A Rose for Emily is one of the most memorable short stories that I have ever written as it is also one of the most disturbing. Precisely because of the story’s shocking revelation at the ending makes it all the more interesting and unforgettable. One’s shock does not result from William Faulkner’s descriptions. Rather, it stems precisely from the lack of explicit or morbid imagery. Faulkner leaves it to the reader to imagine the horrible situation. The narrative shows how destructive self-isolation (the story’s theme) could be. It is a tragedy to mistake that people could be owned or possessed like playthings.
Set in the 1890s in Jefferson City, A Rose for Emily is story revolving on an eccentric old lady living in an grand, old house. It was a house that was shrouded in mystery as no one has ever really entered that home, so people were curious about it. The city at that time seems to be small and a very civil community. Everyone seems to know who Emily Grierson is. Despite observing her eccentricities, people still were polite to Emily Grierson and accorded her proper respect. After all, her family—especially her father—were prominent members of the community. While the community members obviously think she is crazy, none of them seems to have been able to take any action or to help Emily even there was obviously a need for such actions. The story is told from the perspective of an outsider of Emily Grierson’s circle or family. The narrator tells the story as a fellow townsfolk would perhaps observe a neighbor like Emily. There are thus no explanations of Emily’s behavior; there are descriptions of what an outsider would see as the story unfolded. Occasionally, there are speculations—as when the people note that Emily is crazy. The narrator seems to convey a sense of indifference toward the main character. Understandably, Emily’s garrulous personality would scare or turn off most people. She is a person hard to sympathize with. Some of the characters in the story expressed more pity—in a condescending manner—rather than sympathy. In particular, they pitied her when the one person whom they perceived would marry her and possibly change her disappeared. While some of the characters shows respect to Emily, they seem to actually disdain her, preferring to avoid her. They are actually deepening Emily’s isolation from society.
The story only provides glimpses into Emily’s life and character. Clearly, she is a person who has isolated herself and society. She can be coarse and rude in not welcoming anyone into her home. She does not seem to engage in much social interaction other than the most basic ones. She lives alone with her servant. Yet, at the same time, she seems actually to be longing for companionship, a permanent one, which she accomplishes in such a bizarre way as the story would reveal in the end. The narrative hints at the extent of how deeply deranged Emily might be and what she is capable of. First was the incident of the terrible, decomposing smell that her neighbors complained about and attempted to do something about. Second was when Emily went out to buy the most effective poision she could find. It was one of those very few social encounters she had and a very strange one at that. Third was the disappearance of the man, Homer Barron, people thought would marry her. Unfortunately, he would not “because Homer himself had remarked—he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club—that he was not a marrying man” (Faulkner). People speculated that Emily and Harold would marry but only to notice that Harold never showed up again.
The story closes with the most shocking revelation. After Emily died and was buried, some her relatives and neighbors went to her house to check a private room. There they found the ossified body of Harold Barron and something else. “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” (Faulkner) Emily had not only killed her lover but even lay beside his corpse even until he late age. Faulkner describes the same “iron-gray hair” found on the pillow as he had described Emily’s hair when she was found dead. Apparently, she had continued to sleep with the corpse as one would with a living human being or with a stuffed toy for almost 40 years. She was 74 at her death and 30 at the time she bought the poison and Harold disappeared.
It is such a tragedy when people confuse love and companionship with ownership and possession. However, only a deranged mind like Emily’s could bring such confusion to this extreme. Emily did not want to be with her lover forever. Unfortunately, she wanted him—living or dead—to beside her until she died. Emily’s isolation seems to have aggravated her situation. She lived in her own world with no one to guide her.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. 1930. Web. 5 Dec 2012. <>
