William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily” is a story about a poor woman who is sad and alone. Miss Emily is a powerful figure in the townspeople, but has no life at all. Her father was dominating and a selfish person. He dictated all facets of her life. Her father rejected all the men who were interested in Miss Emily. After her father died she found love in Homer Barron, but she ends up killing him and seals his body in up-stair room. The reason why she killed him remains a mystery. The author tells the story in first person. He is limited in knowledge as he is just an observer which brings in mystery element related to miss Emily’s emotions and things that happens behind the closed doors.
Narrator is someone from Jefferson and is representing …show more content…
Emily was exempted to pay taxes because of the favors that her father did for the town “remitted her taxes”. People of the village took care of Emily not because they liked her but out of sense of duty. Even the high- ranking people seemed scared of her. “Will you accuse a lady to her face for smelling bad”. Instead of confronting her for the bad smell emerging from her house they used a peculiar way to tackle the problem-by sending four men at midnight to sprinkle lime at the outbuilding. Instead of taking-action, they showed sympathy towards her that might have provoked her insane behavior “We did not say she was crazy then, we believed she had to do that”. They agreed to her strange behavior of not letting go of her father’s body and instead felt sorry for her as at that time they thought she did it because she was …show more content…
Townspeople felt both pity and sympathy for her. There were mixed emotions when Emily found love in Homer Barron a day laborer from North. People of Jefferson saw her relationship with Barron as disgrace to the town and thought it was setting wrong example for the young generation. No one dared to go to her directly, instead they persuaded Baptist minister to talk to her. “He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again” After his meeting with her he refused to go back to her house and she continued to exhibit unacceptable behavior. She was also seen buying arsenic from the druggist “I want some poison, she said to the druggist”. He gave her the poison even though she did not give him a valid reason for its use. Barron disappeared few days after she bought the poison. Barron was last seen in her house. “And that was the last we saw of Homer Baron. And of Miss Emily for some time”. Even though she was seen buying arsenic and there was strong smell emanating from her house, but no one questioned her about his