"A Rose for Emily"

"A Rose for Emily" is a tragic story about a woman named Emily Grierson who, for all her life has been controlled by her father. Once her father dies, Emily does not know, nor understand how to live her own life. At first she denies that her father dies; then after 3 days, with much pressuring from the locals and the doctors, she admits her fathers death and lets the townspeople bury him. Much of the town is wondering what to expect to happen to Emily. Emily becomes a recluse and sends her manservant, Tobe, who has served the family for generations, out to the market to do the shopping for her. One day, she meets a Yankee day laborer named Homer Barron. Homer and Emily begin seeing each other and eventually seem to get serious about their relationship. Emily begins to fall in love with Homer, but Homer does not have the same feelings for Emily.

English: Emily Rose

English: Emily Rose

William Faulkner, 1954

One day, Homer disappears and is never seen nor heard from again. Ten years pass and Emily dies. The townspeople were curious and went to her home to see where she had lived her life. Upon their arrival they find a corpse lying on a bed in a mysterious locked room upstairs. On the bed, next to the corpse there was a "long strand of iron-gray hair" (36).

In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner tells a story about a young woman who is overly influenced and controlled by her father. Her father has made all the decisions for her and he choose who she could and could not be courted by. After her father dies, it takes Emily three days to finally allow the townspeople to give her father a proper burial,