Emily Grierson's Death
"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition," the narrator of William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” tells us. To the people of Jefferson, Miss Emily is a figure of awe and source of fascinating stories. Within this short story, Faulkner explores the life and death of an eccentric, stubborn and traditionally minded woman who refuses to change with the times and embrace the early twentieth century. The character of Emily Grierson is a symbol of tradition and tradition's struggle against the influence of the future.
Emily Grierson is a relic of an earlier time and a symbol of past traditions. This is evidenced in both her personality and in her lifestyle. Emily is an intimidating figure, even in her old age. Most notable is her house which is “on …show more content…
what was once our most select street…lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps,” (Faulkner, 204). Like the house, Emily seems to lift herself above the everyday modern world, as evidenced in her refusal to pay her taxes because of Colonel Sartoris’ edict, which “[o]nly a man of Colonel Sartoris’s generation could have invented…and only a woman could have believed” (204). When mailboxes and house numbers become commonplace; Emily refuses to allow them to be placed on her house. During her forties, Emily taught china painting lesson for about “six or seven years” (210). The narrator then continues the theme of Emily being stuck in the past by adding that eventually, “the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her” (210). Emily’s refusals to change are tolerated by the council out of respect as well as the fact that they find her intimidating. After her father’s death however, she loses some of her grandeur because “alone and a pauper, she had become humanized” (207). The newer generations of townspeople see her as a relic of the past and a topic of interesting gossip, though at her funeral, the oldest men in their Confederate uniforms talked “of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her” (211).
Emily’s life is full of the changes that come with the passage of time. However, she does not accept modern times like others in her town. When the town council visits her house in an attempt to convince her to pay her taxes and she refuses, they do not simply leave her house afterwards, they are “vanquished” (206). When the townspeople assume that Homer Barron will not marry Emily because he is “not a marrying man,” Emily seems to have taken matters into her own hands by killing him and keeping his body in the house because she was unwilling to accept that he wanted to leave. When the bedroom is opened after Emily’s death, the room remains ready for a newly married Emily to return to, the only differences being “the man’s toilet things backed with…silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured,” the dust covered wedding clothes and Homer’s body in the bed. This is evidence of Emily’s struggle to prevent her life from changing.
Another theme in “A Rose for Emily” is death.
There are three deaths specifically mentioned in the story. The earliest death is the death of Emily’s father; the second is the death of Emily’s beau, Homer; and the third death is Emily’s. When her father dies she tells the townspeople that her father is “not dead” for “three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (207). The townspeople were not surprised by this because “with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (207). Emily’s death is a major event in the lives of the people of Jefferson and the “whole town went to her funeral… out of respectful affection for a fallen monument” (204). The death of Homer is not revealed until the end of the story, because it is not discovered until after’s Emily’s death. The townspeople find Homer’s body after breaking down the door to one of the bedrooms. However, Faulkner wrote details into the story which make the fact that Emily killed him plausible. One of these details is the mention of Emily’s purchase of arsenic. When the druggist questions her about it, Emily refuses to answer. This purchase, tied with the story of the strange smell coming from Emily’s house and the discovery of Homer “rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt…inextricable from the bed in which he lay” and covered in dust in Emily’s house implies that Emily killed Homer (211). Emily spends her life surrounded by death and kept Homer’s body in the house because “the quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die”
(209).
Miss Emily Grierson is an intimidating, old-fashioned source of fascination to the people of the town of Jefferson. Her house is the only one of its kind, “decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the…style of the seventies” on her street. When she is asked to pay her taxes, she refuses to pay them and is allowed to refuse to pay them. Emily is a symbol of the past’s conflict with the emerging future, as well as the struggle between the culture of the Old South and the modern world.
Emily Grierson is a relic of an earlier time and a symbol of past traditions. This is evidenced in both her personality and in her lifestyle. Emily is an intimidating figure, even in her old age. Most notable is her house which is “on …show more content…
what was once our most select street…lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps,” (Faulkner, 204). Like the house, Emily seems to lift herself above the everyday modern world, as evidenced in her refusal to pay her taxes because of Colonel Sartoris’ edict, which “[o]nly a man of Colonel Sartoris’s generation could have invented…and only a woman could have believed” (204). When mailboxes and house numbers become commonplace; Emily refuses to allow them to be placed on her house. During her forties, Emily taught china painting lesson for about “six or seven years” (210). The narrator then continues the theme of Emily being stuck in the past by adding that eventually, “the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her” (210). Emily’s refusals to change are tolerated by the council out of respect as well as the fact that they find her intimidating. After her father’s death however, she loses some of her grandeur because “alone and a pauper, she had become humanized” (207). The newer generations of townspeople see her as a relic of the past and a topic of interesting gossip, though at her funeral, the oldest men in their Confederate uniforms talked “of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her” (211).
Emily’s life is full of the changes that come with the passage of time. However, she does not accept modern times like others in her town. When the town council visits her house in an attempt to convince her to pay her taxes and she refuses, they do not simply leave her house afterwards, they are “vanquished” (206). When the townspeople assume that Homer Barron will not marry Emily because he is “not a marrying man,” Emily seems to have taken matters into her own hands by killing him and keeping his body in the house because she was unwilling to accept that he wanted to leave. When the bedroom is opened after Emily’s death, the room remains ready for a newly married Emily to return to, the only differences being “the man’s toilet things backed with…silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured,” the dust covered wedding clothes and Homer’s body in the bed. This is evidence of Emily’s struggle to prevent her life from changing.
Another theme in “A Rose for Emily” is death.
There are three deaths specifically mentioned in the story. The earliest death is the death of Emily’s father; the second is the death of Emily’s beau, Homer; and the third death is Emily’s. When her father dies she tells the townspeople that her father is “not dead” for “three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (207). The townspeople were not surprised by this because “with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (207). Emily’s death is a major event in the lives of the people of Jefferson and the “whole town went to her funeral… out of respectful affection for a fallen monument” (204). The death of Homer is not revealed until the end of the story, because it is not discovered until after’s Emily’s death. The townspeople find Homer’s body after breaking down the door to one of the bedrooms. However, Faulkner wrote details into the story which make the fact that Emily killed him plausible. One of these details is the mention of Emily’s purchase of arsenic. When the druggist questions her about it, Emily refuses to answer. This purchase, tied with the story of the strange smell coming from Emily’s house and the discovery of Homer “rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt…inextricable from the bed in which he lay” and covered in dust in Emily’s house implies that Emily killed Homer (211). Emily spends her life surrounded by death and kept Homer’s body in the house because “the quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die”
(209).
Miss Emily Grierson is an intimidating, old-fashioned source of fascination to the people of the town of Jefferson. Her house is the only one of its kind, “decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the…style of the seventies” on her street. When she is asked to pay her taxes, she refuses to pay them and is allowed to refuse to pay them. Emily is a symbol of the past’s conflict with the emerging future, as well as the struggle between the culture of the Old South and the modern world.