A Rose For Emily Grierson Character Analysis

Parents often have a large impact upon the way their children mature into adulthood. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily Grierson’s actions are influenced by her father. Emily lives in an old, dilapidated farmhouse in a small town in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, between 1861 and 1933. Emily’s father shelters her for her entire life and keeps her all to himself. Rarely allowed outside of the house, she is hardly able to socialize with the people in the town. Her father chases away every man who wants to date Emily because he believes no man is good enough for his little girl. After her father’s passing, Northerners come to modernize their small town. A few years later, Emily meets Homer Barron, one of the Northerners, and becomes fond of him. Concerned Homer might …show more content…
Mr. Grierson is a passionate believer in the Southern lifestyle, and he is supremely unwilling to alter his ways to conform to the norms of the changing society. While the town is adjusting to a new lifestyle after the Civil War, he decides to stay firm in his beliefs when raising his daughter. After his death, Emily still refuses to change with the times by not writing formal letters and addressing them with the proper postal code, since she refused to use modern postal services. When the mayor writes to Emily about paying her taxes he “received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink” (Faulkner 518) which is neither properly marked for postage nor inside of an envelope. In addition, the Grierson’s refuse free their slave, Tobe, at the conclusion of the Civil War, thus demonstrating their opinions upon adjusting with the modern times. Since he is not willing to adjust with the modification of the post Civil War time period, his actions amplify his influence upon Emily maturing into an