A Rose For Emily Community Analysis

In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the life of Emily Grierson was explored from the perspective of her community. She preferred to be alone and not associate with the town. However, the people of the town loved to gossip about Miss Emily, and most of the gossip surrounded her father and her relationship with Homer Barron. The gossip surrounding Emily Grierson’s father began with Colonel Sartoris who was the mayor. By claiming that the city owed her father, Colonel Sartoris decided to completely exempt Emily Grierson from paying any taxes to the city of Jefferson. This arrangement worked well until the next generation took over, and they were unsatisfied with this situation. Therefore, the new generation attempted to collect taxes from Miss Emily. She blatantly refused and continued to claim she had no taxes in Jefferson because of her father and Colonel Sartoris. Any tax notice that was sent to her was unclaimed and returned.
Another aspect of her father that the town enjoyed gossiping about was how he

She constantly caused rumors as the community tried to explain her behaviors. The best example of this was shown when she decided to buy poison. She demanded the best poison with no preference of what kind, and she chose arsenic. Refraining from telling the druggist what the arsenic was for, the town assumed that she was planning to kill herself. While it is never revealed what Miss Emily did with the arsenic, it is believed that she used it to poison Homer Barron. He was last seen entering Miss Emily’s home, and it was not until Emily Grierson passed and her home was explored that he was rediscovered. His corpse had been found rotting in a bed, and it was implied that for some time, Miss Emily slept next to this corpse. Her reasons for doing so were unclear. If she had poisoned him with the intent to kill him, it’s very bizarre that she would share a bed with his corpse as he slowly rotted