English Literature

The main character of the William Faulkner short story A Rose for Emily is the eccentric Emily.  Born in the times after the Civil War and cared for by an overbearing father, and Colonel Satoris, Emily is a character on the brink of insanity from an early age.  However, not only does Emily represent herself, but she represents the Old South, in light of the new order of the world.  It is through the events that are most memorable in Miss Emilys life that one can understand the symbolic themes that surround this character. Taking the several events within the story, the reader can watch the sanity come and go, as well as the changes of the world between the old and the new.

In section one of the story, the discussion starts with a focus on the Jefferson County taxes that the aldermen of the county say are owed by Miss Emily.  This is the first inkling that there is something amiss with Miss Emily.  She seems to live in the past.  She refuses to acknowledge that she owes taxes.  She also refuses to believe that the sheriff holds any real power.  Her belief in Colonel Satoris is enough, and she tells them to go and talk to the colonel.  However, the reader knows as do the townspeople, Colonel Satoris is dead.  For Miss Emily, he is alive and he will explain everything.  The examination of section one shows the reader the insanity that is attributed to Miss Emily in her elder years, but it also reminds the reader that Miss Emily is old south and the aldermen are new south, and the two do not mix well.  She holds on to the old ways, just as did the old south (Nebeker 3 Watkins 509).

Section two focuses on the two deaths in the life of Miss Emily.  The first death is of her father.  With that death it takes the townspeople three days to talk her into letting them take her father and bury him the second death, Homer Barron, no one really acknowledged, even when a stench broke from Miss Emilys house.  Instead of confronting her about the stench, a group of men placed lime around the house in hopes that the smell would go away (Nebeker 8 Watkins 509).  These two deaths are representative to the sanity of Miss Emily and the representation of the death of the Old South, and the demise, but not quite the death of the aristocracy and the entrance into the new world (Nebeker 10).

The death of Miss Emily allows the townspeople into her world of insanity at the end of her life. The fact that a hair of Miss Emily was found on the pillow beside the corpse of Homer Barron, can only account that at some point in the forty years since his disappearance she laid with the corpse (Nebeker 9).  This also shows that Miss Emily was not ready to give up on love.  Her father had frightened off all of her suitors and then died on her.  This is one of the possible reasons that she would not give up his body right away, because it was all she had.  Then when she fell in love with Homer Barron, she had to kill him to keep him.  It is mentioned in section four, Homer liked men and therefore, the only way to keep her love was to kill him and hide him in a room, which is exactly what she did.  She now had someone with her forever.

The fact that Miss Emily is insane is shown to gradually grow with each stressful event in her life, starting with the death of her father, unto her own death.  The symbolism of the Old South and the southern aristocracy that is found in her is also apparent in its demise within the story in the deaths of people and changes to the world around her (Nebeker 11).  Miss Emily is not just a story of an eccentric old woman, but the story of the death of the Old South and the new order of the North.