“A Rose for Emily” is a short story written by William Faulkner. The short story is divided into five parts. In part one, the author gives a narration of Emily’s death and the way the towns-men attended her burial at her home. The second part recaps Emily’s last thirty years when she resisted inquiry from the town officials to search her house after town-people noted strong stench coming from her house. The third part recounts the long illness Emily suffered after the occurrence in part two. In the fourth part the author narrates the fears for Emily to take her own life after a sour marriage to Homer. In the very last part, the narrator describes what happened after the death of Emily. As the current paper depicts, in the short story A Rose for Emily, the author tries to develop the concept of death and dying as an integral part of people’s lives.
The first section of the story begins with Emily’s burial which has been attended by almost every member of the township. The reason behind the mass attendance is the fact that men feel attracted to her hence sees her like a fallen monument, while women attend out of curiosity. Emily’s house has been a no-go zone for more than a decade apart from Emily and Tobe, the servant (Bassett 37). Her house is a magnificent one painted white built during the 1870’s on the then paramount street. However, the building now looks ugly since the street has grown to an industrial area and many modern buildings have been erected. Miss Emily has been like a tradition among the townspeople hence inherited her. This started the year 1894 after the death of Emily’s father. She was left without money though the house was left to her by the father. For this reason, town’s mayor, colonel Sartoris came up with a way of making Emily become exempted from tax payment on her building (Bassett 38). This was done through creation of an imaginary credit that they said was given by her dad to the municipality which they pretended the municipality was paying Emily in the form of tax exemption. The narrator tries to bring out clearly that people’s actions are prompted by different things. He also demonstrations how conditions can change with time or how dynamic the world can be.
Unfortunately, Emily is forced to remit tax when the township begins to be run by another generation. On her failure to do so and all efforts seems futile, some representatives are sent to her house to ask for the duty. On arrival, the servant allows them in. The house looks smelly, dark and very dusty (Blythe 49). When Emily enters the house, the representatives asks for the tax which she tells them to consult the late colonel. After a long argument over the same, the former china-painting tutor instructs her servant to force the representatives out of the house. The story portrays how change in leadership in any society can affect different issues within the society. It also shows how hard it can be to bring a change to people’s way of life.
The second section of the story starts where Emily vanquishes the representatives as she did to their fathers three decades ago when they wanted to inspect her house over unpleasant odor (van Stralen 9). The odor started few years’ after her father’s death and after being left by her boyfriend. The complaint about the smell is reported to the mayor, judge Stevens by Emily’s neighbors. The mayor lacks a way of politely telling her that her roses have an awful smell (Bassett 39). Therefore, representatives storm her house to scatter lime to areas of their reach.at that time, Emily is motionless watching through a window in upstairs.In few weeks’ time, the smell disappears and townsmen starts pitying Emily (Alhaj 27). This proofs the inferiority nature of Grierson family as opposed to their former thought. The narrator comes to understand that Wyatt, Emily’s great-aunt was insane and Emily’s dad thought that there was no better man for Emily in the township (Faulkner). The poverty associated with Emily gives neighbors a reason to pity her and put her in the class of normal human beings. As per this section, the narrator exhibits how some people can use force to get what they want. He also shows how it is unwise to judge situations on the basis of their appearance.
Once the ladies in the neighborhood got the news of Emily’s father demise, they went to give their condolences, where they found Emily in great sorrow.it took her three days to accept the reality. Through the efforts of preachers as well as the doctors, Emily accepted the fact and the funeral service was conducted. This fact made the townspeople belief that Emily’s father was everything to her though he had “robbed her” (Faulkner). The author demonstrates how some situations in life are hard to accept.
The third section begins with Emily’s long illness after the demise of her father. The first time she resurfaces, she wears an innocent look full of sadness. During this period, Homer Barron, a man supervising a project aimed at paving sidewalks in the town, enters the picture. The man seems to like partying such that his presence is well noticed by the townsmen (Blythe 50). He later starts giving Emily some rides. This relieves the townspeople now that Emily has some company. However, some feel that it is not right since they are of different social classes. They instead prefer that it could be better if she looked for her relatives by contacting the far cousins who can assist her where necessary (Faulkner). During her stay with the cousins, she goes to a physician and forces him to give him some poison but fails to explain the reason behind. In this section, the author portrays how different people within the same locality can have contradicting views and ideas concerning life issues.
Instantly, the townsmen discover about the purchase of poison by Emily and thinks that she will commit suicide, though they consider it the best resolution as far as her problems are concerned. When Emily met Homer, the neighbors thought that they would become life partners. Later on they begin pitying Emily since homer seems to be a homosexual (Faulkner). Some ladies term the union as a bad one in terms of moral lesson it gives to the young people. The intervention starts whereby they look for a preacher to address the issue to Emily. However, the townspeople feel frustrated since the preacher fails to give them the feedback yet the couple is still together. Changing the strategy, the people involve Emily’s female cousins to handle the matter. At first, they doubt the workability of the strategy when they realize Emily has purchased a shaving kit bearing Homer’s initials, and outfit for men with inclusive of a nightshirt. This gives them a confirmation that the two are planning their union soon or are already in the union (Faulkner). The townspeople are glad that the strategy is not working since they despise the cousins very much. The project that brought Homer to town is accomplished which makes him leave the town only to return after Emily’s cousins leaves as per the people’s expectations. The narrator tries to bring out clearly how one’s actions can affect the society as a whole.
The moment homer enters Emily’s house; he disappears completely from people’s sight unless when peeping through the window. Emily too disappears only to be seen six months down the line having changed tremendously in terms of weight gain and the color of the hair. She returns to the house until her death unless appearing during the china-painting lessons that she is fond (Faulkner). The lessons start when she is forty years of age and goes on for six to seven years. Another generation takes over and it despises the lessons so much to an extent of failing to take their kids in her house any more. Emily’s servant is seen coming from shopping time to time though he has also grown very old. The officials send Emily a tax payment request which turns down every time (Alhaj 33). Emily is only seen going down and up the staircase by many generations only to die in the dusty and pathetic house under the company of Tobe, her servant. The actual cause of her death is not clear since nobody was aware of her sickness. The author therefore establishes how crucial it is to associate with other people in the locality.
The last section of the story begins with ladies visiting Emily’s house on the day of her burial where Tobe lets them in (Hsu and Wang 91). Tobe disappears the moment he opens the door and nobody knows of his whereabouts. Emily’s cousins preside over her burial a day after her demise. Some elderly men think that they are almost age mates to Emily yet they could date her at their youth age (Faulkner). Emily died at seventy-four years of age of which the men were around the same age. The men fail to understand the dynamic nature of the world (van Stralen 11). The town’s people tend to believe that there is a room in Emily’s house that nobody has ever stepped into, which they will be forced to break the door to get its access. They are very certain that the room is dusty and covered by deathliness allover (Alhaj 37). In the house, curtains are already faded. Homer is lying on the bed smiling and the body seems as if it was embracing someone during his death. This section tries to explain how people can take advantage of some circumstances like death for their self-gain.
In conclusion, “A Rose for Emily” is a short story written by William. The story talks about a lady by the name Emily who lived by his father only to be left alone after the demise of the father. The father left her the then magnificent house though did not leave her any money. The lady took long to accept the reality but undergone counselling to do so. Later on, the mayor exempted her from tax payment for her house since he understood her condition. Emily later was asked to pay the tax later but refused. She married a man of her choice later and died together in her house. The whole story tries to argue how people are interrelated with death, and death will come for everyone who was born and nothing can be changed.
Works Cited
Alhaj, Ali. William Faulkner's Rose for Emily and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis: A Comparative View: A Textbook for Student of Comparative Literature. Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag), 2015.
Bassett, John. William Faulkner. Routledge, 2013. Print.
Blythe, Hal. "Faulkner's a Rose for Emily." The Explicator 47.2 (1989): 49-50. Print.
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Publisher not Identified, 1930. Print.
Hsu, Chenghsun, and Ya-huei Wang. "The Fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian Analysis of A Rose for Emily." k@ ta 16.2 (2014): 87-92. Print.
MacDonnell, Katherine A. "How the Myth Was Made: Time, Myth, and Narrative in the Work of William Faulkner." (2014).
van Stralen, Hans. "The Coveted Monument, A Psychoanalytical Interpretation of Faulkner's A Rose for Emily." PSYART (2013).
