The Story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner Essay

The story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner tells readers about a woman named
Emily Grierson, who was sheltered and controlled by her father. The house where Emily lived
for her whole life was described as " a big, squarish frame house that had once been white,
decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the
seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had
encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood only Miss Emily's
house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the
gasoline pumps an eyesore among eyesores." (516). Faulkner's story takes place in a town
where Emily Grierson lives. She is from one of the richest families in town, and for most of her
life, her father keeps her inside of their house.
The Grierson family is very well known throughout the town and people respect them.
Emily's father was one of the riches people in town, he loaned money for the town. That gave
her an upper hand in some matters that town people do not get. Her family was expressed to be
strong and powerful. The townspeople noted the Grierson family fit for royalty. Emily is the
last living Grierson, which she comes to symbolize her family's rich past. The townspeople's
respect for Emily soon decays after her father's death, once it is rumored that she is left with no
more money, but only left the house.
Emily Grierson's house is one of the biggest houses in town, which represented her
family in town. It was believed that she wanted her house where she has all freedom to do
anything what she wants and place where she could be free from everyone. Emily thought that
she can have this freedom with Homer Barron (Who was a contractor fixing slide walk of her
father's house) but things did not work out as she thought with him. After that incident she had
no one else or any other place to go then her home. She started to isolate herself from society.
After her father's death, Emily got emotionally unstable. She is so unstable that she
would not let go her father's dead body. She didn't have any clue how to survive in this world.
Her father was her only friend, he was the one she knew in the world and without him she almost
had nothing to live for. Faulkner writes "Being left alone, and pauper, she had become
humanized" (513). Emily had been protected by her father so much in her earlier years that this
incident did a big harm to her. Things that Emily had from past was memories in her head, and
house where she lived with her father. Emily would still show herself in a very Grierson like
fashion, feeling that she was above everyone else, and that she needed no help in grieving with
her father's death.