Townspeople In A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” characterizes each generation and its struggles. Every generation thinks they can improve on the ideas and accomplishments of the past. The next generation fails to realize they are really relying on the past. Faulkner uses the townspeople to represent, in effect, the changing of the guard. In the story there are three distinct types of townspeople. The first type is the gentlemen, or in other words southern aristocrats. The second type is the younger generation making a power grab. The third type is the everyday commoners caught in the middle, no matter who is in charge. The face of the southern aristocrats in the story is Colonel Sartoris. The Colonel and the grey-beards were veterans of the Civil War. They ran the town with a strict code of southern honor. The code dictated respect for women, and respect for the law. They respected the law unless it crossed their code of conduct. An example of this would be when Colonel Sartoris invents the tale that “Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying” (55-56). Traditions and history held as much sway as the code of conduct. Faulkner illustrates the respect the grey-beards held for the past by the placement of Miss Emily’s grave. Her grave was
From their eyes, Faulkner shows Miss Emily as a fine southern youth. He then goes on to show the loss of respect for her. In effect, the transformation of Miss Emily from southern youth to frail old lady is shown to us when Faulkner says, “At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized” (58). Faulkner uses Miss Emily as a literal death of the old south. The townspeople witnessed the passing of the guard, and give an in depth window into the