A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by William Faulkner that explores themes of isolation, tradition, and the complexities of social change in the American South. The narrative follows the life of Miss Emily Grierson, a reclusive woman whose life is marked by her father's overbearing control and her subsequent social withdrawal after his death. Following her father’s passing, she struggles to connect with the community and faces a mysterious illness that further isolates her.
The story unfolds with Emily’s brief relationship with Homer Barron, which is viewed unfavorably by the townspeople due to their differing social backgrounds. Despite the townspeople's attempts to intervene, their efforts to help Emily are complicated by their own prejudices and misconceptions. As the years pass, Emily's eccentricities deepen, and she remains firmly rooted in her past, defying societal expectations.
Her eventual death reveals the tragic culmination of her loneliness and mental decline, as the townspeople discover unsettling secrets within her home. Ultimately, Faulkner's story examines the profound effects of isolation and the tension between personal desires and societal norms, leaving readers to reflect on the nature of human connection and the passage of time in a changing world.
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A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
First published: 1930
Type of work: Short fiction
Type of plot: Gothic
Time of plot: ca. 1865–1924
Locale: Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi
Principal Characters
Miss Emily Grierson , an eccentric aristocratHomer Barron , her lover, and a construction supervisorColonel Sartoris , Jefferson’s mayor, a war heroThe townspeople of Jefferson ,Tobe , Miss Emily’s servant
The Story
As a child, Miss Emily Grierson had been cut off from most social contact and all courtship by her father. When he dies, she refuses to acknowledge his death for three days. After the townspeople intervene and bury her father, Emily is further isolated by a mysterious illness, possibly a mental breakdown.
Homer Barron’s crew comes to town to build sidewalks, and Emily is seen with him. He tells his drinking buddies that he is not the marrying kind. The townspeople consider their relationship improper because of differences in values, social class, and regional background. Emily buys arsenic and refuses to say why. The ladies in town convince the Baptist minister to confront Emily and attempt to persuade her to break off the relationship. When he refuses to discuss their conversation or to try again to persuade Miss Emily, his wife writes to Emily’s Alabama cousins. They come to Jefferson, but the townspeople find them even more haughty and disagreeable than Miss Emily. The cousins leave town.
Emily buys a men’s silver toiletry set, and the townspeople assume marriage is imminent. Homer is seen entering the house at dusk one day, but is never seen again. Shortly afterward, complaints about the odor emanating from her house lead Jefferson’s aldermen to surreptitiously spread lime around her yard, rather than confront Emily, but they discover her openly watching them from a window of her home.
Miss Emily’s servant, Tobe, seems the only one to enter and exit the house. No one sees Emily for approximately six months. By this time she is fat and her hair is short and graying. She refuses to set up a mailbox and is denied postal delivery. Few people see inside her house, though for six or seven years she gives china-painting lessons to young women whose parents send them to her out of a sense of duty.
The town mayor, Colonel Sartoris, tells Emily an implausible story when she receives her first tax notice: The city of Jefferson is indebted to her father, so Emily’s taxes are waived forever. However, a younger generation of aldermen later confronts Miss Emily about her taxes, and she tells them to see Colonel Sartoris (now long dead, though she refuses to acknowledge his death). Intimidated by Emily and her ticking watch, the aldermen leave, but they continue to send tax notices every year, all of which are returned without comment.
In her later years, it appears that Emily lives only on the bottom floor of her house. She is found dead there at the age of seventy-four. Her Alabama cousins return to Jefferson for the funeral, which is attended by the entire town out of duty and curiosity. Emily’s servant, Tobe, opens the front door for them, then disappears out the back. After the funeral, the townspeople break down a door in Emily’s house that, it turns out, had been locked for forty years. They find a skeleton on a bed, along with the remains of men’s clothes, a tarnished silver toiletry set, and a pillow with an indentation and one long iron-gray hair.
Bibliography
Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha County. New Haven: Yale UP, 1963. Print.
Du Fang. "Who Make a Devil out of a Fair Lady? —An Analysis of the Social Causes of Emily's Tragedy in 'A Rose for Emily.'" Canadian Social Science 3.4 (2007): 18–24. Print.
Harris, Paul A. "In Search of Dead Time: Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" Kronoscope 7.2 (2007): 169–83. Print.
Kirk, Robert W., and Marvin Klotz. “A Rose for Emily.” Faulkner’s People: A Complete Guide and Index to the Characters in the Fiction of William Faulkner. Berkeley: U of California P, 1963. Print.
Melczarek, Nick. "Narrative Motivation in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" Explicator 67.4 (2009): 237–43. Print.
Porter, Carolyn. William Faulkner. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
Skei, Hans H. “A Rose for Emily.” Reading Faulkner’s Best Short Stories. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1999. Print.
Towner, Theresa M. The Cambridge Introduction to William Faulkner. New York: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.
Towner, Theresa M., and James Carothers. “A Rose for Emily.” Reading Faulkner’s Collected Stories. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999. Print.
Wagner-Martin, Linda, ed. William Faulkner: Six Decades of Criticism. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2002. Print.