A Rose For Emily Grierson Character Analysis

Kelsey Francis
English 1102-111
Dr. T. Bozeman
4 February 2012
Character Analysis “A Rose for Emily” An Unknown author once quoted, “Life is a rose, beware of the thorns.” In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, Emily Grierson is considered to be the protagonist. As the story develops, Emily Grierson goes from being a beautiful rose to becoming an isolated, sneaky, lonely but psychotic character. In the story “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner gives the audience the impression that Emily becomes an isolated person due to the many turning events in her life. After being isolated for many years from the town, things changed and the newer generation went to Miss Emily asking her to pay taxes. Her response was for them to see Colonel Sartoris. According to the story, Colonel Sartoris had been dead for almost ten years. (Faulkner 92). As the story moves on, she got very sick and by the time the townspeople saw her again she had a short haircut and looked very tragic (Faulkner 93). During the time Miss Emily’s was isolated for six months, her housekeeper Tobe, ran her errands for her (Faulkner 95). After those months passed,
the townspeople noticed that Emily’s physical appearance changed. “When we next saw Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray to where it eventually turned salt and pepper gray.” (Faulkner 95). Faulkner provides evidence that a lot of time passes and allows Miss Emily to change and for the audience to see how different each setting with her was different. Because she was isolated and gone for so long, the people that knew of Emily found her sneaky in a mysterious way. The way Emily moved in a sneaky yet mysterious way in the story was very interesting. After the townspeople were complained to Judge Stevens about the scent of the house where she lived, Miss Emily watched the people of her city from her window walk across her lawn to sprinkle lime to help remove the scent. “…..as they sprinkled lime to help the scent to go away, and it did after two weeks.” (Faulkner 93). This made the audience question why there was a smell by or in her house if she had a housekeeper. Also, another example of this specific characteristic of Emily is where she proceeded to buy the arsenic. According to the story, it was required of her to explain why she wanted to buy the arsenic but she refused to tell of her plans (Faulkner 94). A final example of this is where she didn’t want the townspeople to fasten the numbers on her house or to attach the mailbox to distinguish someone living in the house (Faulkner 95). Around this time, the town was receiving free postal service and she didn’t want to take part in any of it. The local townspeople could not tell whether she was looking or not looking at them; remaining at a standstill in the window downstairs. She completely shut off the top floor of the house to make herself look more sneaky and mysterious (Faulkner 95). Furthermore, Emily was considered to be lonely as well. After the death of her father, Emily was adamant about keeping her father’s body in the house. The doctors tried to come to her to give her help to release the body from the house but she refused. The only love she knew was the love of her father. He was the only dominant person in her life and was protective over her. She broke down finally before law enforcement came to the house to dispose of his body properly (Faulkner 93). As a whole, Emily’s behavior through the entire story presents the audience with the insight that she was psychotic. After the death of her father, she held on to his body and was in denial that he was dead when the townspeople came to offer their condolences (Faulkner 93). After losing the most important man in her life, she found another man named Homer Barron. With the mindset of them getting married, she proceeded to buy marital things such as a toilet set in silver with his initials engraved on it (Faulkner 94). After the death of Emily, they uncovered the room that Homer Barron’s dead body was in. They saw the indentation of a head in the pillow next to where his body was laying. “…… then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head (Faulkner 96). The evidence that was provided in the story shows that Emily’s behavior was abnormal due to her upbringing by her father. Overall, Faulkner has provided supporting evidence as to why Emily was considered these different characteristics such as isolated, sneaky, and lonely.
One example of her being isolated was where the townspeople noticed her physique changing having a short haircut and her falling sick. An example of her being sneaky was where she sat still in the room when the men came to sprinkle the lime around the house to eliminate the odor that was brewing around the house. An example of her being lonely was where she displayed the love of her father by holding on to his body. Due to the fact that the only love she ever felt for a man was that from her father. Her father drove away every man that could have possibly been someone for Emily. All these characteristics with their supporting evidence prove why Emily is portrayed in the story the way that she
is.

Works Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily”. Roberts, Edgar V., and Zweig, Robert. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New York: American, 2012. Print.