Plot Overview

The story is divided into five sections. In section I, the narrator recalls the time of
Emily Grierson’s 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, Emily’s house is the last vestige of the grandeur of a lost era.
Colonel Sartoris, the town’s previous mayor, had suspended Emily’s tax
responsibilities to the town after her father’s 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 Emily’s 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. Grierson’s 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 father’s body over
for burial.

In section III, the narrator describes a long illness that Emily suffers after this
incident. The summer after her father’s 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 Emily’s 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 he’ll never go back. So the
minister’s wife writes to Emily’s two cousins in Alabama, who arrive for an
extended stay. Because Emily orders a silver toilet set monogrammed with Homer’s
initials, talk of the couple’s marriage resumes. Homer, absent from town, is
believed to be preparing for Emily’s move to the North or avoiding Emily’s
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. Emily’s 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 man’s suit laid out. Homer
Barron’s 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 Homer’s body
and a long strand of Emily’s gray hair on the pillow.

Character List

Emily Grierson -  The object of fascination in the story. A eccentric recluse, Emily
is a mysterious figure who changes from a vibrant and hopeful young girl to a
cloistered and secretive old woman. Devastated and alone after her father’s death,
she is an object of pity for the townspeople. After a life of having potential suitors
rejected by her father, she spends time after his death with a newcomer, Homer
Barron, although the chances of his marrying her decrease as the years pass.
Bloated and pallid in her later years, her hair turns steel gray. She ultimately
poisons Homer and seals his corpse into an upstairs room.

Read an in-depth analysis of Emily Grierson.

Homer Barron -  A foreman from the North. Homer is a large man with a dark
complexion, a booming voice, and light-colored eyes. A gruff and demanding boss,
he wins many admirers in Jefferson because of his gregarious nature and good sense
of humor. He develops an interest in Emily and takes her for Sunday drives in a
yellow-wheeled buggy. Despite his attributes, the townspeople view him as a poor,
if not scandalous, choice for a mate. He disappears in Emily’s house and
decomposes in an attic bedroom after she kills him.

Read an in-depth analysis of Homer Barron.

Judge Stevens -  A mayor of Jefferson. Eighty years old, Judge Stevens attempts to
delicately handle the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson
property. To be respectful of Emily’s pride and former position in the community,
he and the aldermen decide to sprinkle lime on the property in the middle of the
night.
Mr. Grierson -  Emily’s father. Mr. Grierson is a controlling, looming presence
even in death, and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily. He
deliberately thwarts Emily’s attempts to find a husband in order to keep her under
his control. We get glimpses of him in the story: in the crayon portrait kept on the
gilt-edged easel in the parlor, and silhouetted in the doorway, horsewhip in hand,
having chased off another of Emily’s suitors.
Tobe -  Emily’s servant. Tobe, his voice supposedly rusty from lack of use, is the
only lifeline that Emily has to the outside world. For years, he dutifully cares for her
and tends to her needs. Eventually the townspeople stop grilling him for
information about Emily. After Emily’s death, he walks out the back door and never
returns.
Colonel Sartoris -  A former mayor of Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris absolves Emily
of any tax burden after the death of her father. His elaborate and benevolent gesture
is not heeded by the succeeding generation of town leaders.

Analysis of Major Characters

Emily Grierson

Emily is the classic outsider, controlling and limiting the town’s access to her true
identity by remaining hidden. The house that shields Emily from the world suggests
the mind of the woman who inhabits it: shuttered, dusty, and dark. The object of the
town’s intense scrutiny, Emily is a muted and mysterious figure. On one level, she
exhibits the qualities of the stereotypical southern “eccentric”: unbalanced,
excessively tragic, and subject to bizarre behavior. Emily enforces her own sense of
law and conduct, such as when she refuses to pay her taxes or state her purpose for
buying the poison. Emily also skirts the law when she refuses to have numbers
attached to her house when federal mail service is instituted. Her dismissal of the
law eventually takes on more sinister consequences, as she takes the life of the man
whom she refuses to allow to abandon her.

The narrator portrays Emily as a monument, but at the same time she is pitied and
often irritating, demanding to live life on her own terms. The subject of gossip and
speculation, the townspeople cluck their tongues at the fact that she accepts
Homer’s attentions with no firm wedding plans. After she purchases the poison, the
townspeople conclude that she will kill herself. Emily’s instabilities, however, lead
her in a different direction, and the final scene of the story suggests that she is a
necrophiliac. Necrophilia typically means a sexual attraction to dead bodies. In a
broader sense, the term also describes a powerful desire to control another, usually
in the context of a romantic or deeply personal relationship. Necrophiliacs tend to
be so controlling in their relationships that they ultimately resort to bonding with
unresponsive entities with no resistance or will—in other words, with dead bodies.
Mr. Grierson controlled Emily, and after his death, Emily temporarily controls him
by refusing to give up his dead body. She ultimately transfers this control to Homer,
the object of her affection. Unable to find a traditional way to express her desire to
possess Homer, Emily takes his life to achieve total power over him.

Homer Barron

Homer, much like Emily, is an outsider, a stranger in town who becomes the subject
of gossip. Unlike Emily, however, Homer swoops into town brimming with charm,
and he initially becomes the center of attention and the object of affection. Some
townspeople distrust him because he is both a Northerner and day laborer, and his
Sunday outings with Emily are in many ways scandalous, because the townspeople
regard Emily—despite her eccentricities—as being from a higher social class.
Homer’s failure to properly court and marry Emily prompts speculation and
suspicion. He carouses with younger men at the Elks Club, and the narrator portrays
him as either a homosexual or simply an eternal bachelor, dedicated to his single
status and uninterested in marriage. Homer says only that he is “not a marrying
man.”

As the foreman of a company that has arrived in town to pave the sidewalks, Homer
is an emblem of the North and the changes that grip the once insular and genteel
world of the South. With his machinery, Homer represents modernity and
industrialization, the force of progress that is upending traditional values and
provoking resistance and alarm among traditionalists. Homer brings innovation to
the rapidly changing world of this Southern town, whose new leaders are
themselves pursuing more “modern” ideas. The change that Homer brings to
Emily’s life, as her first real lover, is equally as profound and seals his grim fate as
the victim of her plan to keep him permanently by her side.

hemes, Motifs, and Symbols

Themes
Tradition versus Change

Through the mysterious figure of Emily Grierson, Faulkner conveys the struggle
that comes from trying to maintain tradition in the face of widespread, radical
change. Jefferson is at a crossroads, embracing a modern, more commercial future
while still perched on the edge of the past, from the faded glory of the Grierson
home to the town cemetery where anonymous Civil War soldiers have been laid to
rest. Emily herself is a tradition, steadfastly staying the same over the years despite
many changes in her community. She is in many ways a mixed blessing. As a living
monument to the past, she represents the traditions that people wish to respect and
honor; however, she is also a burden and entirely cut off from the outside world,
nursing eccentricities that others cannot understand.

Emily lives in a timeless vacuum and world of her own making. Refusing to have
metallic numbers affixed to the side of her house when the town receives modern
mail service, she is out of touch with the reality that constantly threatens to break
through her carefully sealed perimeters. Garages and cotton gins have replaced the
grand antebellum homes. The aldermen try to break with the unofficial agreement
about taxes once forged between Colonel Sartoris and Emily. This new and younger
generation of leaders brings in Homer’s company to pave the sidewalks. Although
Jefferson still highly regards traditional notions of honor and reputation, the
narrator is critical of the old men in their Confederate uniforms who gather for
Emily’s funeral. For them as for her, time is relative. The past is not a faint glimmer
but an ever-present, idealized realm. Emily’s macabre bridal chamber is an extreme
attempt to stop time and prevent change, although doing so comes at the expense of
human life.

The Power of Death

Death hangs over “A Rose for Emily,” from the narrator’s mention of Emily’s death
at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily’s death-haunted life
to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. In every case, death
prevails over every attempt to master it. Emily, a fixture in the community, gives in
to death slowly. The narrator compares her to a drowned woman, a bloated and pale
figure left too long in the water. In the same description, he refers to her small,
spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of
the Old South, a grand lady whose respectability and charm rapidly decline through
the years, much like the outdated sensibilities the Griersons represent. The death of
the old social order will prevail, despite many townspeople’s attempts to stay true to
the old ways.

Emily attempts to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself. Her
bizarre relationship to the dead bodies of the men she has loved—her necrophilia—
is revealed first when her father dies. Unable to admit that he has died, Emily clings
to the controlling paternal figure whose denial and control became the only—yet
extreme—form of love she knew. She gives up his body only reluctantly. When
Homer dies, Emily refuses to acknowledge it once again—although this time, she
herself was responsible for bringing about the death. In killing Homer, she was able
to keep him near her. However, Homer’s lifelessness rendered him permanently
distant. Emily and Homer’s grotesque marriage reveals Emily’s disturbing attempt
to fuse life and death. However, death ultimately triumphs.

Motifs
Watching

Emily is the subject of the intense, controlling gaze of the narrator and residents of
Jefferson. In lieu of an actual connection to Emily, the townspeople create
subjective and often distorted interpretations of the woman they know little about.
They attend her funeral under the guise of respect and honor, but they really want to
satisfy their lurid curiosity about the town’s most notable eccentric. One of the
ironic dimensions of the story is that for all the gossip and theorizing, no one
guesses the perverse extent of Emily’s true nature.

For most of the story, Emily is seen only from a distance, by people who watch her
through the windows or who glimpse her in her doorway. The narrator refers to her
as an object—an “idol.” This pattern changes briefly during her courtship with
Homer Barron, when she leaves her house and is frequently out in the world.
However, others spy on her just as avidly, and she is still relegated to the role of
object, a distant figure who takes on character according to the whims of those who
watch her. In this sense, the act of watching is powerful because it replaces an
actual human presence with a made-up narrative that changes depending on who is
doing the watching. No one knows the Emily that exists beyond what they can see,
and her true self is visible to them only after she dies and her secrets are revealed.

Dust

A pall of dust hangs over the story, underscoring the decay and decline that figure
so prominently. The dust throughout Emily’s house is a fitting accompaniment to
the faded lives within. When the aldermen arrive to try and secure Emily’s annual
tax payment, the house smells of “dust and disuse.” As they seat themselves, the
movement stirs dust all around them, and it slowly rises, roiling about their thighs
and catching the slim beam of sunlight entering the room. The house is a place of
stasis, where regrets and memories have remained undisturbed. In a way, the dust is
a protective presence; the aldermen cannot penetrate Emily’s murky relationship
with reality. The layers of dust also suggest the cloud of obscurity that hides
Emily’s true nature and the secrets her house contains. In the final scene, the dust is
an oppressive presence that seems to emanate from Homer’s dead body. The dust,
which is everywhere, seems even more horrible here.

Symbols
Emily’s House

Emily’s house, like Emily herself, is a monument, the only remaining emblem of a
dying world of Southern aristocracy. The outside of the large, square frame house is
lavishly decorated. The cupolas, spires, and scrolled balconies are the hallmarks of
a decadent style of architecture that became popular in the 1870s. By the time the
story takes place, much has changed. The street and neighborhood, at one time
affluent, pristine, and privileged, have lost their standing as the realm of the elite.
The house is in some ways an extension of Emily: it bares its “stubborn and
coquettish decay” to the town’s residents. It is a testament to the endurance and
preservation of tradition but now seems out of place among the cotton wagons,
gasoline pumps, and other industrial trappings that surround it—just as the South’s
old values are out of place in a changing society.

Emily’s house also represents alienation, mental illness, and death. It is a shrine to
the living past, and the sealed upstairs bedroom is her macabre trophy room where
she preserves the man she would not allow to leave her. As when the group of men
sprinkled lime along the foundation to counteract the stench of rotting flesh, the
townspeople skulk along the edges of Emily’s life and property. The house, like its
owner, is an object of fascination for them. They project their own lurid fantasies
and interpretations onto the crumbling edifice and mysterious figure inside. Emily’s
death is a chance for them to gain access to this forbidden realm and confirm their
wildest notions and most sensationalistic suppositions about what had occurred on
the inside.

The Strand of Hair

The strand of hair is a reminder of love lost and the often perverse things people do
in their pursuit of happiness. The strand of hair also reveals the inner life of a
woman who, despite her eccentricities, was committed to living life on her own
terms and not submitting her behavior, no matter how shocking, to the approval of
others. Emily subscribes to her own moral code and occupies a world of her own
invention, where even murder is permissible. The narrator foreshadows the
discovery of the long strand of hair on the pillow when he describes the physical
transformation that Emily undergoes as she ages. Her hair grows more and more
grizzled until it becomes a “vigorous iron-gray.” The strand of hair ultimately
stands as the last vestige of a life left to languish and decay, much like the body of
Emily’s former lover.

Faulkner and the Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic is a literary tradition that came into its own in the early twentieth
century. It is rooted in the Gothic style, which had been popular in European
literature for many centuries. Gothic writers concocted wild, frightening scenarios
in which mysterious secrets, supernatural occurrences, and characters’ extreme
duress conspired to create a breathless reading experience. Gothic style focused on
the morbid and grotesque, and the genre often featured certain set pieces and
characters: drafty castles laced with cobwebs, secret passages, and frightened, wide-
eyed heroines whose innocence does not go untouched. Although they borrow the
essential ingredients of the Gothic, writers of Southern Gothic fiction were not
interested in integrating elements of the sensational solely for the sake of creating
suspense or titillation. Writers such as Flannery O’Connor, Tennessee Williams,
Truman Capote, Harper Lee, Eudora Welty, Erskine Caldwell, and Carson
McCullers were drawn to the elements of Gothicism for what they revealed about
human psychology and the dark, underlying motives that were pushed to the fringes
of society.

Southern Gothic writers were interested in exploring the extreme, antisocial

behaviors that were often a reaction against a confining code of social conduct.
Southern Gothic often hinged on the belief that daily life and the refined surface of
the social order were fragile and illusory, disguising disturbing realities or twisted
psyches. Faulkner, with his dense and multilayered prose, traditionally stands
outside this group of practitioners. However, “A Rose for Emily” reveals the
influence that Southern Gothic had on his writing: this particular story has a moody
and forbidding atmosphere; a crumbling old mansion; and decay, putrefaction, and
grotesquerie. Faulkner’s work uses the sensational elements to highlight an
individual’s struggle against an oppressive society that is undergoing rapid change.
Another aspect of the Southern Gothic style is appropriation and transformation.
Faulkner has appropriated the image of the damsel in distress and transformed it
into Emily, a psychologically damaged spinster. Her mental instability and
necrophilia have made her an emblematic Southern Gothic heroine.

Time and Temporal Shifts

In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner does not rely on a conventional linear approach to
present his characters’ inner lives and motivations. Instead, he fractures, shifts, and
manipulates time, stretching the story out over several decades. We learn about
Emily’s life through a series of flashbacks. The story begins with a description of
Emily’s funeral and then moves into the near-distant past. At the end of the story,
we see that the funeral is a flashback as well, preceding the unsealing of the upstairs
bedroom door. We see Emily as a young girl, attracting suitors whom her father
chases off with a whip, and as an old woman, when she dies at seventy-four. As
Emily’s grip on reality grows more tenuous over the years, the South itself
experiences a great deal of change. By moving forward and backward in time,
Faulkner portrays the past and the present as coexisting and is able to examine how
they influence each other. He creates a complex, layered, and multidimensional
world.
Faulkner presents two visions of time in the story. One is based in the mathematical
precision and objectivity of reality, in which time moves forward relentlessly, and
what’s done is done; only the present exists. The other vision is more subjective.
Time moves forward, but events don’t stay in distant memory; rather, memory can
exist unhindered, alive and active no matter how much time passes or how much
things change. Even if a person is physically bound to the present, the past can play
a vibrant, dynamic role. Emily stays firmly planted in a subjective realm of time,
where life moves on with her in it—but she stays committed, regardless, to the past.

The Narrator

The unnamed narrator of “A Rose for Emily” serves as the town’s collective voice.
Critics have debated whether it is a man or woman; a former lover of Emily
Grierson’s; the boy who remembers the sight of Mr. Grierson in the doorway,
holding the whip; or the town gossip, spearheading the effort to break down the
door at the end. It is possible, too, that the narrator is Emily’s former servant, Tobe
—he would have known her intimately, perhaps including her secret. A few aspects
of the story support this theory, such as the fact that the narrator often refers to
Emily as “Miss Emily” and provides only one descriptive detail about the Colonel
Sartoris, the mayor: the fact that he enforced a law requiring that black women wear
aprons in public. In any case, the narrator hides behind the collective pronoun we.
By using we, the narrator can attribute what might be his or her own thoughts and
opinions to all of the townspeople, turning private ideas into commonly held
beliefs.

The narrator deepens the mystery of who he is and how much he knows at the end
of the story, when the townspeople discover Homer’s body. The narrator confesses
“Already we knew” that an upstairs bedroom had been sealed up. However, we
never find out how the narrator knows about the room. More important, at this
point, for the first time in the story, the narrator uses the pronoun “they” instead of
“we” to refer to the townspeople. First, he says, “Already we knew that there was
one room. . . .” Then he changes to, “They waited until Miss Emily was decently in
the ground before they opened it.” This is a significant shift. Until now, the narrator
has willingly grouped himself with the rest of the townspeople, accepting the
community’s actions, thoughts, and speculations as his own. Here, however, the
narrator distances himself from the action, as though the breaking down of the door
is something he can’t bring himself to endorse. The shift is quick and subtle, and he
returns to “we” in the passages that follow, but it gives us an important clue about
the narrator’s identity. Whoever he was, the narrator cared for Emily, despite her
eccentricities and horrible, desperate act. In a town that treated her as an oddity and,
finally, a horror, a kind, sympathetic gesture—even one as slight as symbolically
looking away when the private door is forced open—stands out.

1. Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary
obligation upon the town . . .

2. Then we 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.

Written by Eva Milanovic  

What does the story imply about the relationship between past and present, illusion and
reality, permanence and change, death and life?

In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner addresses several subjects and establishes relationships between them
such as juxtaposition, contrast, and convergence. Past and present, illusion and reality, permanence and change,
and death and life are the subjects that will be discussed and through which links will be formed.

The past and the present come up in the story in two different ways. First, Faulkner provides a graphic
description of Miss Emily’s physique towards the end of her life. She is described as a “small, fat woman”,
“bloated like a body submerged in motionless water”, and her eyes are like “two pieces of coal” that are “lost in
the fatty ridges of her face” (484). He puts great emphasis on the fact that she is not thin. However, this image is
juxtaposed with the one from the past in which Faulkner refers to Emily as being slender (485). Second, the
author brings the past into the present through Homer Barron, Emily’s so-called suitor. Although they were
seeing each other, she knew that they would never get married because of his preference for men. She could not
bear the thought of losing him; therefore, she killed him and kept him close to her for forty years as if nothing
had happened. It is her way to cling to the past by making sure it is part of the present. In short, the two
relationships between past and present are first juxtaposed and then overlapped.

The author also likes to play with the idea of illusion and reality. He begins by reporting a reality, such
as the smell around her house, a putrid smell that the neighbours complain about (485). Their solution is for the
judge to suggest that she have her home cleaned, to which he replies that it is not the way to treat a lady. To
avoid this reality, an illusion is created. In the middle of the night, men are sent over to her house to sprinkle
lime everywhere. By doing so, the smell disappears after a while, giving the illusion that indeed she had her
house cleaned. Another example is the way she carries her head high to give the impression that she is dignified
(486). In reality, she is alone and poor, which makes people pity her. Finally, Homer Barron’s disappearance
was an illusion: people simply thought he had left town (487). The truth is that she had poisoned him, a fact that
we learn only at the end of the story (489). In this narrative, illusion and reality are sharply contrasted to
emphasize the difference between what is not real and what is.

Faulkner accentuates the fact that over time, things change such as physiques and points of view,
making a difference between permanence and change. Emily’s house used to be white with cupolas, spires, and
scrolled balconies (483). Since it was a house located on the “most select street”, one could think that it would
always be that way; but with time, the house fell into decay. Also, Colonel Sartoris made sure that Emily would
never have to pay taxes “into perpetuity” (483), thus laying stress on the idea of permanence. However, people
change and so do situations. After the death of the colonel, the new mayor insisted that she pay her taxes.
Furthermore, Faulkner establishes a relationship between permanence and change through comparison. When
Homer Barron was alive, he was said to be big, implying that he was strong and perhaps healthy (486). Forty
years later, he is found in Emily’s house and his body has rotted (489). In these three instances, everything
seemed permanent when in reality change was unavoidable.

Contrary to the other elements, death and life are not juxtaposed or compared, but rather combined.
Through Emily’s eyes, it is as if there was no difference between the two as she lives in the face of death. She
did not mourn her father’s death because she was in denial for three days (485). He had to be snatched from her
to be buried in a proper way or else she would have probably kept him in the house. The same parallel can be
drawn between her and Barron’s dead body. Even though he had been dead for so long, she kept him close to
her and acted as if he were alive, such as lying next to him in the bed (489). Death and life converge towards
one meaning: Emily is a mixture of both worlds. She is alive, but lives among the dead.

This story is considered to be gothic because of its sinister atmosphere and the strange events that lead to
a mounting suspense. Among the combined subjects which are past and present, illusion and reality,
permanence and change, and death and life, relationships are established. However, when each subject is taken
individually and analyzed, there is a recurring idea: death. For this reason, it cannot be argued that this is not a
gothic story as death is one of its major components.

  Work Cited

 Fiction 100. Ed. by James H. Pickering, Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0-13-182587-9, 2004.
 http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/rimstead-cours/ANG341/RFE3.htm
 Why did Emily kill Homer?

Jean Preddy (J. Sargeant Reynolds CC) suggested: The fact that Homer is a Yankee is crucial. The
whole story is hinged upon the joining of the North with the South and the unnatural union it
represented in the eyes of the Southern aristocracy. The fact that he was a simple day laborer fed
into the low social status theme that prevails in contrast with the noble status of the Grierson name. It
was the obligation of the noble (noblesse oblige) to maintain a high station according to the codes of
the old South -- and at all cost. The fact that Homer may have been gay was thrown in to make it
clear that he would never marry Emily, and also clear that he was a total social misfit.

Joanne S (JSRCC) agrees and amplifies, stressing the role of gossip vs. her Grierson reputation:
When the townspeople gossiped about their relationship, I think this played a big part in Emily's going
off the edge. 

Her father always letting her down with disapproval of all the men that she could have had plays a
major role in her wanting and needing a man -- and keeping him. 

When she knew in her heart that Homer was never going to marry her, and when he paid more
attention to being with the guys and gambling, I believe this is what sent her over the edge. She knew
at this point to save face with the public that she had to make a drastic decision. Being in the
spotlight, she knew that people would
talk if Homer walked out on her. I think she persuaded him to come back and then killed him out of
anger with the rat poison. 

As far as her going insane and keeping Homer's body in her house for years, one can only assume
that she couldn't let go [nor could she dispose of the body and risk being seen by one of the many
people who seem to watch her house].

R. Dawson (JSR) sees two possible motives: 

1. Emily did not want him to return to his home. This had apparently been the only romantic
involvement she has ever had, and she does not want it to end. By now, thanks to her father, there
were no suitable men left in the town that interested her or were interested in her. By killing him, and
putting him in the attic, she could keep him all to herself forever. 

2. She wanted to spare herself the embarrassment of being seen with or married to a "Yankee"--a
fate that would have been near death for a Southern aristocrat in that time. By killing him and keeping
him to herself, she could spend the rest of her life with him, and not face the wrath of the community.

Cynthia disagrees with the notion of "reputation" or the town looking down on Homer as a common
laborer: "I seriously doubt Emily cared about her 'obligations'' to society. It makes no sense that she
would care about what they thought of Homer. The way I see it, because her father never let Emily be
with anyone, all she had was him. When he died, if you noticed, she wanted to keep his body. She
couldn't let go because he was all she had left. She was afraid that her only lover (who was not gay)
would leave her as her father did and then, of course, she would be alone again. That is why Emily
killed him. It makes sense in a demented, insane kind of way."

C. McGovern argues that: "She had lost all status when her father had raised her to believe that she
had so much. The Griersons held themselves 'too high' for everyone else, according to the narrator
(i.e. 'we' the town). She was so high, no one was good enough for her. After she was well into her
thirties, her last chance was Homer Barron. It is sad that her pride drove her to such lunacy, but not
unthinkable."

Brandon (2003) sees Emily's father as a contributing cause: "I think that in a way Emily's father
killed her unknowingly. He separated her from the world which drove her to be lonely which in turn
eventually killed her and also drove her to kill Homer because she didn't have someone to love her
and she did not want to be alone like her father seemed to want for her."

Lisa (1999, JSRCC) sees Emily as clinging: "I don't feel that Emily really hated men. I think she
feared being alone. All that Emily wanted was to be loved. She lost her father when she was young
and felt that she was about to lose Homer. I think Homer was going to leave her, so she killed him
and kept his body. Even it though was morbid to sleep with the body, I think she was trying to hold on
to someone she feared would eventually leave her."

Anthony (1999) suggests that Emily might have been a necrophiliac only for a while: "The idea that
she was sleeping with a dead man is unsettling enough. Your suggestion that she is "sleeping" with a
dead man is downright disgusting. However, consider this thought. I'm not a psychologist nor do I
have any experience in the field of necrophilia, but I have always thought that necrophilia had
something to do with power. Necrophiliacs are aroused by the act of killing, because it is the ultimate
power that a person can have over another human being. It might be possible that Emily was aroused
initially by the act of poisoning him. However, your theory suggests that she had sex with him well
after the death itself. What I'm saying is that after the initial moments of the murder, I think she was
satisfied merely to sleep with him (without quotation marks.) I could be wrong, but that's just what I
think."

Cher (1999) suggests several motives: 

Emily had hatred for men already because of the way her father repressed her from a normal life.

I feel that Emily killed Homer after finding out for herself that he was a homosexual. It said that he liked to
hang out with the younger men and drink and that he himself admitted to liking men. 

She couldn't handle being rejected by a common worker. 

Surely [she] couldn't let him live and risk him disgracing her in public at a later date.
Patrickr18 (1999) claims that the Grierson arrogance has something to do with her crime: "I have
concluded that Mrs. Emily's situation was due to the fact that she felt that she was too good for
society because of her status in town. I do feel, however, that her father had something to do with
WHY she felt superior. In the same respect, he probably felt that she was too good to marry anyone.
You listen to your father especially back in those days. However, I feel she changed toward the end
when she met Homer Barron. When she found out that he COULD NOT give her what she had been
longing for and what her father never gave her . . . , she killed him."

R. Hojjati (1999) sees jealousy as a possible motive, among others: "Maybe Emily was jealous of
Homer because he was seen with young men, and she was not allowed to do the same, her father
did not allow it. Homer never could have married another man because it was not excepted and in a
twisted way, Emily could have thought she was doing him a favor by having his dead corpse in a
room that was decorated in a bridal fashion and herself a favor because she was never married and
wouldn't be so the actions she took and choices she made concerning this incident was the perfect
substitute for her empty life. Homer could have possibly said he wanted to die because he left when
Emily's cousins came and did not come back until they departed."

Lilia (1999; Northern Va CC) sees the Alabama Griersons as a major obstacle to Emily and
Homer: "Emily had been a very lonely and sad individual. I also believe that once Emily's father died
she finally had the opportunity to find someone to love her. It was unfortunate that having been
controlled for so long by her father that she continued to let her relatives dictate to her. I believe that
her relatives chased off her new bow and scared him into leaving Emily or maybe they gave Emily an
ultimatum. If Emily could have stood up to her relatives and fought for what she wanted then maybe
her new love would have stayed. Emily was apparently not strong enough to do this, so instead of
letting her new love go she decided she would keep him with her forever. "

Nikki (2001) excludes lust as a motive: "Here's my interpretation: When homer came back from
wherever he was I think that Emily had already decided to kill him because she thought he was going
to leave her. I think she put the arsenic in some food that she gave him to eat, and after he ate he told
her that he intended to marry her; then I think she led him to the bridal suite (or tomb) and had him
put on the suit of clothes that she had bought. Then I think that he changed into his night shirt and
they had sex. Afterwards he died holding her; it says something like 'in the pose of an embrace.' I
think she was so consumed with grief--like she was when her father died-- that she didn't tell anyone
and maybe thought he was still alive like she did when her father died. So I think she thought of him
as her husband even when he was a skeleton and continued to at least sleep with him at night.  As
for the necrophilia, I'm not sure, but she might have had sex with the body afterwards too, but I don't
think it was her motivation for killing him."

Jen (1998) believes Emily kills Homer for certainty: "I don't think she wanted Homer to suffer, but I
don't think she really thought much for others. All she knew was that she didn't want to be alone
anymore. The only way she could assure that fact was to kill herself, or kill him. She decides to kill
Homer to secure the fact that she will always have him by her side, and she will never be alone. In
this uncertain world we live in, Miss Emily provides herself with that certainty."

http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/EmilyForum/motives.htm
Story of Emily Grierson

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is a brilliant story. Faulkner uses great techniques to try to confuse the reader.
The story begins at one point; he throws a twist in the middle and brings the reader back to the ending of the story. This
is a fantastic story that gives us an insight of a fallen monument. Faulkner has illustrated some strong irony and
symbolism.

The story begins in a small (made-up) town where a woman by the name of Emily Grierson died. Emily is
described as a "fallen monument" that many people admired as well as questioned. Emily lived with her father
until the last day of his life, and tried to cling a little longer. She had taught some painting classes but with the
years her classes stopped. Craziness ran in her family and that is the only thing that could have happened to this
poor woman. Through the years her father would run off her guy friends and she began not having a social life.
After her father's death she met a man named Homer Barron and began to go out a little. The town people were
happy for her because they now seen her a little more and it was better than to be in a old house all the time.
Emily began to think that some day she and Homer would m

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Quotes talked about in this paper

 Emily is described as a "fallen monument" ...

Names mentioned in this research paper

Emily, Homer, William Faulkner, Emily Grierson, Homer Barron,

Keywords talked about in this research paper

Emily, Homer, a woman, Faulkner, poison, William Faulkner, a story, strong woman, young woman, rat poison,
dead body, all the time, the town, social life, new generation, taxes, clinging, Sartoris, lime, the poison,
fantastic, caving, insight, arrangements, happy, crazy, one point, funeral, hair, helping, illustrated, lady,
wedding, policy, room, small, the smell, the reader, the only thing,

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A Rose for Emily Essay: Southern Society
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” the focus is on Miss Emily and her Southern up bringing. In this story
the Southern setting is vital to our understanding of Miss Emily and her ultimate mental collapse. In the South during
Miss Emily’s life time for a woman not to be married was socially unacceptable. In Southern society during this time, and
even today, it was encouraged and believed that to be happy it was necessary for one to be married. Faulkner’s “A Rose
for Emily” is a classical example of Southern literature because of the importance of family, community, religion, time
and place. Miss Emily represented the importance of all of these things on Southern society.

In this story the female protagonist, Miss Emily, is forced to conform to her father’s Southern societal values. Her family
represented a monument of the past; Emily was referred to as a “fallen monument.”(75). She was a relic of Southern
gentility and past values. She was considered fallen because she had been proven susceptible to death and decay. Like
the rest of the world Miss Emily’s father chased away any and all men that tried and wanted to marry her. Miss Emily
was very controlled by her father. He was very protective of her and extremely dominating. This kind of family
environment for women was typical of southern society. Miss Emily herself represented, “a tradition, a duty, and a care;
a sort of hereditary obligation” (75).

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The women, like Miss Emily, of this time dressed in a conspicuous manner because their appearance directly reflected
their husbands or fathers. Of course this display of wealth was only there to impress onlookers. Emily’s father regarded
her as property like the house in which they both lived. The house in which Miss Emily lives is used as an example of the
lavish expense and show of wealth that aged with Miss Emily. Just as the town’s people noticed that Miss Emily’s was
lifeless so was the house in which she lived. Ultimately, at the time of Emily's death, the house was seen by the
townspeople as "an eyesore among eyesores," and Miss Emily is regarded as a "fallen monument" (75). Both the house
and Miss Emily are seen as empty, lifeless and lack all their former splendor. William Faulkner used the Grierson house
as a symbol of Miss Emily's change in social status in the community over time. The members of the Grierson family,
especially Emily, were also considered to be strong and powerful. The townspeople regarded them as regal. Moreover,
Emily, who was the last living Grierson, came to symbolize her families, and possibly the entire south's, rich past.

The major antagonist in the story was time, and change in the community in which Miss Emily lived. Miss Emily believed
as many antebellum families believed then, and even now, that they are better than anyone else just because of her last
name was Grierson. Towards the end of Miss Emily’s life the community in which lived started to change. They
communities' leaders no longer wanted to allow Miss Emily to evade her taxes. In the time right after her father had
died Colonel Sartoris, the mayor at the time, told Emily that her father had loaned the town money, and in order to
repay her the town would preferred her to not pay taxes, “Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’ generation and thought could
have invented it, and only a woman could have believed it” (75). The leaders of the community went to collect the taxes
from Miss Emily after she refused to pay them through the mail. The idea that Miss Emily had a mail box was evidence
that times were changing and Miss Emily was growing older and less important, and things would no longer be easy for
her just because her last name was Grierson. Miss Emily refused for a long time to except anything modern and
common.

This idea that change of time, and change in the community were real and directly effected Miss Emily is Homer Barron.
Emily held the view of the past as if it were a rose-tinted place where nothing would ever die. Her world was already the
past. Whenever the modern times were about to take hold of her, she retreated to that world of the past, and took
Homer with her. Her room upstairs was that place, a place where Emily could stay with dead Homer forever as though
neither death nor disease could separate them. Homer had lived in the present, and Emily eventually conquered that, by
killing him.

Miss Emily was merely a product of her environment. William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” displays an ideal
of the antebellum Southern society that is often still associated with the south. Faulkner succeeded in writing a work of
Southern literature that displays a romantic pull of the past and the idea that submission to this romance was a form of
death thematically, death conquers all. The story of Miss Emily Grierson from Yaknapatawpha County is a tale depicting
the romance of the South combined with the story itself created a captivating atmosphere, a world where no one wants.

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A life of increasing Dementia in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” A compelling story of a young woman’s life by
William Faulkner in a “A Rose for Emily”. Miss Emily Grierson is referred to as the towns “fallen Monument” (557), she is
a “monument” (557) because she is an example of southern pride for her manners, style and grace, but fallen because
shows herself susceptible to death and decay. William Falkner uses setting, foreshadowing and characterization of Emily
to trace Miss Emily’s To begin, the setting of Emily’s increasing dementia will mirror the ante-

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Tradition a rose for Emily the lottery

Tradition People throughout the world do things for many different reasons. Religion, peer pressure, or tradition
are some of the reasons the people do things. In the U. S. we have many traditions such as Christmas. Some
people have strange or out of the ordinary traditions. The two short stories “The Lottery” and “A Rose for
Emily” both portray tradition. In “The Lottery”, tradition is showed in three main ways. First, Old Man Warner
says, “there has always been a lottery (Jackson 11).” The town people accept The Lottery because there has
always been a lottery. The older people in the town such as Old Man Warner keep the tradition alive with their
ideals. Second, The Lottery is held every year.

Tradition is upheld in this way because it introduces the younger generation to the tradition. This shows that the
lottery is a tradition because traditions happen over and over again. Lastly, tradition is shown with the
parifanilia used in the story of “The Lottery”. The black box used to draw names is a duplicate of the original.
The black box is a symbol of what was in the years past. In “A Rose for Emily”, tradition is also shown in three
main ways. First, Emily does not get courted by anyone. This would not seem to be a normal tradition but in the
story her father did not want Emily to become involved with anyone. Emily’s father was not following tradition
when doing this because normal tradition would be to allow Emily to become involved with someone. Second,
“A Rose for Emily” shows tradition in the way the townspeople treated Miss. Emily. Tradition is shown when
the older generation of people put lime down instead of confronting Emily with the smell. The elders of the
town also allowed Emily to go without paying taxes after she told them she did not have to pay them. Finally,
tradition is shown with Emily cutting her hair. Emily cut her hair after her father died (Faulkner?). This shows
some tradition because women in that time and place of society do not cut their hair unless they want to show
something. Emily was showing she had gotten over her father’s death and ready to move on with her life. “The
Lottery” and “A Rose for Emily” both show tradition in the same ways. First, both stories have women as the
main characters as the ones showing tradition. Miss. Emily was the woman in “A Rose for Emily” that showed
tradition. Tessie was the woman in “The Lottery” that showed tradition in the story. Second, in both stories the
elders had the strongest tradition. In the story “A Rose for Emily” the older generation are the ones that
respected Emily and let her get away with many things such as the taxes. In “The Lottery” old man Warner was
the person keeping “The Lottery” alive with his ideals and his role in “The Lottery” throughout the years.
Finally, in both stories the tradition changed a little. In “A Rose for Emily” the younger generation was
changing the tradition in the way they treat the elder, august named people. In “The Lottery” the rituals and
sayings that have been taken out of the agenda of “The Lottery” changed the tradition. The short stories “A
Rose for Emily” and “The Lottery” both have their own ways of showing tradition. “A Rose for Emily” had
three main ways of showing tradition, “The Lottery” had three main ways of showing tradition also, and both
stories have some of the same concepts of traditions.

http://www.mannmuseum.com/tradition-a-rose-for-emily-the-lottery/

Type of Work
......."A Rose for Emily" is a short story of Gothic horror and tragedy. It presents a portrait of a lonely Mississippi woman
who succumbs to mental illness while living reclusively according to the outmoded traditions of Old South aristocrats. 
.......Gothic horror is a genre of fiction presenting dark, mysterious, terrifying events that take place in a gloomy or ghostly
setting. The genre derives its name from the Gothic architectural style in Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth
centuries. Gothic structures such as cathedrals and castles featured cavernous interiors with deep shadows, gargoyles
looming on exterior ledges, and soaring spires suggestive of a supernatural presence. When a Gothic horror story takes
place in the American South and centers in part on Southern cultural traditions and character types, as well as on a
realistic rather than romantic account of events, scholars often characterize the story as Southern Gothic. 
.......Tragedy is a fictional genre about the downfall or ruination of the main character. In this genre, the sympathies of the
narrator, reader, or—in the case of a play—the audience often lie with the main character even when he or she has
committed an unspeakable crime or sin. Such is the case in "A Rose for Emily."

Publication Information
.......The story was first published in the April 30, 1930, issue of Forum magazine and was published again in 1931 in
These Thirteen, a collection of Faulkner stories.

Title: Emily and the Rose

.......The title character is a tragic figure. Manipulated by her father and unable to function in the modern world, she lives
as a recluse most of the time and eventually goes insane. In an attempt to hold on to a man who becomes her companion
but later decides to abandon her, she murders him and keeps his corpse in an upper room of her house. In a lecture at
Nagano, Japan, author William Faulkner said of Emily: "Here 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 [the story] was a salute . . . to a woman you would
hand a rose" (Jeliffe 70-71).

Work Cited

Jelliffe, Robert, ed. Faulkner at Nagano. Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1956.

.
Setting
.......William Faulkner set a “A Rose for Emily” in the fictional Mississippi town of Jefferson, modeled after the real
Mississippi town of Oxford, where the author spent most of his life. Events in the story take place in the late-nineteenth
and early-twentieth centuries. 

Characters
Emily Grierson: Main character, who is dead. Her story unfolds in flashbacks. Emily was born during the Civil War as an
only child and died in the 1930s. When her father reared her with Old South values, he prevented young men from
courting her, apparently in the belief that they were not good enough for her (or possibly because he had an unnatural
relationship with her). 
Mr. Grierson: Emily's father.
Tobe: Emily's black servant.
Colonel Sartoris: One-time mayor of Jefferson. He grants tax forgiveness to Emily, saying the city is indebted to her
family.
Young Alderman: Man who wants to collect taxes from Emily. 
Judge Stevens: Elderly alderman and one-time mayor. He is wary about collecting taxes from Emily.
Two Other Elderly Aldermen
Old Lady Wyatt: Emily's great-aunt, who went insane. 
Homer Barron: Foreman of a construction crew installing sidewalks in Jefferson. He takes Emily for
buggy rides.
Baptist Minister: Clergyman who calls upon Emily to tell her that her relationship with Homer
Barron is setting a bad example.
Minister's Wife: Woman who writes to Emily's relatives to complain about Emily's behavior. 
Emily's Alabama Cousins: Visitors who apparently advise Emily on what to do about Homer
Barron. 
Druggist: Man who sells arsenic to Emily. 
Delivery Boy: Youth who delivers the arsenic.
Laborers: Men who dig the pathway for the new sidewalk. 
Narrator: Jefferson resident who tells Emily's story. 
Mayors Who Succeed Colonel Sartoris
Various City Officials
Jefferson Residents
Civil War Veterans

Point of View
.......The townspeople tell the story in first-person point of view. Here is an example of the narrator's first-person
commentary: 

We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had
driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.

Structure and Story Overview

.......Faulkner divides the story into five short sections. The first section reports the funeral and burial of Emily and
provides background on her house, her servant, and her tax status. The second section focuses on a foul smell coming
from her house, the use of lime by city officials to neutralize it, the insanity that runs in Emily's family, her father's refusal
to allow young men to call on her, and the death and burial of her father. The third section introduces a Northerner, Homer
Barron, who comes to town with a construction crew and takes Emily for buggy rides. It also reports that Emily buys
arsenic at the local drugstore. The fourth section tells of the townspeople's belief that Emily is setting a bad example by
regularly keeping company with Homer Barron. It also tells of the disappearance of Barron, the years when Emily teaches
china painting, and the death of Emily. The fifth section reports the happenings at Emily's funeral and a grotesque
discovery in an upper room of the house.

Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2010
.......The time is the 1930s. The place is Jefferson, Mississippi. After a reclusive resident, Emily Grierson, dies at the age
of seventy-four, Jeffersonians turn out in great numbers for the funeral—the men to pay homage to a "fallen monument,"
the narrator says, and the women mainly to view the inside of her house. The only one who had seen the interior over the
decade or so before her death was her servant, Tobe, an old black man who did the cooking, gardening, and marketing.
.......The house, built in the 1870s, is an elegant edifice, with cupolas and balconies; but it had decayed considerably after
garages and cotton gins sprang up to replace the other homes in Miss Grierson's neighborhood. 
.......Townsfolk remember Emily as a woman who did not pay local taxes. Back in 1894, Colonel Sartoris—the mayor—
exempted her from paying taxes after he concocted a story that said her father had once lent money to the town. Many
years later, other mayors tried to collect from her, but she always sent their tax bills back. One day, city officials went to
her home to collect. After her servant showed them into the parlor, where they raised dust from the old furniture when they
sat down, Miss Emily—a fat woman with a small frame who leaned on a cane—appeared and said, “I have no taxes in
Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.” Her visitors tell her that no records exist that excuse her from taxes.
.......“See Colonel Sartoris,” she replied. “I have no taxes in Jefferson.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead for ten years.)
.......She then directed Tobe to show them to the door. 
.......“So she vanquished them, horse and foot,” the narrator says, “just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years
before about the smell. That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart—the one we
believe would marry her—had deserted her.”
.......After these events, she rarely left her house. Tobe did the marketing for her. When a neighbor woman complained
about the smell, the eighty-year-old mayor, Judge Stevens, told the woman it was probably just a dead rat or snake. Two
more people complained the following day. In the evening, the Board of Aldermen convened. One member, a young man,
told the three elderly members that the board should tell her to “clean up the place” in a specified amount of time. Judge
Stevens expressed his opposition to the idea. So, rather than issuing an order, the men went to her property at midnight
the next day and, after sniffing around, broke into the cellar and sprinkled lime there, then sprinkled some in the
outbuildings. Within a few weeks, the smell was gone. 
.......That was right about the time when people began to pity Emily even though they believed the Griersons had always
thought themselves better than others. Emily's father had even driven off all of Emily's suitors, presumably because he
thought they were not good enough for her.
.......“So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated,” the narrator says;
“even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.” (Emily's
great-aunt, old lady Wyatt, had gone insane.)
.......After her father died, Emily inherited the house, but that was all. Consequently, she had no money to speak of. Her
lack of means made her seem quite ordinary to her neighbors. That was all right by the them, for now they could begin
showing compassion toward her. When townspeople called on her to offer condolences, she told them her father was not
dead. Ministers and doctors visited to her to persuade her to give up the body. After three days, she relented, and her
father was buried.
.......At that time, people did not regard her as demented; they simply thought she wanted to hang on to her father. He was
her only company. After his burial, she was ill for a long time. When she recovered and people saw her again, she had
short hair, making her look much younger.
.......One summer, a construction crew began installing new sidewalks for the city. The foreman was a Northerner, Homer
Barron, who became famous in town for his big laugh and for cursing the black men wielding picks. After a time, people
began seeing him riding about with Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons in a buggy with a team of bays. Was she serious
about him? Or was she just being nice to an out-of-towner of inferior social status? Folks weren't sure. But they felt sorry
for her as the last of the Griersons.
.......However, women eventually began to think her relationship with Barron was setting a bad example, and they had a
Baptist minister call on her (although she was an Episcopalian). After speaking with her, he refused to say what passed
between them. The following Sunday, Emily and Homer again took their buggy ride. Meanwhile, the minister's wife wrote
a letter to her relatives in Alabama, and two of her cousins—both women—came to visit her. After a time, Emily bought a
men's grooming set at the local jeweler's. On each of the silver pieces appeared the letters “H. B.” She also purchased
men's clothing, including a nightshirt. The narrator says the townspeople concluded that they had been married.
.......One day, Emily bought some arsenic at the local drug store. The druggist clearly labeled the container “for rats.”
There was talk the next day that she planned to commit suicide, for Homer had made it clear that he was not the marrying
kind. 
.......“[H]e liked men," the narrator says, "and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' club,” 
.......Then Homer left, and a week later so did the two cousins. However, within three days, a neighbor saw Homer return.
Tobe had let him in through the kitchen door. Over the next six months, the only person who left the house was Tobe, with
his market basket. 
.......“When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray,” the narrator says. Her hair
continued to turn gray, and she continued to remain indoors. When she was around forty, however, she received students
whom she taught to paint china. She did that for six or seven years. It was during that period that Colonel Sartoris started
forgiving her tax payments.
.......After younger men came to power in the town, the number of her students began to dwindle. Eventually she had no
students at all and closed her door to everyone. When tax bills arrived, she sent them back. When free mail delivery
commenced, she refused to permit postal officials to tack numbers above her door and install a mailbox. As time passed,
she used only the first floor of her house. At age seventy-four, she died in a bed downstairs. No one was aware that she
had been ill, for her old servant never spoke to anyone.
.......“[H]is voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse,” the narrator says.
.......(The story returns to the present.)
.......The two cousins from Alabama hold the funeral on the second day after Emily's death. After Tobe lets the
townspeople in for the ceremony, he goes away and doesn't return. The town's ladies stand around whispering. Many of
the oldest men, some of whom wear Confederate uniforms, are out on the porch or lawn talking about having danced with
Emily or courted her. One room upstairs has been locked for forty years. After the funeral, the people break it open. It
resembles a bridal room, with faded rose curtains and lamps with rose-colored shades. On a table are the grooming set
for Homer Barron, a collar, and a tie. On the bed is the rotting corpse of Homer Barron in an attitude of embrace. On the
pillow next to it is a head indentation and a long gray hair from Emily's head.
.

Gothic Overtones

.......The first hint of the story's spooky patina is Emily's house. It is a decaying mansion that no outsider had entered in the
decade before her death. Years before, when representatives of the Board of Aldermen gained entry to the house, Emily's
servant "led them into a dim hall from which a staircase mounted into still more shadow," the narrator says. "[The house]
smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell. The Negro led them into the parlor. It was furnished in heavy, leather-
covered furniture. When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and
when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray."
.......The focus then shifts from the house to Emily's appearance, which is no more inviting than the house: "She looked
bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her
face, looked like two small pieces of coal. . . ."
.......The narrator next hints of sinister goings-on when he mentions the smell that developed "a short time after her
sweetheart . . . had deserted her." Had Emily murdered him and hidden the body in the house? 
.......The state of Emily's mind then comes into question when the narrator reports that her great-aunt had gone insane
and when he informs the reader that Emily had refused for three days to release her father's body for burial." The reader
then learns that Emily had purchased arsenic at the pharmacy and finally that the body of Homer Barron had lain
decaying for years on a bed in an upstairs room. Next to it, a pillow with a head indentation indicates that Emily had slept
with the body. In other words, Emily had been a necrophile, a person fixated on death and/or sexual relations with a dead
person. Her mental illness may have been rooted partly in the same debility that afflicted her great-aunt and partly in the
heavy-handed influence of her father that turned her into a lonely recluse. 

Climax
.......The climax of a short story or another literary work can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins
to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of "A Rose
for Emily" occurs, according to the first definition, when Emily buys poison to kill Homer Barron. In the year before making
the purchase, she had emerged from her seclusion to date Barron. His low social status indicated that she may have been
ready to break free of Old South constraints. When Homer decided to leave her, she could have chosen to remain in the
modern world and perhaps begin a new relationship and even seek psychological counseling. But, no, she decided to
poison Barron and return to seclusion. After this turning point, she remained in her home and descended further into
madness. According to the second definition, the climax occurs when the townspeople break into the upstairs room and
discover Barron's rotting corpse and the pillow beside it with a gray hair from Emily's head.

.
Themes
Psychological Bondage
.......When Emily was a child, her father apparently indoctrinated her with the proud ways of the Old South. When she was
old enough to socialize with young men and consider marriage, he banished all her would-be beaus. Her upbringing thus
isolated her from the New South residents of the town; she had become totally dependent on, and totally attached to, her
father. It is no wonder, then, that when her father died she refused to give up his body for burial. It took townspeople three
days to persuade her to surrender the corpse. Afterward, he reached from beyond the grave to continue to oppress her,
as the following passage indicates:

Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime, but for
almost six months she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of
her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.

.......Emily had become, in effect, a hapless slave to the will of her father. Her one attempt to free herself of psychological
bondage to him occurred when she dated a newcomer to town, a Northerner of low social standing whom she knew her
father would not like. But the Northerner, Homer Barron, informed her that he was not the marrying kind. So she lapsed
back into the seclusion of her house and into the comfortable past of the Old South. Time had stopped for her, and she
decided that it would also stop for Barron.

Living in the Past

.......When Mr. Grierson reared Emily, he instilled in her his Old South values, manners, and customs. He also drove off all
her New South suitors, presumably because they could not measure up to his Old South standards. Townspeople
generally regarded Emily as haughty, a true daughter of Southern aristocracy. Paradoxically, however, many people—in
particular the older residents—later began to admire and respect her for daring to live according to bygone dictums. She
was, as the first paragraph says, something of a "monument."
.......After her father died and left her his house, Emily had no husband and no income, so she clung to the past for
support. She even denied that her father had died, a sign that her sanity was beginning to deteriorate. It took her three
days to give up her father's body for burial. 
.......Over the years, she remained in the past most of the time, living shut up in her house. Her only connection with the
outside world was her servant, who did the marketing. However, in her struggle to cope and to escape her loneliness, she
emerged from her seclusion twice: once to keep company with Homer Barron and a second time for seven years to teach
china painting to young people. 
......."Then," the narrator says, "the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting
pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and tedious brushes and pictures
cut from the ladies' magazines. The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good." 
.......So Emily once again became a hidden relic of the Old South. To manifest her repudiation of modern ways, she
spurned the tax bills of the new generation of government leaders and prevented postal officials from installing a mailbox
and an address number above her door. Moreover, she defiantly allowed her house to stand as it was before her father
died, making no repairs or other improvements. 
.......Whether Emily enthusiastically embraced Old South traditions in her youth or passively accepted their imposition on
her by her father is open to question. In either case, there can be no gainsaying that Emily became a living symbol of the
Old South. Consider, for example, the following:

 Emily relied on a black man to cook and garden for her and to perform other chores. He was, in effect, her slave,
never leaving the house except to go to the market. After Emily died, he became emancipated. “He walked right
through the house and out the back and was not seen again,” the narrator says.
 Emily lived in what was once an elegant house, “decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies,” the
narrator says, and “set on what had once been our most select street.” It was, in short, a house fit for an Old
South belle. But Emily made no attempt to improve or modernize it. To do so would be to remove it from the past,
where she lived.
 In her stand against paying taxes, Emily received the support of Colonel Sartoris, the mayor, whose military title
suggests Old South sympathies, as does his “edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an
apron.” 

Emily was exploited by a Northerner, Homer Barron, just as Old South residents were exploited by Northern
carpetbaggers in the postwar Reconstruction period (1865-1877). Barron was foreman of a crew that
“reconstructed” the Old South—that is, his workers installed new sidewalks. After his fling with Emily, he decided
to leave her. Then Emily bought the arsenic, murdered him, and returned to the past.
.......Allegorically, she represents not only die-hard adherents of Old South ways but also subscribers to any other
outmoded way of life—or to an antiquated belief, tradition, custom, trend, social movement, and so on. To such people,
modern culture—including social customs, scientific and technological advancements, fashions, and so on—are
anathema. 

Death of the Old South

.......Emily is a symbol of the Old South. When she dies, the lingering remnants of the Old South die with her—or at least,
like the old men in their Confederate uniforms—are about to die. An exception here is the racism in the town, as indicated
by the narrator's use of the highly offensive term "nigger." 

Mystery

.......Everyone likes a good mystery, such as Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese
Falcon, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, or Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. But
some of the best mysteries present themselves in the house down the street in an ordinary city. Such is the case in "A
Rose for Emily." The residents of Jefferson closely follow the often perplexing developments at the Grierson house and
wonder at the significance of this or that activity. What was the cause of the foul smell? Will Miss Emily marry Homer
Barron? Why did she buy the arsenic? There was a time when they would try to get information from her black servant,
Tobe. But he would have nothing to say, mainly because his voice "had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse." Folks
speculated that he probably didn't even talk with Emily. After she died, "the whole town went to the funeral," the narrator
says, the women mainly because they wanted to see the inside of the house. After the funeral, people broke into an
upstairs room that had been closed for forty years. There, they found out what happened to Homer Barron, but Miss
Emily's motives murdering him, her reclusiveness, and the state of her mind when she died all remaned a mystery. 
......."In a Rose for Emily," Faulkner reminds us that mysteries are a part of life. Everybody has secrets. And everybody
occasionally acts in a way that not even he or she can explain. 
.

Unanswered Question

.......Was Mr. Grierson guilty of incest with his daughter? Evidence in the story hints at this possibility, although the
evidence is far from foolproof. This evidence includes the following information provided by the narrator, who may not be
entirely reliable: 
.......First, Grierson drove away all of Emily's suitors because, the narrator says, he thought they were not good enough for
his daughter. He could have had another reason: s desire to reserve Emily for himself. 
.......Second, the narrator makes no mention of Grierson's wife. Either she was dead or he was divorced from her. In either
case, he had no convenient outlet for his libido.
.......Third, Emily vainly attempts to keep the corpse of her father in her house. Later, she succeeds in keeping the corpse
of Homer Barron. The last two paragraphs of the story indicate that she slept with the corpse:

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, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had
cuckolded him. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed
in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaving
forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.

One may fairly ask whether this passage indicates that Emily also wanted to sleep with the corpse of her father. 
.......Fourth, insanity ran in the Grierson family. Old Lady Wyatt was insane, and it becomes obvious that Emily was
insane. If her father suffered from the same family scourge, it could have predisposed his mind to the commission of an
unnatural act.
.......Of course, it is also possible that Grierson realized his daughter suffered from a mental debility. This realization would
explain why he kept suitors away. However, if he had such knowledge, it seems likely that he would have made provisions
for her care after his death. But there is no evidence that he did so.
Conflicts
.......The main conflicts in the story are (1) Emily vs her father, (2) Emily vs the modern world, and Emily vs her emotional
and psychological debilities.

Symbols
Barron: Homer Barron, a Northerner who traveled to Jefferson to install new sidewalks, dated Emily for about a year and
then severed his relationship with her. He symbolizes post-Civil War carpetbaggers and, in a larger sense, any
opportunists. 
Episcopal Religion: With its elaborate rituals, the Griersons' Episcopalianism appears to represent the ornate trappings
and elegant lifestyle of Old South aristocrats.
House: Described as stately but decaying, Emily's house represents what is left of the Old South.
Ink: See Stationery. 
Mailbox, Metal House Number: These symbolize modernity and change. Emily refuses to allow postal officials to install
the house numbers and the mailbox.
Sidewalks: The new sidewalks that Homer Barron and his crew construct appear to symbolize the post-Civil War
Reconstruction era.
Tobe: This name (a variant of Toby) of Emily's servant symbolizes (1) slavery and (2) a better future, as suggested by the
two words (to and be) that make up his name. 
Stationery: The note Emily sent the mayor was written on "paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in
faded ink." The archaic shape of the stationery and the faded ink seem to represent the outmoded traditions of the Old
South.
Tarnished Metals: The tarnished gold head of Emily's cane and the tarnished silver toilet set in the room with Barron's
corpse symbolize aging, deterioration, and death.
Whips: The narrator makes it a point to mention the whips Mr. Grierson and Homer Barron use to lash their horses while
driving Emily in their buggies. The whips may represent the male-dominated society of the late-nineteenth and early-
twentieth centuries.
.

Need help with Shakespeare? Click here for Study Guides on the Complete Works

.
Figures of Speech
.......Following are examples of figures of speech in "A Rose for Emily."

Alliteration
Repetition of a consonant sound

It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell.

faint dust [was] spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray

Metaphor
Comparison of unlike things without using like, as, or than

When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a
fallen monument. . . .
(Comparison of Emily Grierson to a monument.)
[T]he past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches. 
(Comparison of the past to a road and a meadow.)

Implied Metaphor

In the following passage, blackness is an implied metaphor for aging and debility:
They rose when she entered—a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing
into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was
why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long
submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small
pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand.

Onomatopoeia
Word that imitates a sound

the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed

Oxymoron
Combining contradictory words to reveal a truth. 

heavily lightsome (heavily: slow and clumsy; lightsome: lively, nimble, graceful)

Paradox
Contradictory statement that is actually true

Emily is both weak and strong. For example, her father manipulated her in her youth, but she manipulates city officials in
gaining tax forgiveness.

Simile
Comparison of unlike things using like, as, or than

She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water. . . . 

(Comparison of Emily Grierson to a dead body.)
Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they
moved from one face to another. . . .
(Comparison of Emily's eyes to pieces of coal and her face to a lump of dough)
Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows . . . like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or
not looking at us, we could never tell which. 
(Comparison of Emily to the torso of an idol).

Was Barron a Homosexual?

.......In the first paragraph of the fourth section, the narrator says, "[Homer] liked men, and it was known that he drank with
the younger men in the Elks' Club . . . [and] was not a
marrying man." Was Homer, then, a homosexual?
.......No. The narrator is simply saying that Homer prized his freedom and preferred socializing with men, perhaps over
beer and a game of darts, to being tied down to a wife and the duties of a husband. 

.
Study Questions and Essay Topics
 When her father was driving off her suitors, why didn't Emily run away and live elsewhere?
 Describe the narrator's attitude toward women.
 ‫‪‬‬ ‫‪There was an unofficial caste system in the South in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Describe‬‬
‫‪the people at the top, those at the bottom, and those in the middle.‬‬
‫‪‬‬ ‫‪Write a psychological profile of Emily. Support your thesis with evidence from the story and research from books‬‬
‫‪and Internet sources. ‬‬
‫‪‬‬ ‫‪In an essay, compare and contrast William Faulkner's handling of horror involving a woman with Edgar Allan‬‬
‫‪Poe's handling of the same subject. Among Poe short stories involving a woman are Berenice, The Fall of the‬‬
‫‪House of Usher, Ligeia, Morella, and The Oval Portrait.‬‬

‫السالم عليكم ورحمة هللا وبركاته‬

‫منقوووووول إلخالء المسؤلية‬

‫‪ :‬واسم المترجم هونيك باآلخير‬
‫)‪1‬‬
‫حينما ماتت اآلنسة إميلي غريرسون ذهب أفراد القرية جميعا لتشييعها ‪ :‬هيمن على الرجال نوع من الورع تجاه هذه الحياة التي أفلت و طغا على النساء شيء‬
‫من الفضول لكسر أسرار منزلها من الداخل ‪ ،‬باستثناء رجل عجوز ‪ ،‬حاجب ‪ ،‬هو خليط من الحدائقي و الطباخ ‪ ،‬و الذي كان موجودا هنا طوال عشرة سنوات‬
‫‪.‬خلت‬
‫كان البيت واسعا ‪ ،‬و له شكل تربيعي ‪ ،‬و فيما مضى كان أبيض ‪ ،‬و ق زينته قبب و أعمدة و شرفات فخمة ‪ ،‬تذكر بنمط السبعينيات المشرق ‪ ،‬و تسمح لك‬
‫برؤية شارعنا األساسي المحبب ‪ ،‬و الذي لم تبق منه غير الذكريات ‪ .‬هناك تجد مواقف سيارات و محالج قطن تلحق الخزي بمكانة الجيران النبالء ‪ ،‬و قد‬
‫انتصب منزل اآلنسة إميلي بينها بطريقة عنيدة و هو على مشارف االنهيار‪ .‬لقد كان يبدو وسط شاحنات‪ Ž‬القطن و محطات‪ Ž‬البنزين على سبيل عين متورمة بين‬
‫‪.‬عيون متورمة كذلك‬
‫لقد توجب على اآلنسة إميلي ‪ ،‬أن تنضم إلى أصحاب األلقاب حيث يرقدون في مقبرة حولتها أشجار السيدر إلى متاهة ‪ ،‬و بين أضرحة شهداء أو جنود‬
‫‪.‬مجهولين قاتلوا مع القوات االتحادية و سقطوا في معركة جيفرسون‬
‫كانت اآلنسة إميلي و هي على قيد الحياة واجبا و عبئا ‪ :‬نوع من الضرورة الوراثية المفروضة على القرية ‪ ،‬و ذلك منذ عام ‪ 1894‬حينا أعلن العمدة الفريق‬
‫سارتوريس الذي أصدر قرارا يأمر بعدم خروج امرأة زنجية إلى الشوارع من غير مئزر ‪ ،‬بإسقاط الضرائب عنها ‪ ،‬و كان مفعول هذا القرار يبدأ من وفاة‬
‫‪.‬والدها و حتى نهايات العمر‬
‫ليس من شيم اآلنسة إميلي أن تقبل الصدقة لذلك اختلق الفريق سارتوريس قصة محبوكة زعم فيها أن والد اآلنسة إميلي أقرض البلدة مبلغا من المال ‪ ،‬و على‬
‫هذا األساس ترى البلدة أن ترد الدين بهذا األسلوب حفاظا على المصلحة العامة‪ .‬ليس هناك غير شيخ من جيل و تفكير الفريق سارتوريس وحده يتمكن من‬
‫‪.‬فبركة مثل هذه األساطير ‪ ،‬و ليس هناك غير امرأة واحدة فقط بمقدورها أن تصدق ذلك‬
‫و حينما وصل الجيل الالحق مع منظومة أفكاره الحديثة ‪ ،‬و صبح العمدة و مجلس المدينة منه ‪ ،‬خلقت هذه الترتيبات نوعا من الحرج ‪ .‬و منذ بداية العام‬
‫الجديد أرسلوا إليها استمارة ضرائب‪ .‬و لكن ح ّلّ شهر شباط دون رد‪ .‬فتقدموا إليها بطلب رسمي و دعوها للحضور إلى مكتب قائد الشرطة المحلية متى‬
‫سنحت الفرصة‪ .‬و بعد حوالي أسبوع ذكرها العمدة نفسه برسالة أخرى‪ .‬و فيها عرض خدماته ‪:‬أن يحضر شخصيا‪ ،‬أو أن يرسل لها سيارته‪ .‬و كان الجواب‬
‫الذي تلقاه مجرد مالحظة على شريط من ورق ميت‪ .‬كانت الكلمات‪ Ž‬مكتوبة بخط رفيع و هيروغليفي تقريبا‪ ،‬و بحبر باهت‪ .‬و قالت إنها ال تغادر البيت على‬
‫‪.‬اإلطالق‪ .‬كانت استمارة الضرائب مرفقة داخل المغلف و من غير تعليق أو استجابة‬
‫دعا مجلس البلدة إلى اجتماع خاص ‪ ،‬و ذهب مندوبون عنه لمقبالتها‪ .‬قرعوا الباب الذي لم يتجاوز عتباته زائر منذ توقفت عن إلقاء دروس في النقش على‬
‫الخزف الصيني ‪ ،‬أي من حوالي ثماني إلى عشرة سنوات مضت‪ .‬سمح لهم بالدخول زنجي طاعن بالسن‪ .‬كانت القاعة مظلمة و لها ساللم تقود إلى مزيد من‬
‫العتمات‪ .‬و للمكان رائحة الغبار و اإلهمال‪ ،‬رائحة غريبة تفرض عليك حصارا خانقا‪ .‬ثم أفسح الزنجي لهم الطريق باتجاه ردهة أخرى‪ .‬و تلك كانت مفروشة‬
‫بأثاث جلدي كتيم‪ .‬و حينما فتح الزنجي غطاء إحدى النوافذ ‪ ،‬أصبح بمقدورهم رؤية الجلد القديم المتهالك‪ .‬و في لحظة الجلوس ثارت زوبعة من غبار خفيف‬
‫‪.‬حول أقدامهم‪.‬و كانت حبات الغبار تدور في أشعة الشمس الضعيفة‪ .‬و لكن أمام موقد النار كانت تنتصب صورة لوالد اآلنسة إميلي في إطار من المعدن البارد‬
‫نهضوا لتحيتها لدى دخولها‪ . .‬إنها امرأة بدينة و صغيرة و بثوب أسود‪ .‬تتقلد سسلسة ذهبية رفيعة تتدلى حتى خصرها و تتوارى في حزامها‪ .‬و كانت تتوكأ‬
‫على عكازة من السنديان ‪ ،‬ذات قبضة مغلفة بالذهب الباهت‪ .‬و بالنسبة لقوامها فهو ناعم و معتدل و ربما لذلك السبب إن الترهل عند غيرها يبدو أشبه بالبدانة‬
‫لديها‪ .‬و كان منفوخة مثل امرئ مغمور في المياه الراكدة لفترة طويلة‪ ،‬مع تلك اللمحة التي تحيط بالمرضى و الموبوئين‪ .‬أما عيناها فقد ضاعتا في غضون‬
‫وجهها المتورم‪ ،‬و هما أشبه بقطعتين من الفحم مغروستين في عجينة من غير حدود‪ .‬و كانتا تتحركان من وجه إلى آخر كلما حاول أحد الزوار المشاركة‬
‫‪.‬بالكالم‬
‫لم تطلب منهم الجلوس‪ .‬و اكتفت بالوقوف عند عتبة الباب تبتسم بتهذيب‪ ،‬إلى أن احتبس الكالم على لسان الناطق باسم الجميع‪ .‬ثم أصبح بمقدورهم االنصات‬
‫‪.‬إلى صوت الساعة المتوارية و هي تدق عند نهايات السلسلة الذهبية‬
‫و الحظوا أن صوتها جاف و بارد حين قالت ‪ ":‬أنا ال أدفع الضرائب في جيفرسون‪ .‬الفريق سارتوريس أخبرني بذلك‪ .‬ربما بمقدور أحدكم استشارة سجالت‪Ž‬‬
‫‪ ".‬المدينة ليرضي غروره‬
‫‪.‬فعلنا ذلك ‪ .‬نحن المسؤولون في هذه المدينة يا آنسة إميلي‪ .‬ألم تصلك مذكرة من قائد الشرطة و موقعة بقلمه؟ "‬
‫‪ ".‬قالت اآلنسة إميلي ‪ " :‬نعم ‪ .‬تلقيت ورقة بهذا الخصوص‪ .‬ربما هو قائد الشرطة‪ ...‬و لكن أنا ال أدفع الضرائب في جيفرسون‬
‫‪... ".‬ليس هناك في السجالت ما يؤكد وجهة نظرك‪ .‬و كماترين يجب أن تلتزمي بالـ "‬
‫" عودوا إلى الفريق سارتوريس‪ .‬أنا ال أدفع ضرائب في جيفرسون "‬
‫‪ ...".‬و لكن يا آنسة إميلي "‬
‫‪ !".‬عودوا إلى الفريق سارتوريس ( كان الفريق سارتوريس ميتا منذ قرابة عشرة سنوات ) لتعلموا أنني ال أدفع الضرائب في جيفرسون‪ .‬طوبي "‬
‫‪ ".‬و هنا حضرالزنجي‪ ،‬فأضافت تقول‪ " :‬افتح الباب لهؤالء السادة ليغادروا‬

‫)‪(2‬‬

‫‪.‬لقد طردتهم‪ ،‬كبارا و صغارا ‪ ،‬مثلما فعلت بآبائهم قبل ثالثين عاما ‪ ،‬قبل أن تنتشرهذه الرائحة هنا‬
‫حصل ذلك بعد حوالي عامين من وفاة والدها و بعد فترة قصيرة من رحيل من أحبت‪ ،‬الرجل الذي اعتقدنا أنهاستعقد قرانها عليه‪ .‬في أعقاب وفاة والدها لم تكن‬
‫تغادر البيت إال عند الضرورة ‪ ،‬و لكن بعد غياب حبيبها ‪ ،‬أصبحت فرصة رؤيتها مستحيلة تقريبا‪ .‬حفنة صغيرة من السيدات كانت لديهن النية لزيارتها ‪ ،‬غير‬
‫‪.‬أنها لم تستقبلهن ‪ ،‬و كانت اإلشارة الوحيدة التي تدل على الحياة في المكان هي الرجل الزنجي ‪ ،‬باألحرى الشاب الزنجي الذي يذهب و يأتي بسلة التسوّ ق‬
‫‪ ".‬قالت السيدات ‪ " :‬كما لو أن الرجال على وجه العموم يحسنون القيام بأعباء المطبخ‬
‫إذا لم تتملك السيدات الدهشة حينما انتشرت الرائحة في المكان‪ .‬لقد كانت ارتباطا إضافيا بين عالم رحب و مشغول من جهة و آل غريرسون أصحاب النفوذ و‬
‫‪.‬السمعة‪ Ž‬من جهة ثانية‬
‫‪.‬و قد اشتكت امرأة من الجيران تبلغ ثمانين عاما إلى القاضي ستيفنس عمدة البلدة‬
‫‪".‬فقال ‪ " :‬و لكن ماذا تريد مني أن أفعل يا سيدة ؟‬
‫‪".‬قالت المرأة ‪ " :‬لم ال تطلب منها بكلمة مختصرة أن تضع حدا لذلك‪ .‬أليس هناك قانون ؟‬
‫‪ ".‬قال القاضي ستيفنس ‪ " :‬كلي ثقة أن هذا غير ضروري ‪ .‬ربما فتك عبدها الزنجي بثعبان أو جرذ في باحة البيت‪ .‬سوف أتحدث إليه بهذا الخصوص‬
‫و في اليوم التالي وصلته شكاوى أخرى‪ .‬إحداها من رجل ذكر حيثيات مختلفة قائال ‪ " :‬علينا حقا أن نفعل شيئا أيها القاضي‪ .‬أنا آخر رجل في العالم يفكر‬
‫بإلحاق األذى باآلنسة إميلي ‪ ،‬ولكن ال بد من القيام بإجراء ما "‪ .‬و في تلك الليلة عقد مجلس البلدة اجتماعا ‪ ،‬و حضر ثالث رجال لهم لحى بيضاء‪ ،‬مع رجل‬
‫‪.‬في أول العمر‪ ،‬و من الجيل الصاعد‬
‫‪ ...".‬قال لهم‪ " :‬األمر بغاية البساطة‪ .‬أرسلوا إليها كلمة بخصوص تنظيف المكان‪ .‬و حددوا لها مهلة إلنجاز ذك‪ .‬و إن لم تفعل‬
‫‪".‬قال القاضي ستيفنس ‪ " :‬اللعنة أيها السيد‪ .‬هل تستطيع اتهام امرأة وجها لوجه بجريمة نشر الرائحة النتنة ؟‬
‫في الليلة التالية ‪ ،‬بعد منتصف الليل ‪ ،‬اقتحم أربعة رجال حرمة بيت اآلنسة إميلي و تسللوا من حوله كاللصوص ‪ ،‬و تحروا عن رائحة البيت بدءا من األساس‬
‫اآلجري ‪ ،‬ثم بوابة القبو ‪ ،‬وفي نفس الوقت كان أحدهم يصنع حركات بيده تشبه ما نفعله أثناء البذار‪ ،‬و كانت تتدلى من كتفه جعبة‪ .‬ثم دخال من باب القبو‬
‫ورشوا بعض الجير هناك ‪ ،‬و كذلك فعال بالنسبة للمباني الخارجية ‪ ،‬و حين تقهقروا من البيت ‪ ،‬اشتعل ضوء في نافذة كانت مظلمة ‪ ،‬و جلست وراءها اآلنسة‬
‫إميلي ‪ ،‬كانت اإلضاءة من ورائها ‪ ،‬و قامتها المنتصبة و الثابتة كانت تشبه صنما‪ .‬و هكذا انسحبوا من باحة البيت بسرعة ‪ ،‬ثم خرجوا ليحتموا بخياالت أشجار‬
‫‪.‬األكاسيا الكاذب الذي وقف في صف واحد على طول الشارع‪ .‬و بعد أسبوع ‪ ،‬أو إثنين ‪ ،‬تالشت الرائحة‬
‫تصادف ذلك مع الوقت الذي بدأ به الناس يشعرون حقا باألسف عليها ‪ .‬لقد لحق بمن يذكر خالتها العجوز الكبيرة السيدة وايات مسّ من الحنق ‪ .‬كانوا يعتقدون‬
‫أن آل غريرسون ينسبون ألنفسهم مكانة أعلى مما يجب من الناحية الواقعية‪ .‬حتى أن الشباب في بلدتنا لم يكونوا باعتقادهم على قدر مناسب من الكفاءة‬
‫ليحوزوا على اهتمام اآلنسة إميلي و مثيالتها‪ .‬لقد كنا و لعهود طويلة نرى صورة اآلنسة إميلي عبارة عن امرأة أنيقة في ثوب أبيض تقف في الخلف‪ ،‬و أبوها‬
‫في المقدمة أشبه بطيف أو خيال ‪ ،‬ظهره لها و في يده سوط جواد‪ ،‬و كالهما في إطار الباب األمامي المفتوح‪ .‬لذلك حينما بلغت الثالثين من العمر دون أن‬
‫تتزوج ‪ ،‬لم نكن نشعر بالحبور حيال ذلك تماما‪ .‬لكن كنا عدائيين ‪ ،‬حتى مع األخذ بعين االعتبار خصلة الحمق التي في العائلة ‪ ،‬فيما يتعلق برفض جميع‬
‫‪..‬الفرص السانحة‪ .‬لم يكن هذ تصرفا الئقا منها‬
‫و حينما توفي والدها ‪ ،‬لم يتبق لديها غير هذا البيت‪ .‬و لهذا لسبب غمرت السعادة‪ Ž‬كل من حولها‪.‬أخيرا أصبح بإمكانهم‪ Ž‬أن يشفقوا على اآلنسة إملي‪ .‬لقد هبطت‬
‫‪.‬إلى مرتبة البشر العاديين ألنها وحيدة و فقيرة جدا‪ .‬إنها اآلن سوف تحل أحجية العوز األبدي و اإلحباط األبدي الذي يلحق بالفقراء‬
‫و بعد يوم من وفاته استعدت كل السيدات لزيارة البيت من أجل تقديم واجب العزاء و يد المعونة ‪ ،‬و كالعادة قابلتهم اآلنسة إميلي على عتبات البيت ‪ ،‬و كانت‬
‫في ثيابها المعتادة و من غيرأي أثر في وجهها يدل على الفجيعة ‪ ،‬و أخبرتهم أن الوالد لم يمت بعد‪ .‬فعلت ذلك طوال ثالثة أيام ‪ ،‬حى مع القسس و األطباء‬
‫الذين حضروا شخصيا و حاولوا جهدهم إلقناعها بالتخلص من الجثمان‪ .‬و لم تتراجع إال في آخر لحظة حينما فكروا باالحتكام إلى القضاء و القوة ‪ ،‬و هكذا‬
‫‪.‬قاموا بدفن والدها على وجه السرعة‬
‫لم نقر ‪ ،‬إلى حينه ‪ ،‬بجنونها‪ .‬كنا نعتقد أنها مصيبة لو تصرفت بتلك الطريقة‪ .‬و تذكرنا جميع الشبان الذين طردهم والدها ‪ ،‬و أدركنا أنها بعدخسارة كل شيء‬
‫‪.‬سوف تصر على هذا السلوك الذي تسبب في حرمانها‪ .‬هذا وارد حتى بالنسبة لغيرها لو تشابهت الظروف‬
‫)‪(3‬‬
 ‫ثم رقدت في سرير المرض لفترة طويلة‪ .‬و حينما شاهدناها مجددا ‪ ،‬كان شعرها مصفوفا‪ ،‬لتبدو أشبه بالبنات الصغيرات مع تشابه بسيط و سطحي بالمالئكة‬
‫‪.‬الذين تراهم في كنائس مزينة بنوافذ بيضاء ‪ :‬نوع من المشاعر التراجيدية التي تحترق بصمت‬
‫عقدت البلدة صفقة لتمهيد األرصفة ‪ ،‬و في فصل الصيف بعد وفاة والدها شرعوا بالعمل‪ .‬جاءت‪ Ž‬شركة المقاوالت مع العمال و البغال و اآلالت الالزمة ‪ ،‬و‬
‫في المقدمة رجل يدعى هومير بارون‪ ،‬و هو يانكي ‪ :‬رجل جاهز و ضخم و قاتم ‪ ،‬و له صوت مدو و عينان خفيفتان ال تتناسبان مع مالمح وجهه‪ .‬اعتاد‬
‫األوالد اليافعون أن يرافقوه في جماعات‪ Ž‬ليستمعوا إلى طريقته في تقريع العمال ‪ ،‬و لينصتوا إلى نشيد هؤالء العمال لدى كل ارتفاع و انخفاض معول‪ .‬و‬
‫سريعا ما تعرف على جميع أفراد البلدة‪ .‬و كلما سمعت‪ Ž‬قهقهات جوقة من الناس في الساحة‪ ، Ž‬ال بد أن تجد هومير بارون بينهم‪ .‬أخيرا بدأنا نراه مع اآلنسة‬
‫‪.‬إميلي في مساءات األحد و هما يقودان من االصطبل عربة ذات عجالت ‪ ،‬و معها فرقة من الخيول الحمراء المتناسقة‬
‫أول األمر سررنا ألن اآلنسة إميلي سوف تعود إلى الحياة ‪ ،‬و قالت كل السيدات ‪ " :‬طبعا آل غريرسون ال يأخذون شماليا على محمل الجد ‪ ،‬إنه كادح مياوم‬
‫"‪ .‬و أكد آخرون ‪ ،‬أشخاص طاعنون بالسن ‪ ،‬أنه حتى المصائب ال تفلح في دفع سيدة حقيقية إلى تناسي ضرورات النبالة ‪ :‬و لكنهم لم يلفظوا عبارة "‬
‫ضرورات النبالة " حرفيا ‪ ،‬و اكتفوا بالقول ‪ " :‬يا إليميلي المسكينة ‪ .‬من الواجب أن يأتي أقاربها لزيارتها "‪ .‬كان لها بعض األقارب في أالباما‪ .‬و لكن من‬
‫سنوات طويلة تشاحن والدها معهم‪ Ž‬حول عقارات المرأة الحمقاء السيسدة وايات ‪ ،‬و بعدئذ انقطعت االتصاالت بين العائلتين‪ .‬حتى أنهم لم يرسلوا ممثلين عنهم‬
‫إلى الجنازة ‪.‬و منذ أن سمتها العجائز " إميلي المسكينة " همست بعض األصوات الخافتة تتساءل ‪ " :‬هل تعتقدون أن هذا األمر حقيقي ؟‪ .‬ال شك أنه كذلك‪ .‬و‬
‫‪...".‬ماذا سواه‬
‫كانت األقاويل فطرية في بداياتها ‪ :‬إنها مثل حفيف الحرير الطبيعي و الساتان ‪ ،‬و كانت ناجمة عن الغيرة التي بها غربت شمس يوم األحد ‪ ،‬بينما العاشقان‬
‫‪ ".‬يتنزهان بيسر و سرعة ‪ ،‬تك ‪ ،‬تاك ‪ ،‬تك‪ .‬آنذاك قالوا ‪ " :‬إنها إميلي المسكينة‬
‫رأيناها ترفع رأسها بما فيه الكفاية ‪ ،‬حتى حينما خيل إلينا أنها على وشك السقوط‪ .‬و كانت أكثر مما مضى تطلب ‪ ،‬على ما يبدو ‪ ،‬االعتراف بنسبها كآخر فرد‬
‫من نسل غريرسون كما لو أنها تريد أن تؤكد مكانتها‪ ،‬مثلما حصل يوم ابتاعت سم الفئران ‪ ،‬الزرنيخ ‪ .‬ذلك كان بعد عام من بداية انتشار عبارة " إميلي‬
‫‪.‬المسكينة " ‪ ،‬و حينما حضرت ابنة خالتها لزيارتها‬
‫قالت للصيدلي ‪ " :‬أرغب ببعض السم "‪ .‬كانت يومذاك قد تجاوزت الثالثين من عمرها ‪ ،‬و ذات قوام خفيف يناسب‪ Ž‬امرأة ‪ ،‬و أنحف مما يجب ‪ ،‬بعينين باردتين‬
‫‪.‬و سوداوين ثاقبتين وسط وجه بدين مشدود عند الصدغين و حول الحدقتين ‪ ،‬تماما مثل صورة يجب أن نتخيلها لوجه حارس منارة‬
‫‪".‬و أضافت تقول ‪ " :‬هل لي ببعض السم ؟‬
‫‪ ...".‬أجل يا آنسة إميلي ‪ ،‬و لكن من أي نوع ؟‪ .‬للفئران و ما شابه ؟‪ .‬أنصحك بـ "‬
‫‪ ".‬أرغب بأقوى ما لديك ‪ .‬و ال يهمني االسم "‬
‫‪ ...".‬ذكر الصيدلي عدة أنواع و قال ‪ " :‬إنها تقتل أي شيء حتى لو بحجم فيل ‪ .‬و لكن طلبك‬
‫‪ ".‬قالت اآلنسة إميلي ‪ " :‬زرنيخ ‪ .‬هل هو اختيار جيد ؟‬
‫‪ ...".‬هو ‪ ..‬زرنيخ؟‪ .‬نعم يا سيدتي‪ .‬و لكن ماذا تريدين أن "‬
‫‪ ".‬أريد الزرنيخ "‬
‫‪.‬نظر الصيدلي إليها‪ .‬و ردت عليه بنظرة مماثلة ‪ ،‬و كان وجهها مرفوعا و متصلبا كأنه سارية علم‬
‫‪ ".‬سألها الصيدلي ‪ " :‬و لم ‪ .‬إذا كان هذا طلبك يفرض عليك القانون أن تصرحي بأسباب استخدامه‬
‫ضر الزرنيخ ثم حزمه ‪ ،‬و أحضره‬ ‫نظرت اآلنسة إميلي إليه ‪ ،‬ثم ارتد رأسها نحو الخلف لتضع عينها نصب عينه ‪ ،‬إلى أن انكسرت نظراته‪ .‬و هكذا ذهب و ح ّ‬
‫في علبته الزنجي – الخادم ‪ .‬غير أن الصيدلي ذاته لم يرجع‪ .‬و حينما فتحت العلبة ‪ ،‬هناك ‪ ،‬في البيت ‪ ،‬الحظت الكلمات المكتوبة على الصندوق تحت إشارة‬
‫‪ ".‬الجمجمة و العظمتين ‪ " :‬خصيصا للجرذان‬
‫)‪(4‬‬
‫في اليوم الالحق قلنا جميعا ‪ " :‬ال بد أنها ستقتل نفسها " و أكدنا في نفس الوقت أن هذا هو الحل المثالي لمشكلتها‪ .‬و لكن حينما بدأت بالظهور مع هومير‬
‫بارون ‪ ،‬قلنا ‪" :‬هناك احتمال أنها ستقترن به "‪ .‬ثم أضفنا قائلين ‪ " :‬أو لعلها في مرحلة إقناعه"‪ .‬ذلك أن هومير بارون ذكر في إحدى المناسبات إنه يفضل‬
‫‪ .‬الذكور ‪ ،‬و من الشائع أن يحسو شرابه مع الشباب الذكور في نادي " الوعول البرية "‪ ..‬لم يكن ‪ ،‬فيما يبدو ‪ ،‬رجال أزمع على الزواج‬
‫و من هنا انتشرت في وقت الحق عبارة " يا إليميلي المسكينة "‪ .‬و كانت مشاعر الغيرة تنمو كلما مرا بنا في مساء‪ Ž‬األحد داخل العربة التي تلتمع ‪ :‬رأس‬
‫‪.‬اآلنسة إميلي مرفوع كالعادة بكبرياء ‪ ،‬و قبعة هومير بارون فوق رأسه مثل عرف الديك مع سيجار بين أسنانه ‪ ،‬ثم اللجام و السوط في يد بقفاز أصفر‬
‫في أعقاب ذلك بدأت بعض السيدات تؤكدن أن هذا عار على المدينة و نموذج سيء للشباب‪ .‬و لم يرغب أحد من الرجال في التدخل ‪ ،‬و في الختام أجبرت‬
‫السيدات قس التعميد ‪ ،‬فقد كان أهل اآلنسة إميلي معمدانيين‪ ،‬على زيارتها‪ .‬و لكنه لم يصرح بما جرى بينهما‪ ،‬و رفض أن يكررالزيارة‪ .‬و في األحد التالي‬
‫‪.‬شوهد اإلثنان يقودان العربة في الشوارع ‪ ،‬و في اليوم الذي بعده كتبت زوجإة القس إلى أقرباء إميلي في أالباما‬
‫مرة أخرى و تحت سقف بيتها حضر أقارب لها معهم‪ Ž‬صلة بالدم‪ .‬و قد جلسنا بانتظار ما ينجم عن ذلك‪ .‬في البدابة لم يحصل شيء ‪ ،‬ثم تأكدنا أن الزواج ال بد‬
‫قادم‪ .‬و علمنا أن اآلنسة إميلي ذهبت إلى بائع مجوهرات و طلبت تجهيز منضدة زينة خاصة بالرجال و مطعمة‪ Ž‬بالفضة‪ ،‬مع نقش الحرفين ( هاء ) و ( باء )‬
‫على محتوياتها‪ .‬و بعد يومين فقط سمعنا أنها ابتاعت بذة للرجال و قميص نوم‪ .‬قلنا ‪ " :‬ال شك أنهما على وشك الزواج "‪ .‬لقد كنا فعال نشعر بالغبطة‪ .‬كنا نشعر‬
‫‪.‬بالغبطة ‪ ،‬حقا ‪،‬ألن لقريباتها من بنات الخالة اإلناث نفس سمات‪ Ž‬آل غريرسون ‪ ،‬ربما كان هذا واضحا و جليا أكثر من حالة اآلنسة إميلي ذاتها‬
‫بعدئذ اختفى هومير بارون من أمام أنظارنا‪ ،‬و تناسينا اآلنسة إميلي لبعض الوقت‪ .‬و كان الخادم الزنجي يذهب و يأتي و بيده سلة التسوق لكن الباب بقي مغلقا‪.‬‬
‫و من حين آلخر كنا نشاهدها مقدار لحظة خلف النافذة مثلما حصل حينما رش الرجال الجير‪ .‬و فيما يقارب حوالي ستة أشهر لم تعاود الخروج إلى الشوارع‪.‬‬
‫‪.‬ثم أدركنا أن هذا شيء متوقع أيضا ‪ ،‬كما لو أن شيم والدها و التي تركت أثرا سالبا على حياتها كامرأة في عدة مناسبات كانت أقوى من أن تزول‬
‫و حينما شاهدنا اآلنسة إميلي مجددا ‪ ،‬كانت تميل إلى البدانة و ذات شعر رمادي‪ .‬و في السنوات القليلة التالية كان شعرها يشيب بالتدريج إلى أن أصبح له لون‬
‫الرماد و الحديد كأنه من فلفل و ملح‪ .‬ثم توقف األمر عند هذه الحدود‪ .‬و إلى يوم وفتاتها في الرابعة و السبعين من العمر ‪ ،‬كان شعرها ال يزال قويا بلون‬
‫‪.‬الرماد و الحديد و كأنه لرجل في فورة شبابه‬
‫بقي بابها ‪ ،‬إذا ‪ ،‬صامدا و لم يفتح أبدا‪ ،‬ما عدا لفترة تبلغ ست أو سبع سنوات ‪ ،‬حينما أصبحت في عامها األربعين ‪ ،‬و هي الفترة التي كانت تلقي يها دروسا‬
‫في تزيين الخزف الصيني‪ .‬لقد جهزت أستوديو في واحد من حجرات الطابق األرضي حيث كانت تحضر بنات و حفيدات معاصري الفريق سارتوريس‬
‫بانتظام بنفس الروح المعنوية التي يذهبون بها إلى الكنائس في اآلحاد وبحوزتهم قطعة من خمسة‪ Ž‬و عشرين سنتا لصحن التبرعات ‪.‬و تزامن ذلك مع فترة‬
‫‪.‬إعفائها من الضرائب‬
‫ثم أصبح الجيل الجديد روح البلدة و عمودها الفقري أيضا‪ .‬كبر هواة الرسم بالعمر فانسحبوا من الميدان ‪ ،‬و توقفوا عن إرسال أوالدهم إليها مع األلوان و‬
‫الفراشي الدقيقة و الصور المقصوصة من مجالت نسائية‪ .‬و أوصد الباب األمامي خلف آخر الوافدين ‪ ،‬و لبث موصدا إلى النهاية‪ .‬و عندما حصلت البلدة على‬
‫خدمات‪ Ž‬بريدية بالمجان ‪ ،‬رفضت اآلنسة إميلي من بين لجميع مسوغات األرقام المعدنية فوق بابها ‪ ،‬أو حتى دواعي الصندوق البريدي‪ .‬إنها لم تستجب بهذا‬
‫‪.‬الخصوص ألحد‬
‫يوما بإثر يوم ‪ ،‬و شهرا بعد شهر ‪ ،‬ثم عاما في أعقاب عام ‪ ،‬لحق المشيب بالزنجي و انحنت قامته ‪ ،‬و لكنه واصل الخروج و العودة بسلة التسوق ‪ ،‬و كنا في‬
‫كل عام و في شهر كانون األول بالتحديد نرسل إليها مذكرة الضرائب ‪ ،‬و التي تعود دائما بالبريد في غضون أسبوع ‪ ،‬و من غير اعتمادات‪ .‬أحيانا و على‬
‫فترات متقطعة كنا نشاهدها وراء نوافذ الطابق األرضي ‪ :‬كأنها تخلت أو هجرت الطابق العلوي من دارها ‪ ،‬كانت تشبه جذعا منحوتا على هيئة صنم في‬
‫عرشه‪ .‬و لم نكن على يقين هل هي تبادلنا النظرات أم ال‪ .‬و هكذا دار دوالب الحياة من جيل إلى آخر بمشقة‪ ،‬و بروتين إجباري و من غيرروح و بهدوء و‬
‫‪.‬بعناد‬
‫و في هذه األجواء القت منيتها‪ .‬لقد سقطت طريحة الفراش في بيت مدفون بالغبار و الصور و الخياالت المريضة ‪ ،‬و بحضور زنجي معذب واحد يقوم على‬
‫خدمتها‪ .‬و لم نعلم كم هي مريضة ‪ ،‬لقد يئسنا منذ فترة من اختراق حصون الزنجي لنتحرى عن أخبارها‪ .‬كان ال يتكلم مع أحد ‪ ،‬و ربما هو يلتزم الصمت حتى‬
‫‪.‬بين يديها ‪ .‬و مال صوته ليكون فجا و خشنا و كأنه عاطل عن العمل أو معطوب‬
‫لقد توفيت في حجرة من الطابق السفلي ‪ ،‬و فوق سرير من خشب الجوز ‪ ،‬و كانت الستائر مسدلة ‪ ،‬و رأسها بشعره المرمد األبيض على وسادة صفراء بالية‬
‫‪.‬بسبب النتقادم و العوز إلى اإلضاءة‬

‫)‪( 5‬‬

‫قابل الزنجي السيدات على عتبات الباب و سمح لهن بالدخول ‪ ،‬كانت ألصواتهن رطانة جافة و هامسة‪ .‬أما نظراتهن فقد كانت فضولية و متلصصة‪ .‬اختفى‬
‫الزنجي ‪ ،‬في الواقع ‪ ،‬انسحب إلى اليمين ‪ ،‬و خرج من الباب الخلفي ‪ ،‬و لم يعد بمقدور إحداهن رؤيته‪ .‬ثم حضرت ابنتا الخالة في الحال ‪ ،‬و قامتا بواجب‬
‫التشييع في اليوم الالحق‪ .‬و حضرت البلدة إجماال لتلقي نظرة الوداع على اآلنسة إميلي الراقدة تحت فرشة من الورود بوجه شاحب‪ Ž‬يذكربوالدها‪ .‬كان وجهها‬
‫عميقا و محيرا بمباشرته و إيماءاته الميتة على المنصة و أمام السيدات و أمام الرجال العجائز الذين كان بعضهم في بذات فيدرالية نظيفة‪ .‬و قد وقف هؤالء‬
‫على المصطبة و في الباحة ‪ ،‬يتبادلون الرأي فيما يخص اآلنسة إميلي كما لو أنها واحدة من المعاصرات لهم‪ .‬كانوا يعتقدون أنهم رقصوا معها ‪ ،‬و ربما‬
‫استمتعوا باالنفراد بها ‪ ،‬و لكن األمر اختلط عليهم من ناحية الفترة الزمنية ‪ ،‬مثلما يحصل مع العجائز عموما ‪ ،‬بالنسبة لهم جميعا لم يكن الماضي دربا ميتا و‬
‫مسدودا ‪ ،‬بل هو عبارة عن أرض واسعة و خضراء لم تختننق تماما بلمسات‪ Ž‬البرد القارس ‪ ،‬و ال تفصلهم عنه غير آخر عنق زجاجة ‪ ،‬لعها المرحلة الراهنة‬
‫‪.‬من الوقت الحاضر‬
‫كنا نعلم على وجه اليقين بوجود حجرة واحدة في تلك الزاوية من المنزل ‪ ،‬و هي في الطابق الثاني ‪ ،‬و لكن لم يدخل إليها أحد ألربعين عاما على التوالي‪ .‬كان‬
‫‪.‬الواجب يقضي بضرورة فتحها آلن‪ .‬انتظرنا مواراة جثمان اآلنسة إميلي الثرى قبل أن نقتحمه‬
‫كان ذلك إلجراء عنيفا و مأل الحجرة بالغبار البغيض‪ .‬الحظنا أن األثاث الذي يشبه جهاز عرس قد ترك على الحجرة من الداخل رهبة األضرحة ‪ :‬سواء فوق‬
‫الستائر القصيرة التي لها لون الزهر الخفيف ‪ ،‬أو على األضواء المتوردة و الشاحبة ‪ ،‬و على منضدة الزينة ‪ ،‬ثم على صف الكريستال األنيق و الثمين ‪ ،‬و‬
‫‪.‬أخيرا على أدوات الزينة الخاصة بالذكور و المدهونة بالفضة ‪ ،‬كانت الفضة باهتة و تغطي الزخارف و النقوش بشيء من اإلبهام‬
‫و بين ذلك تجد ربطة عنق و ياقة ‪ ،‬و كأنها نزعت للتو من صاحبها ‪ ،‬و لدى حملها باليد كانت ترسم في مكانها أثر هالل من الغبار‪ .‬و على أحد المقاعد تجد‬
‫‪.‬بذة مطوية بعناية ‪ ،‬و تحتها حذاء أبكم و جوارب مهملة‪ .‬و كان الرجل ذاته راقدا على السرير‬
‫لفترة من الوقت وقفنا هناك ننظر إلى الجثمان العميق الذي قطب أساريره‪ .‬من الواضح أن الجثمان كان يستلقي بحالة عناق ‪ ،‬و لكنه بعد هذا الرقاد الطويل‬
‫الذي عمره يتساوى مع ربيع حبها‪ ،‬الذي كان يختزن بؤرة الحب الوبائي ‪ ،‬تحول إلى ما يشبه وهما‪ .‬ما تبقى منه كان يفسد ببطء تحت قميص النوم وعلى‬
‫‪.‬السرير الذي رقد عليه بما في ذلك الوسادة التي تكللها طبقة من عالمات‪ Ž‬المرض ثم الغبار‬
‫و الحظناعلى الوسادة األخرى أثرا يدل على رأس‪ .‬تناول أحد الموجودين بيده شيئا كان عليها‪ ،‬و تأمله فالحظ أنه من غبار خفي و غامض له رائحة جافة‪ Ž‬و‬
‫‪.‬قوية‪ .‬ثم رأينا جميعا أن هذا ليس إال خصلة طويلة من شعر بلون رماد الحديد‬