Analyzing William Faulkner's 'A Rose For Emily'

Brianna Sone
Panto
English 51
Extra credit
29 April 2013
“A Rose for Emily” This is a 1930 short story by William Faulkner, who described the title as “an allegorical title; the meaning was, here is a woman who has a tragedy, a tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and when he pitied her it was a salute… to a woman you would hand a rose.” This story takes place in Faulkner’s fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha. This was Faulkner’s first short story published in a national magazine. Emily had an increasingly insane behavior throughout her life and the story begins with the death of Emily and her funeral. Emily was part of a family in the antebellum Southern aristocracy. After the civil
war, it was just her father and her left. When her father died, she refused to believe he was dead for three days. After Emily does finally accept her father has pasted she gets very friendly with a contractor that paves the sidewalks, named Homer.
Emily’s closets family members are her distant cousins that have had a grudge against her and her father for several years. When they come into town, they quickly gain a reputation but the sentiment of the town rallies behind Emily regardless if the cousins want to accept it or not. While the cousins are in town, Emily buys arsenic, which the neighbors believe was bought to poison herself. However, there is talk about marriage between Homer and her, so the town does not think Emily would do that if she is planning on marring Homer. Homer leaves for a little while to give Emily a chance to get rid of her cousins. Homer returns three days after the cousins have left and one of the neighbors reported seeing him go into the house that night which is the last that the neighborhood sees of either of them for a long time. Before Emily’s father died, Emily behaved very haughtily and she returned to this behavior during this time. A strong odor appears to be coming from the inside of Emily’s house but because of her behavior, the city council cannot confront her. Instead, they send men to sprinkle lime around her house to make the stench go away. During this horrible time Emily never comes out of the house
and rarely lets anyone inside, she has a servant that does all her shopping for her. Emily’s death sparks curiosity because she was such a huge institution and after her funeral men go into to her house to see what is left and what has been hiding for so long. Inside her bedroom on the bed lies all of her possessions that had been purchased for the wedding and next to all this lies the corpse of Homer; on the pillow beside him is an indentation of a head and a single thread of hair.
Despite the family’s fallen fortunes, Emily was not allowed to be married. She eventually settles for Homer, but the town thinks this is an affront of her noble heritage, and she eventually murders Homer and dies a recluse. Personally I think this short story is a tad bit crazy, chaotic, and out of place and definitely not something that would happen today in modern time but does flow very good and is indeed a woman you would give a rose…