William Faulkner once said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner resurrects an old southern lady named Emily Grierson to recreate a biography covering over seventy years and her utmost life highlights. He paints a story embedded with rose motifs, contrasts, and questions of moral worth within his short story’s few pages. Just as Miss Emily painted her teacups to be symbolic of her being a lady, Faulkner decorates Emily as a tragic heroine in remembrance to the antebellum era’s heritage. Early on, his narrative embodies the Old South’s dilemma as it clashes with the nation to sustain its culture and reject change. In William Faulkner’s short story, he compares and differentiates generational views about
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Because for so long Miss Emily was respected as a “lady” who “carried her head high enough”, many of her thorns and flaws go unnoticed (158,160). Faulkner supplies numerous suggestions as to Miss Emily’s “skeleton in the closet”, distasteful personality and decaying mental health but the townspeople for decades are unable to correctly interpret any of these hints. The townspeople twice even come so close to uncovering Miss Emily’s secrets when they find themselves inside her home. Emily acts in a guilty, nervous demeanor both times and quickly dismisses the men, “[vanquishing] them, horse and foot” before they can sit, become suspicious, or find Homer Barron upstairs (157). Jefferson’s rose color vision of Emily as soft and lady like keeps the townspeople blind to the horrors within her attic. Miss Emily’s idolization of the past complicates the future and leads to Barron’s murder. When her father dies, Miss Emily is finally able to “[clutch her] horsewhip” and control her personal life (159). However, when her new lover does not treat her how she is accustomed, she takes matters into her own hands. Emily kills him for trying to leaving her, similar to how a slave master might punish or kill a slave for trying to run away. Had the druggist dared to question Miss Emily more and the townspeople payed more attention, Homer Barron might never have become Emily’s eternal
Because for so long Miss Emily was respected as a “lady” who “carried her head high enough”, many of her thorns and flaws go unnoticed (158,160). Faulkner supplies numerous suggestions as to Miss Emily’s “skeleton in the closet”, distasteful personality and decaying mental health but the townspeople for decades are unable to correctly interpret any of these hints. The townspeople twice even come so close to uncovering Miss Emily’s secrets when they find themselves inside her home. Emily acts in a guilty, nervous demeanor both times and quickly dismisses the men, “[vanquishing] them, horse and foot” before they can sit, become suspicious, or find Homer Barron upstairs (157). Jefferson’s rose color vision of Emily as soft and lady like keeps the townspeople blind to the horrors within her attic. Miss Emily’s idolization of the past complicates the future and leads to Barron’s murder. When her father dies, Miss Emily is finally able to “[clutch her] horsewhip” and control her personal life (159). However, when her new lover does not treat her how she is accustomed, she takes matters into her own hands. Emily kills him for trying to leaving her, similar to how a slave master might punish or kill a slave for trying to run away. Had the druggist dared to question Miss Emily more and the townspeople payed more attention, Homer Barron might never have become Emily’s eternal