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Andrea Lopezchente

Professor Rivers

English 101

11 October 2020

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

William Faulkner was an American writer born in 1897 in the state of Mississippi. One of

the greatest authors of the 20th century, awarded in 1949 with the Nobel Prize for Literature and

considered one of the fathers of contemporary novel.

In the short story, “A Rose for Emily”, we are encounter with the news about the death of

Ms. Emily Grierson, who is a lonely person, suffering isolation. No one has entered her home for

10 years, except for her servant, an elderly black man. Going back in time, her house could be

seen in the select street. A beautiful and distinctive home. The house became antiquated over

time but was once the best house in the area. In 1984, when she was exempted from taxes as a

matter of business the mayor had with her father. The new commanders and city councilors did

not agree to this arrangement, so the mayor and the councilmen sent several letters, in view of

the fruitless response the town officials decided to visit Miss Emily to ask her trying to abolish

the agreement that the former mayor had once established. She denied that the old arrangement

might not be in effect and refused to pay. Leaving the special meeting of the Board of Aldermen

defeated. Thirty years ago, during the special meeting, the town employees’ tax collectors had a

strange encounter with Miss Emily whereas of the unpleasant smell on her property. This was

approximately two years after the death of her father, and shortly after the disappearance of her

fiancé. Somehow, the smell became more intense and more complaints appeared, but the
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authorities did not want to confront Miss Emily about this problem. Therefore, they snuck into

her house without her knowledge, spread lime around the house, and eventually the smell

disappeared.

At the death of his father, she is left alone in the house and without much money, and the

town feeling sympathy for her. Emily refused to recognize his death for three days. We might

consider that he stole her youth. The story then goes back in time and we find that shortly after

Emily’s father died, she begins dating Homer Barron, who came to town to carry out a sidewalk

construction project.Homer and Emily were constantly seen on the roads. People started talking

about that situation and were displeased that a high society lady would go out with someone like

him. With her head high, trying to save the dignity of the family. One day, townspeople see

Emily at the drugstore buying arsenic, and the rumors that Homer has left her and that she plans

to end her life spreads in town. When Emily buys countless men’s items, including a suit of

clothes with the initials H. B. they assume she and Homer are going to get marry or are already

married. Homer then leaves town, her cousins do the same, and Homer returns 3 days later as the

town expected. The last time Homer is seen is when he enters Emily’s house. After this, she

rarely leaves the house, except for a period of six years during which she gave china-paint

classes. Her hair turns gray, she gains weight, and eventually dies in a main silver room of the

house where light has not entered for years. The neighbors saw Emily's behavior abnormal,

therefore they decided to send a religious to talk to her about her behavior. what was said on that

occasion. Nothing was known and said about the event and the priest never visited her again.

The story returns to the moment where it began, at her funeral. Tobe, Miss Emily’s servant lets

people in and then leaves forever,. After burying Miss Emily properly, the curious focused on
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that house since no one had visited her in 40 years. Upon entering the second floor of the house

part they found a room with wedding decoration. They find the lifeless body of Homer Barron,

rotting in bed. The the dust-covered pillow next to Homer caught the attention of those present.

On the pillow was iron-colored hair. Emily’s hair.

Bailey Basinger analyses the role of genders in “A Rose for Emily”. She gives her point

of view on how Emily's and Homer’s sexuality is ambiguous. Through her analysis we can see

different types evidence provided, making it credible. She gives not only quotes of the book but

also includes synthesize of other scholarship supporting what her analysis is based on. The

quotes she gives from the book are excellent to support her thesis. From describing the

characteristics William Faulkner gives Emily as a small, fat woman and making her belt a

symbol of masculinity, Bailey provides the book’s perfect quotes to support her statement, also

providing Dennis Allen’s essay among many others. When we see Emily, her grey hair is also an

important reference to her true gender, suggesting masculinity. Bailey’s analysis contains enough

evidence to agree that Emily and Homer’s sexuality is in fact ambiguous. I think something

Bailey may have included is the role or influence of Miss Emily’s servant or whether he had

anything to do with the death of Homer.

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William Faulkner was the first writer to address in his literature the ugly side of the

southern United States. While it exposes the defects of the region in the text, it also presents a

duality within his characters. The dichotomy of good/bad is present all the time, leaving the

reader somewhat restless and in doubt as to the suitability of these characters. As proof of this,

one of her most famous tales, “A Rose for Emily”, Emily herself represents the move from the

Old South of the United States to the New South. Miss Emily is seen as a representative of

Southern culture and betrays the laws of society by falling in love with a Yankee. “But there

were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget

noblesse oblige — without calling it noblesse oblige.” (Faulkner 856) It’s like she’s snubbing all

the conquests of the southern region and forgetting all the rivalries that occurred with the

Yankees during the War of Secession. But she doesn’t care much about it, thus highlighting her

null relationship with the community.

At the beginning of the story, the reasons people went to Emily’s funeral are presented.

The men, for example, were there to show respect for a ‘fallen monument,’ a metaphor for both

the house and Emily, and the women attended out of sheer curiosity and saw the funeral as an

opportunity to discover what was inside the house. “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole

town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,

the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house,” Emily’s house represented

herself. It had been closed for a long time, inaccessible, and when it was opened, unimaginable

surprises came to light, surprising and causing amazement to the entire city. People wanted to

know what was inside the house, and what was inside Emily - as she was in her intimacy, which

had always been preserved. Although Emily’s father had been strict with her all her life,
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forbidding her to date, she refused to accept his death, keeping his corpse at home, as an attempt

to keep him close, until she was forced to bury him. She also cut her hair as a symbol of her

oppressed sexuality. The tale relates life and death to the economic decay of wealthy people on

the southern, thus resembling Edgar Allan Poe’s tale “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Darkness

is always present in the house, and when the politicians of the city enter, they see a dark

entrance, from which a ladder climbs towards darker shadows. The curtains were only opened

when Emily agreed to receive the visitors, and while this was not happening, there was no light.

There was no light because Emily did not allow people to see her clearly. She didn’t want them

to know what was happening inside the house and inside herself. A bad smell is mentioned

throughout the story. It is the smell of a corpse which is the disintegration of her soul. Regarding

the title, the rose can symbolize an award for Miss Emily, having played her role very well

during her life. It can also represent her fragility. This fragility she demonstrated with her father’s

death and Homer’s love.

The story is narrated in a decreasing way and each moment leads one to believe that the

point of view of a society is being exposed, in this case, that of the south of the United States.

Emily, it is nothing more than the representation of a tragic heroine that draws a parallel with

local events. Emily’s life reflects the social and legal order of the time, a bridge between

character and destiny. With the death of her father, Emily’s world is no longer divided between

north and south, as it is in William Faulkner’s United States perspective. While Yankees and

Dixie occupy the same space, Emily occupies only what is expected of a woman: seclusion. The

analyses confirm Faulkner’s objective: to contextualize US society and its facts to the reader. The

author corresponds to expectations, symbolizing in his characters and stories an understanding of

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the world (in this case, America), but above all, weaving the American story through the eyes of

fiction and leaving between the lines shadows of a scenario of struggle between equality and

rejection.