Albu Constantin Daniel, Ro-En, L131.

A ROSE FOR EMILY

The story is divided into five section. In the first section, we find out that Miss Emily
has died and also we get some clues about the town`s relationship with her. What stands out
is the fact that the narrator uses the pronoun form we all the time. The town tells the story of
what they saw and believe. We never get to see Miss Emily talking to us, or even to herself.
We dont have any chances to get inside of her head and empathize with her. We don`t know
what she is thinking, and that is a way of making things more ambiguous. We are just
observing from the outside, in the same way as the town observes. Getting back to the first
section, Miss Emily looks like a weight for the town. Alive, Miss Emily had been a
tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, reading
furthermore, we find that she refuses to pay her taxes. Then the town, after sending her a
note, without any success, called a special meeting. A deputation was sent to her house, but
her behavior and answers only make things more confusing. She is acting rude, doesnt ask
them to sit and doesnt let them talk. When they run out of words she tells them that she has
no taxes to pay: I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps
one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves. Even if they try to
explain her that they have already checked, and she does have taxes to pay, she refuses to
believe it. This is the first sign that proves us the fact that she lives in her own version of
reality.
The second section sents us even further back in time where the leaders of that time
also had a problem with her. More precise, a problem with a smell coming from her house.
This happened two years after her father`s death and shortly after her sweetheart deserted her.
After getting more complains from the neighbours, the council decides not to confront her but
instead, to send four man who acted more like burglars in order to clean her cellar. When they
recrossed her lawn a window that had been dark was lighted and she saw them. After a week
or two the smell went away. This is the moment when people from the city starts to feel sorry
for her. Also, this is the moment when her mentally unstable aunt, the lady Wyatt is
mentioned. A hint that tells us the fact that mental illness may be something hereditary and
Miss Emily is susceptible as well. One other thing that we find in this section is that when her
father died she refused to believe it. This is again a sign that proves us the fact that she lives
1

Albu Constantin Daniel, Ro-En, L131.

in her own version of reality. The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the
house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door,
dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not
dead. She did that for three days... This kind of behavior is the result of an unsuitable
relation with her father. 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. An overprotecting father that ruled her life and prevented her for starting any
real and independent life may cause this kind of response. She may cling on her father, the
person who had taken away all her chances for a real life, and now when he`s dead, she
cannot let him go, because he represented the only life that she ever had. This is another hint
that shows us the fact that she may be mentally unstable. She has antecedents in family and
an overprotecting father that may caused her troubles.
In the third part of the story, we meet her sweetheart, Homer Barron, who was an
Yankee that came in the town with a group of men in order to pave the sidewalks. The fact
that he`s an Yankee makes him some kind of a symbol in the story. After the Civil War the
Yankees came to the South in order to exploit and to profit from the situation. In that
circumstances, Miss Emily may represent the old South in relationship with the north. When
the town sees them getting closer to Emily, they were glad at first, but then they started being
concerned . At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies
all said,

<<Of

course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer. >>

But there were still others, older people, who said that not even grief could not cause a real
lady to forget noblesse oblige. The town become so concerned about the fact that Miss
Emily spent too much time with that man, that they called for her relatives. The moment
when two female cousins visited her coincides with the moment when she buys the poison,
the arsenic. In that scene when she buys the poison, the druggist by law has to know for what
she`s going to use the arsenic. But she refuses to answer him, she thinks that she`s above the
law and just stares at him until he gets intimidated and sells her the Arsenic.
In the fourth section, there is presented the fact that the town at first believes that she
will kill herself because they have been hearing things about her sweetheart, and he doesnt
look like a marrying man. But then Miss Emily buys the kind of things that were bought for
weddings. Then we were sure that they were to be married. We learned that Miss Emily had
been to the jeweler's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each
piece. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men's clothing,
including a nightshirt, and we said,

<<They

are married.>>. But after that a neighbour saw

Albu Constantin Daniel, Ro-En, L131.

her sweetheart entering her house and no one sees him again and everybody thinks that he left
her, fact strengthened also by her behavior, for almost six months she did not appear on the
streets. The time passed away and at the end of section four she dies and the flashback ends.
We are again at the begining of the story, after we find some things about her, about her
controlling father, about her failed romance, and her relationship with the town.
In the last section all the strange things gets an explication, in a room above the stairs
the people from the town find the corpse of Homer Barron. But more than that, the room
looks like it`s prepared for a wedding. There they see the silver man's toilet set as well as the
outfit of men's clothing that was bought, including that nightshirt. The room looks like it tries
to preserve the time. The time when she was dating him. The body lain in a attitude of an
embrace as if it`s huging someone. But more than that ...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.
She was sleeping in the same bed with the dead man. Now not only the smell and arsenic
have an explication, but also the little hints that the author sprinkled around the story, like the
fact that she had an mental unstable aunt or the fact that her father was too protective in an
unnecessary way, have a finality. She proved that she really had mental problems. One other
aspects that draw attention is the fact that in almost every scene of the house the author insert
the word dust. In that context the dust become the simbol of preserving the time.
Faulkner presents us not only the theme of a different version of reality, but also the
theme of isolation. A rose for Emily is clearly a story about extreme isolation, not only
emotional one, but also a physical one. The entire story presents us the way in which a person
isolates herself from the community in which he lives. Another other important theme is the
image of America. The author tries to present us the struggle beetwen the old and new, as
well as the north and south. In that context, Miss Emily is a symbol of the old south that
cannot change and move forward with the new ideas. She just had to die in so the town could
move forward.
The beauty of this story consists in the authors choice of using narrative techniques
such as flashbacks and the stream of consciousness. If the story had been written in a
different way it woudn`t had been as captivating as it is. The story tries to mirror the
amesement of the town when they find out the truth.