Mental illness had a foothold on many families back in the late 1800s. With people not understanding the burden of the illness they often would cast them out or leave them to die alone instead of giving them the proper care they deserved. The Story of “A Rose for Emily” shows the horrific strangle that mental illness had back then and how a sweet old lady wasn't what she seemed. William Faulkner not only goes into wonderful detail about this struggle of mental illness but makes it so the reader will never be able to guess what will happen next. In this short story, Faulkner uses irony and flashbacks to reveal the hidden horrors that laid beneath the surface.
This story best fits in the category of gothic romanticism. This story has many examples
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Emily is an old lady who lives all alone. She went to go buy a few things from town, “We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweller's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men's clothing, including a nightshirt, and we said, “They are married.” We were really glad.”(Faulkner) This text sums up just how innocent Faulkner made Emily look to the public. Even though they thought she was getting married she was really getting the outfit for his death. This is ironic because it says in the text just how happy they were for Emily now that she is finally getting married but in return it's her preparing his body. Then later on in the story you can see how they found Homer Barron. “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.”(Faulkner). This shows not only has he been dead but he has been dead for a long time. Not only was she hiding his body from the public but she had been sleeping with it too. This shows the amazing irony that William Faulkner include in “A Rose for