A Rose for Emily is a short story by American author William Faulkner, first published on April 30, 1930, in an issue of The Forum. The story takes place in Faulkner’s fictional Jefferson, Mississippi, in the equally fictional county of Yoknapatawpha. It was Faulkner’s first short story published in a national magazine.

Title

Faulkner described the title «A Rose for Emily» as an allegorical title: this woman had undergone a great tragedy, and for this Faulkner pitied her. As a salute, he handed her a rose. The exact meaning of the word «rose» in the title in relation to the story, however, remains open to debate; no actual rose appears in the story.

Plot summary

The story opens with a brief fourth-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson, an elderly Southern woman whose funeral is the obligation of the town. It then proceeds in a non-linear fashion to the narrator’s recollections of Emily’s archaic, and increasingly strange, behavior throughout the years. Emily is a member of a family of the antebellum Southern aristocracy.

After the Civil War, the family falls into hard times. She and her father are the last two survivors of that branch of the family. Emily’s father refuses to allow her to marry. Her father dies when Emily is on the cusp of her 30th birthday, which takes her by surprise. For several days, she refuses to give up his corpse, insisting he is not dead. The townspeople write it off as her grieving process. They pity Emily for losing her father but also for his not having allowed her to marry. Emily depended heavily on her father, believing he would never leave her; he was all she had.

After her father’s death, the only person seen moving about Emily’s home is Tobe, a black man serving as Emily’s butler. He is frequently seen entering and exiting the house for groceries. Although the reclusive Emily does not have a strong relationship with the town, she opens her home to give art lessons to local children, doing so out of need for an income. She teaches until she is 40.

With the acceptance of her father’s death, Emily somewhat revives, even changing the style of her hair, and becomes friendly with Homer Barron, a laborer from the North who comes to town shortly after Mr. Grierson’s death. The connection surprises some of the community, while others are glad she is taking an interest. However, it is stated that Homer «liked men, and it was known that he drank with younger men at the Elks’ Club — that he was not a marrying man», which draws attention to Homer’s sexuality but it is unclear whether he is homosexual or simply has more interest in drinking and carousing than in marrying Emily. Emily buys arsenic from the town’s druggist.

When the druggist says the law requires him to ask customers why they want poisons Emily refuses to disclose it; the druggist chalks it up to a rat infestation in her home. Some townspeople are convinced that she will use it to poison herself. Emily’s distant cousins are called into town by the minister’s wife to supervise Miss Emily and Homer Barron. Emily is seen in town buying wedding presents for Homer, including a monogrammed toilet set. Homer leaves town for some time reputedly to give Emily a chance to get rid of her cousins, and returns three days later after the cousins have left. After he is observed entering Miss Emily’s home one evening, Homer is never seen again, leading the townsfolk to believe he ran off.

Despite these turnabouts in her social status, Emily continues to behave mysteriously as she had before her father died. Her reputation is such that the city council finds itself unable to confront her about a strong smell that has begun to emanate from the house. They believed Tobe was unable to maintain the house and something was rotting. Instead, the council decides to send men to her house under the cover of darkness to sprinkle lime around the house, after which the smell dissipates.

The mayor of the town, Colonel Sartoris, makes a gentleman’s agreement to overlook her taxes as an act of charity, though it is done under a pretense of repayment towards her father, to assuage Emily’s pride after her father’s death. Years later, a new generation has come to power in the county. Having no ties to Colonel Sartoris or Mr. Grierson, they approach Emily about being subject to taxation. Emily insists on maintaining this informal arrangement, flatly denying she owes any taxes, stating «I have no taxes in Jefferson.» After this, the council declines to press the issue due to her obduracy. Emily has become a recluse: she is never seen outside of the house, and only rarely accepts people into it. The community eventually comes to view her as a «hereditary obligation» on the town, who must be humored and tolerated.

The funeral is a large affair: Emily has become an institution, so her death sparks a great deal of curiosity about her reclusive nature and what remains of her house. After she is buried, a group of townsfolk enters her house to see what remains of her life there. Tobe walks out of the house and is never seen again, giving the townspeople access to Miss Emily’s home.

The door to her upstairs bedroom is locked. Some of the townsfolk break down the door to see what has been hidden for so long. Inside, among the gifts that Emily had bought for Homer, lies the decomposed corpse of Homer Barron on the bed. On the pillow beside him is the indentation of a head and a single strand of gray hair, indicating that Emily had slept with Homer’s corpse. The house is an indicator revealing how Emily struggled to keep everything the same, in a frozen time period, avoiding change.

Characters

Emily Grierson — The main character of the story. Her father kept her from seeing suitors and controlled her social life, keeping her in isolation until his death, when she is 30 years old. Her struggle with loss and attachment is the impetus for the plot, driving her to kill Homer Barron, the man assumed to have married her.

She poisons and kills Homer as she sees this as the only way to keep Homer with her permanently. She treats him as her living husband even after his death, which is shown by her keeping his clothes in the room, keeping his engraved wedding items on the dresser, and the strand of her hair found beside his corpse at the end of the story that indicated she even slept beside him.

Homer Barron — Emily’s romantic interest. He is later found dead and decomposed in Emily’s bedroom after her funeral. He initially enters the story as a foreman for a road construction project occurring in the town. He is soon seen to be with Emily in her Sunday carriage rides, and it is expected for them to be married. Homer differs from the rest of the town because he is a Northerner.

The story takes place in the South shortly after the Civil War, and while Homer is not necessarily unwelcome to the town, he does stand out. This, along with the fact that he is seemingly courting Emily, sets him apart from all of the other characters in the story. It is because he is an outlier that Emily becomes attracted to him. It is unknown if Homer fully reciprocates the romantic feelings Emily has for him.[6] It is stated in the story that Homer likes men and is «not the marrying kind» and has commitment issues.

The Narrator — Unnamed. A presumed townsperson who watches the events of Emily’s life unfold in its entirety. The story is presented to the reader in a non-chronological order; this suggests that the story may have been patched together by multiple tellers. Some parts of the story are repeated, such as Homer’s disappearance, the idea that Emily and Homer will get married, and Emily’s refusal to pay taxes, also indicating that the narrator is a voice for the town.

Colonel Sartoris — The former mayor who remitted Emily’s taxes. While he is in the story very little, his decision to remit Emily’s taxes leads to her refusal to pay them ever again, contributing to her stubborn personality. The reason for Sartoris remitting her taxes is never given, only that he told Emily it was because her father loaned the money to the town.

Mr. Grierson — Emily’s father, the patriarchal head of the Grierson family. His control over Emily’s personal life prohibited her from romantic involvement. The reason for his refusal to let Emily court men is not explained in the story.

Whatever the reason, Mr. Grierson shapes the person that Emily becomes. His decision to ban all men from her life drives her to kill the first man she is attracted to and can be with, Homer Barron, to keep him with her permanently.

The cousins — Emily’s extended relatives from Alabama. They come to town during Emily’s courting of Homer Barron to check on Emily’s well-being. They are thought of as even more uptight and stuffy than Emily by the townspeople. They are called in to prevent Emily and Homer from marrying; however, they are later sent back home so that the two can be wed. It is speculated that there may be some type of dispute between Emily and the cousins, indicated by them living far away from Emily and the fact that they did not attend Emily’s father’s funeral.

Tobe — Emily’s cook/gardener, who also acts as her family retainer. Tobe was loyal to Emily during