Realism and modernism in literature and art

Realism & Modernism

The Triumphs of Emily, in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

In the short story "A Rose for Emily," the reader is transported back in time to the Old South of the early twentieth century. The story opens with the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson and closes with a grim discovery within the walls of the deceased woman's dusty, shadowy old house. In between, the narrator tells the story, as the townspeople know it, of Miss Emily's seventy-four years of life. She was a woman about whom the townspeople were endlessly curious. During her lifetime, she angered some and was pitied by many. No one appeared to have any affection for her: "Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…" (Faulkner, 1). Even Miss Emily's manservant, long in her employ, appeared to have no personal relationship with her: "He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse" (Faulkner, 6).

Merriam-Webster's dictionary lists several meanings for "triumph." For Miss Emily, there was no "joy or exultation of victory or success;" her triumphs are closer to the synonyms "accomplishment" or "achievement." Miss Emily's triumphs were not ones celebrated by the town, or in fact by anyone other than Miss Emily herself. She may have spent her youth trying to please an arrogant father, but after his death she lived as she pleased and would not be defeated. One doubts she felt joy, but she must have felt satisfaction at the very least when she thwarted the town's attempts to collect taxes. She must have felt a crazy, sad satisfaction, too, when she successfully kept her beau, Homer Barron, from leaving her.

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Miss Emily came of age at a time when it was difficult for a woman to be on her own, especially in the Old South. There were no expectations of her other than that she marry well and her father believed "none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily" (Faulkner, 3). When her father died, she inherited the house but no money, and she had neither education nor means by which to support herself. The family had been alienated for generations from the townspeople, who believed "the Griersons held themeselves a little too high for what they really were" (Faulkner, 3). Yet, the townspeople clearly disapproved when Miss Emily began to be seen with Homer Barron, a man considered to be beneath her.

Barron was charismatic, loud, and rough, and he would have been a mismatch for Miss Emily because of his socioeconomic status, never mind that he was a Northerner and a dark-skinned one at that. The townspeople still felt sorry for Miss Emily; the only explanation for forgetting her noblesse oblige was that she had lost her mind. Miss Emily maintained the haughty air for which her family had become known: "It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson" (Faulkner, 4). The townspeople felt they must do something to "save" Miss Emily and called on the Baptist minister to talk some sense into her. The visit was in vain, and the minister's wife sent for two female cousins, with the hope that the women could persuade her to forsake her interest in Barron. Miss Emily triumphed over them as well, determined to do as she wanted.

Barron himself remarked that he was not a marrying man. One might assume that she did what she could to persuade him. One might also assume that she never said a word. Faulkner described her "cold, haughty black eyes" in a face "as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face might look" (Faulkner, 4). Solitary, serious, and purposeful, Miss Emily did not poison Barron to punish him but as a way to assure he would stay with her forever.