Miss Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the voices of the townspeople and narrator paint a character portrait of Miss Emily as a reclusive woman who doesn’t have the strongest grasp on reality. Despite her odd behavior and refusal to accept the evolving world around her, the town collectively feels a “respectful affection” (391) for her, though it eventually gives way to morbid curiosity and finally fear. Though it is found out she may have done bad things, she is not a bad person and had her life been different her story could have had a much happier ending.
Emily Grierson grew up a sheltered girl in an upper class family, their home set on what had once been the town’s most select street. Her father believing no man was good
While there, Emily made one of her rare trips into town to visit the pharmacy for the sole purpose of procuring poison. When the druggist informed her that the law requires her to tell what it will be used for, she responds with only a stare. He decides to comply with her wishes and wraps the arsenic up, taking it upon himself to write “For Rats” on the package. Her problems were clearly not of the rodent variety, and the next day the townspeople all said “She will kill herself” (395). When Homer was not seen around town again, it was thought that he had gone on to prepare for Emily’s arrival or to allow her time to dispose of her cousins. When her family finally did depart, Homer arrived within three days and it seemed things would finally fall into place in Emily’s life. After his initial arrival back at Emily’s door, the townspeople never saw him again, and Emily was left to loneliness once
Each December she was sent a tax notice, and every time it was returned to the Post Office. The door to her dark and dusty home remained closed, and save for her servant Miss Emily was alone. When she passed away at 74, her cousins came at once to take care of the arrangements. Humans are by nature nosy creatures, and as the townspeople filed into the home in which no one had ventured in so many years they looked about in “quick, curious glances” (396). After Miss Emily was decently in the ground, they ventured up to the second floor of her home and to the door of a room no one had seen in over 40 years. They broke down the door, finding it covered in dust and furnished for a bride. A monogramed man’s silver toilet set lay on the dressing table, and the man, at least what was left of him, lay in the bed. On the pillow next to the corpse lay a long, gray