Emily Deserved Her Rose In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Jordan Reynolds
Professor Combs
English 102-03
28 February 2023
Why Emily Deserved Her Rose
“A Rose for Emily, published in 1930” is a short story about the town’s pity surrounding Miss Emily Grier. A once reclused woman who holds deep secrets about her life, living in the county of Yoknapatawpha in Mississippi. Emily lives a mysterious life following her father’s death; she keeps to herself and later falls in love with someone “below her.” A love so strong and one sided; a woman deeply in love with a man who hides a secret, it seems to be a fatal attraction. Emily is later found dead with “her gray head propped on a pillow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight.” (Polk, Noel, editor. “V.” A Rose for Emily, by William C Faulkner, Forum, 1930,

Her father, Mr. Grierson was severely overprotective of her. Leaving her locked in the house, not allowing her to go outside on her own, and stopping every attempt she makes to develop a relationship. Because of this, it’s believed that Emily developed Stockholm Syndrome, since she never developed a deep relationship with anybody else for the first thirty-three years of her life. After her father’s passing in 1893, Emily stashes his body in their house for three days. Emily’s secret was only found out when she finally turns her father’s body over to be properly buried after telling the town he was dead. It becomes very apparent very quickly that Emily is a creature of habit. Emily lived in the same home, in the same town, with the same routine from when she was a little girl, to the day she died. Shortly after the civil war, her town of Jefferson wanted to modernize. Emily opposed the modernization until the very end. Throughout the story, as the town changes, Emily’s thought process is considered an old-school way of thinking. As laws reform and the town changes appearance, Emily refuses to follow the town around

Emily appears to be in love with Homer, but it was never made clear his standpoint of their relationship. Emily seems to dedicate her life to Homer, she obsesses over him, she lives for Homer. Meanwhile Homer doesn’t seem to be that interested in Emily in the slightest. Homer was hinted to be a player, he hung out at clubs with younger men and said he never wanted to get married or settle down. Homer was a charming man, who seemed to get what he wanted from women, without even trying. His charm and lack of boundaries was expected out of a person who was considered “lower class.” Meanwhile Emily was considered upper class, she came from money, owned her deceased father’s nice property, held morals, and it was believed she was holding off having relations with Homer until they were officially