never speaks of what happened and swears that hell never go back. So the ministers wife writes to Emilys two cousins in Alabama, who arrive for an extended stay. Because Emily orders a silver toilet set monogrammed with Homers initials, talk of the couples marriage resumes. Homer, absent from town, is believed to be preparing for Emilys move to the North or avoiding Emilys intrusive relatives. After the cousins departure, Homer enters the Grierson home one evening and then is never seen again. Holed up in the house, Emily grows plump and gray. Despite the occasional lesson she gives in china painting, her door remains closed to outsiders. In what becomes an annual ritual, Emily refuses to acknowledge the tax bill. She eventually closes up the top floor of the house. Except for the occasional glimpse of her in the window, nothing is heard from her until her death at age seventy-four. Only the servant is seen going in and out of the house. In section V, the narrator describes what happens after Emily dies. Emilys body is laid out in the parlor, and the women, town elders, and two cousins attend the service. After some time has passed, the door to a sealed upstairs room that had not been opened in forty years is broken down by the townspeople. The room is frozen in time, with the items for an upcoming wedding and a mans suit laid out. Homer Barrons body is stretched on the bed as well, in an advanced state of decay. The onlookers then notice the indentation of a head in the pillow beside Homers body and a long strand of Emilys gray hair on the pillow.

best for his daughter especially the best husband for her. Tobereturns. Colonel Santoris- Former mayor of Jefferson. Colonel Santoris absolves Emily for any tax burden after the death of her father. His elaborate and benevolent gesture is not heeded by the succeeding generation of town leaders. The story is divided into five sections. In section I, the narrator recalls the time of Emily Griersons death and how the entire town attended her funeral in her home, which no stranger had entered for more than ten years. In a once-elegant, upscale neighborhood, Emilys house is the last vestige of the grandeur of a lost era. Colonel Sartoris, the towns previous mayor, had suspended Emilys tax responsibilities to the town after her fathers death, justifying the action by claiming that Mr. Grierson had once lent the community a significant sum. As new town leaders take over, they make unsuccessful attempts to get Emily to resume payments. When members of the Board of Aldermen pay her a visit, in the dusty and antiquated parlor, Emily reasserts the fact that she is not required to pay taxes in Jefferson and that the officials should talk to Colonel Sartoris about the matter. However, at that point he has been dead for almost a decade. She asks her servant, Tobe, to show the men out. In section II, the narrator describes a time thirty years earlier when Emily resists another official inquiry on behalf of the town leaders, when the townspeople detect a powerful odor emanating from her property. Her father has just died, and Emily has been abandoned by the man whom the townsfolk believed Emily was to marry. As complaints mount, Judge Stevens, the mayor at the time, decides to have lime sprinkled along the foundation of the Grierson home in the middle of the night. Within a couple of weeks, the odor subsides, but the townspeople begin to pity the increasingly reclusive Emily, remembering how her great aunt had succumbed to insanity. The townspeople have always believed that the Griersons thought too highly of themselves, with Emilys father driving off the many suitors deemed not good enough to marry his daughter. With no offer of marriage in sight, Emily is still single by the time she turns thirty. The day after Mr. Griersons death, the women of the town call on Emily to offer their condolences. Meeting them at the door, Emily states that her father is not dead, a charade that she keeps up for three days. She finally turns her fathers body over for burial. Emilys servant. He dutifully cares for her and tends to her

needs. After Emilys death, he walks out of the back door and never

MORAL LESSONS: Conflict between Emily and his father: Parents should treat their sons/daughters the best. Do not be over protective because sometimes if you think that what you are doing is the right for them but rather children it may lead them to be a bad person. Emily and Homer Barron In the story, for me Emily loved Homer from the bottom of her heart. Because of her father did to her teenage life, she thinks that Homer is the right guy for her thats why when the townspeople said that Homer is poor and scandalous and that they cant be together, she decided to poison him so that he will never leave him. Conflict between Emily and the Townspeople: The actions of the town drove her to do what she did and how they criticized her for not being social. People always criticized the actions of other people, she decided to stay at her house not because she wanted to be alone for her entire life, and for me she is just too tired for all the criticisms that she has suffering from the townspeople.