Characters in A Rose For Emily Essay

A Rose for Emily, By William Falkner

A Rose for Emily is a captivating story written by William Faulkner. The characters within this short story are portrayed in a fascinating manner. They lay down the mesmerizing scenery and setting of the short story. The characters actions are centered on the actions of the main character, Miss Emily Grierson.

The story began with the death and funeral of Miss Emily Grierson. It is evident that Miss Grierson is exceedingly respected in the town of Jefferson, because the whole town went to her funeral; the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house. The men of the town respected Emily and considered her a fallen monument because she had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town. The men in Jefferson cherished her just as they did the ranked soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson. The women on the other hand were inquisitive of her big, squarish frame house which no one had entered for ten years outside of her manservant and gardener. After Emilys death her manservant opened the door to the frame house to the nosy town women. They entered the house with their hushed, sibilant voices and their quick curious glances. Miss Emily is looked upon by the townspeople as a woman of power mainly because of the status of her father.

Emilys father was a highly respected individual within the town. The Griersons were held above the other townspeople, because of their social status and the relationship that Emilys father had with the mayor, Colonel Sartoris. An example of the Griersons power within the town is when the Colonel Sartoris remitted Miss Emilys taxes. As an explanation of his actions the mayor states that Miss Emilys father loaned money to the town, and that was the towns way of repaying their debts to her father. Not only did Emilys father have power within the town, but he also commanded and had authority over her. You can witness this authority through the portrait that is painted in the story; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a straddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip. Her father also felt none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily. Emily didnt have a relationship with anyone; a result when her father died she kept his dead body for three days before burying him. Insanity was popular in her family, but the town did not consider her to be crazy through her abnormal actions. I believed she had to do that. Remembering all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her.

After her father died she didnt have a male figure to control her. She no longer had her fathered to cling to, and as a consequence of his absence she became sickly until she met Homer Barron, a Yankee, a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face. It is shocking that Emily would become engaged in a relationship with a Northern male that her father wouldnt approve off. Miss Emily had been to the jewelers and ordered a mans toilet set in silver, with the letters H.B. on each piece. Many of the townspeople gathered that Homer will marry Emily from her actions, but his actions show otherwise. Homer remarked, He liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks Club. This is a desperate attempt by Emily to find a male to cling to, and she so blinded by her extreme anxiety that she do not realize that Homer is a homosexual. When it is evident that Homer will not marry her she visits a druggist and purchases some arsenic for rats. When Emilys manservant opens the doors of her home once she is dead the towns females violently broke into a room that no one had seen for forty years. Within the dusty room a thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal. It is believed that the tomb was that of Homer Barron. Homer was last seen entering the house of Emily and an iron-gray hair was present on the pillow next to the tomb that is ultimately Emilys. She violently takes the life of her lover, who she so desperately wants to marry, as an attempt to keep him with her forever. Does she really take the life of her lover? Faulkner never gives an explanation on how Emily get out of the room if it is nailed shut and the towns women have to break it down. You can only assume that she nailed the door from the outside or she had another entrance into the room.

Another imperative character that is responsible for the revealing in the story is the narrator, whom is never identified. It is instantly recognizable that the narrator is an unreliable member of the town. The only people that has been present in Emilys home is the manservant and the gardener, so as you read the story you question what sources the narrator uses when receiving his information. The Black man went in and out with the market basket, but the front door remained closed. Miss Emily didnt leave the house; the only images that the narrator gets of Miss Emily are when she occasionally appears in windows of her home. The manservant talked to no one probably not even her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from use. A lot of information is gathered from speculation and not facts. The narrator also identifies himself as we throughout the progression of the story, and it can be assumed that it is the townspeople.

It was very difficult to understand A Rose for Emily. Faulkner never gives a clear explanation of the events that take place in the story. For example you never know whom the narrator is, how Homer was killed, why Emily cling to her father, and why she felt as if she needed a man to control her life. But these questions are what make the story so intriguing and unique. Faulkner gives the readers an opportunity to use their imagination and speculate about what they think is taking place in the story. It is almost like the reader becomes an investigator when reading A Rose for Emily.