Miss Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the voices of the townspeople and narrator paint a character portrait of Miss Emily as a reclusive woman who doesn’t have the strongest grasp on reality. Despite her odd behavior and refusal to accept the evolving world around her, the town collectively feels a “respectful affection” (391) for her, though it eventually gives way to morbid curiosity and finally fear. Though it is found out she may have done bad things, she is not a bad person and had her life been different her story could have had a much happier ending.
Emily Grierson grew up a sheltered girl in an upper class family, their home set on what had once been the town’s most select street. Her father believing no man was good
enough for her (“. . . we remembered all the young men her father had driven away…” 393), chased away any male suitors causing his daughter to be unwed and the lonely sole occupant of the home she inherited when he passed away. The only stable company she has inside her home is Tobe, her servant; though he doesn’t seem much one for conversation (“He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.” 396). The first evidence of Emily’s questionable sanity comes at the time of her father’s passing. When the ministers and doctors came to collect her father’s remains, “She told them her father was not dead. She did this for 3 days.” 393). Grieving can make reality difficult to accept, however when tax time comes she also refuses to accept she has to pay taxes. She seems to only accept her own reality, seemingly out of touch with the real world. Perhaps if she were encouraged to socialize instead of having her heart held captive from potential love, she could have been driven a bit less insane from the loneliness.
Sometime after her father’s death, Emily met a day laborer named Homer Barron who had come into town to oversee the paving of the streets. Being a day laborer and a Northerner, some of the older townspeople especially did not approve of the couple and thought her kin should be called to intervene. Generally though, the town felt a glimmer of hope that her newfound companion would be able to banish some of the loneliness that encouraged her to be so reclusive. Though he was not of the same social class her family came from, and enjoyed the company of men, it was the first time Emily had a companion outside of her home and the townspeople had genuine home he may be the one to make Emily a wife. When she was seen in town ordering an engraved man’s toilet set in silver with the letters H. B. on each piece and a complete outfit of men’s clothes, it almost seemed certain.
Emily’s kin was eventually called upon by the minister’s wife, and arrived to stay with Emily.
While there, Emily made one of her rare trips into town to visit the pharmacy for the sole purpose of procuring poison. When the druggist informed her that the law requires her to tell what it will be used for, she responds with only a stare. He decides to comply with her wishes and wraps the arsenic up, taking it upon himself to write “For Rats” on the package. Her problems were clearly not of the rodent variety, and the next day the townspeople all said “She will kill herself” (395). When Homer was not seen around town again, it was thought that he had gone on to prepare for Emily’s arrival or to allow her time to dispose of her cousins. When her family finally did depart, Homer arrived within three days and it seemed things would finally fall into place in Emily’s life. After his initial arrival back at Emily’s door, the townspeople never saw him again, and Emily was left to loneliness once
again.
Time marched on like it so stubbornly does and Emily grew older and grey.
Each December she was sent a tax notice, and every time it was returned to the Post Office. The door to her dark and dusty home remained closed, and save for her servant Miss Emily was alone. When she passed away at 74, her cousins came at once to take care of the arrangements. Humans are by nature nosy creatures, and as the townspeople filed into the home in which no one had ventured in so many years they looked about in “quick, curious glances” (396). After Miss Emily was decently in the ground, they ventured up to the second floor of her home and to the door of a room no one had seen in over 40 years. They broke down the door, finding it covered in dust and furnished for a bride. A monogramed man’s silver toilet set lay on the dressing table, and the man, at least what was left of him, lay in the bed. On the pillow next to the corpse lay a long, gray
hair.
Miss Emily took a life, but she is far from being a cold-blooded killer. She is guilty of feeling too much – so much sadness, such loneliness it caused her psyche to break. She was captive even after her father was deceased, “..as if the quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.” (395). Perhaps if she had been allowed to date and socialize early in life, or even if the townspeople had intervened and made more of an effort to include her in goings-on, she would not have been driven mad. Emily is not the only one who is guilty for the death of Homer, and while he never made her a bride, she did get to spend the rest of her life with the man that she loved.