In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner , Faulkner utilizes detailed imagery, past events, narrator point of view, and setting to persuade readers to feel certain emotions toward particular main characters. This short story entails the life of Miss Emily and her historical family roots that don’t allow her to grasp the present and consistently cling to past experiences. While the towns-people discuss her mental state and seclusion within the house, they also are quick to defend her if circumstances arise. Her inability to grasp new generation customs is shown in her reluctant behavior when it comes to taxes that are piling up at her door. The chronological events that counter from past to present allow us to justify Miss Emily’s actions all …show more content…
The townspeople strongly disapprove and speculate that Emily buying arsenic at the drugstore was a way out of this toxic relationship and was probably for the best. Emily then shows her face again to buy extravagant gifts for Homer that include engraved shaving kits, a suit, and a nightshirt. The townspeople believe that at this point marriage is evident. Homer leaves town and then is seen returning and entering Miss Emily’s house. Once he enters, he’s never seen again. After this disappearance, Emily rarely leaves the house and is only seen for a short time when she was giving painting lessons in her …show more content…
The importance of her appearance down to the very strand and color of her hair played a huge role in the last scene of the story. While Emily continued to age, so did her hair and body. In the last scene a gray strand of hair was found next to Homer on the pillow in the indention, indicating to readers that Emily had laid next to his corpse for quite some time. Even then, reader’s pity her and go back to scene where she simply wanted to hold on to her father. The narrator leads us to believe she was doing this with Homer as well, just in a very unconventional