“A Rose for Emily”

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner was set in the post Civil War era, in Jefferson, Mississippi, the heart of the South. The time setting is important to this story, because it helps us understand the story’s characters better. The story begins when Miss Emily Grierson dies and the whole town goes to her funeral, mostly out of curiosity, but also out of a “respectful affection for a fallen monument.” She was a “monument” of Southern aristocracy, an ideal of past values, but fallen because she herself was susceptible to death. Faulkner shows us here that by clinging to the past and adhering to social roles, we imprison rather than liberate ourselves.
Miss Emily’s father was a hard man who did not believe any man was good enough for his daughter or the Grierson family. The town viewed the young Miss Emily as a “slender figure in white”, representing the vulnerable virgin, being submissive as a good Southern daughter would be. In contrast, they viewed he...