Emily Grierson's Death

"Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition," the narrator of William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” tells us. To the people of Jefferson, Miss Emily is a figure of awe and source of fascinating stories. Within this short story, Faulkner explores the life and death of an eccentric, stubborn and traditionally minded woman who refuses to change with the times and embrace the early twentieth century. The character of Emily Grierson is a symbol of tradition and tradition's struggle against the influence of the future.
Emily Grierson is a relic of an earlier time and a symbol of past traditions. This is evidenced in both her personality and in her lifestyle. Emily is an intimidating figure, even in her old age. Most notable is her house which is “on
There are three deaths specifically mentioned in the story. The earliest death is the death of Emily’s father; the second is the death of Emily’s beau, Homer; and the third death is Emily’s. When her father dies she tells the townspeople that her father is “not dead” for “three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (207). The townspeople were not surprised by this because “with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her” (207). Emily’s death is a major event in the lives of the people of Jefferson and the “whole town went to her funeral… out of respectful affection for a fallen monument” (204). The death of Homer is not revealed until the end of the story, because it is not discovered until after’s Emily’s death. The townspeople find Homer’s body after breaking down the door to one of the bedrooms. However, Faulkner wrote details into the story which make the fact that Emily killed him plausible. One of these details is the mention of Emily’s purchase of arsenic. When the druggist questions her about it, Emily refuses to answer. This purchase, tied with the story of the strange smell coming from Emily’s house and the discovery of Homer “rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt…inextricable from the bed in which he lay” and covered in dust in Emily’s house implies that Emily killed Homer (211). Emily spends her life surrounded by death and kept Homer’s body in the house because “the quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die”