Rose for Emily For some people, letting go of the past is particularly difficult, whether they are holding on because their past was spectacular and wonderful, or, as in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the past is all they have. For Miss Emily Grierson, the title character in Faulkner's grotesque, haunting tale, the past offers a place of safety and respectability unavailable to her in the present. The townspeople

They state in the story he was known to like men, and that he would often be found in the company of other men. It is evident she was in live with him, and actually it appears that he loved her in a way too, but since she could not have him completely then he would have to die. Explain the conflict in Emily's life? There was a conflict of

Later the reader will discover the smell is the rot from corpses, first Miss Emily's father, then her dead suitor. But the women's comments, even when the reader is unaware of the corpse in Emily's home suggest that the women regard Tobe as less competent than a female run home, with a husband and wife -- here, Tobe is regarded in their eyes as a symptom of Miss Emily's

.." It is as if she is some kind of living museum. Miss Emily's status as some example of former greatness protected her in other ways. time came when her house... well... smelled. A neighbor went to officials and complained. The response the neighbor got was, "Damn it, sir," Judge Stevens said, "will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?" The assumption was that some animal, perhaps a

Rotten but Not Forgotten: Cherished Corpses in William Faulkner's Short Story "A Rose for Emily" A streak of insanity seems to run through the once-distinguished Grierson family of William Faulkner's mythical town of Jefferson, Mississippi, within his short story "A Rose for Emily." Near the beginning of the story, a surviving, never married Grierson daughter, Emily, is shown demonstrating her extreme reluctance, even three days after her overbearing father's death, to

Emily through the eyes of the townspeople, who narrate William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily." The townspeople's understanding of Emily is limited by prevailing norms and values: as a mysterious and almost antisocial woman, Emily subverts gender norms and roles in the traditional Southern community. Emily never marries, although she is rejected by two men. Her fear of abandonment is the only identifiable aspect of Emily's character, as