A Rose for Emily
“See Colonel Sartoris; I have no taxes in Jefferson.” (Faulkner, William) These were the words that Miss Emily told to the delegation that called on her house. A rose for Emily, written by William Faulkner, is a short story that narrates Miss Emily’s life in Jefferson before her death. The story is divided into five parts, each describing a facet of Miss Emily’s life before her death. Miss Emily had lived a lonely life, and the story narrates her life, from her father’s death to her death. Throughout the story, there is one consistent theme, Miss Emily’s resistance to change. William Faulkner uses imagery, symbolism, and descriptive language to bring forth the theme throughout the story.
Thesis: Change is an inevitable part of human life. Willliam Faulkner uses the short story a rose for Emily to demonstrate how resistance to change can deny one precious human experiences and reduce one’s quality of life.
We are introduced to Emily’s resistance to change in the first part of the short story by describing her house. The house is depicted as an ancient run-down structure that lies in the once elite areas of town. Faulkner describes the house as a big squarish frame house (Faulkner, William). It is the remaining house in that part of town. Miss Emily’s father was a rich and influential man who had built his home in the elite streets of the time. The house was white and decorated with spires and constructed in the seventies’ lightsome style. Emily inherited the house after her father’s death. However, she did not take care of the house, and it ended up looking run down. Change is inevitable, and Emily’s street was not spared. New structures were set up as people advanced and new generations came up. Even then, Miss Emily kept the house in the same way her father left it. Faulkner states,” But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of the neighbourhood, only Miss Emily’s house was left” (Faulkner, William).
As the story continues, we further see her resistance to change when she refuses to pay taxes. Colonel Sartoris was once the mayor of Jefferson and exempted Miss Emily from paying taxes to the town. He justified this by saying that Emily’s father had loaned the city some money and wished to be compensated by exempting him and his daughter from paying taxes, a term that the town complied with (Faulkner, William). The justification was ludicrous at best, and when new leadership took the wheel, they reviewed this arrangement and requested Miss Emily to start paying taxes. They wrote to her with no response. A delegation of men called on her to raise the matter of taxes. Miss Emily told them, “See Colonel Sartoris; I have no taxes in Jefferson.” (Faulkner, William) Change is an inevitable part of life. Social developments only occur when people accept change. Jefferson was a growing town, and it was only reasonable that the archaic laws would not hold. Miss Emily’s refusal to pay taxes only showed her resistance to adapt to changes in society.
Death is a sad but natural occurrence where we have to let go of our departed loved ones and move on with their lives. People have different reactions to the death of a loved one; some may be in denial while others may cry for days. The healthiest way to handle death is to accept it and move on. But this was not the case with Miss Emily. Miss Emily was in denial when her father died. When people called on her to offer their condolences, she would tell them that her father was not dead. “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner, William). She did so for three days, even with ministers and doctors convincing her to let go of the body. Just when they were about to use force, Miss Emily allowed them to bury her father. Emily did not want to accept her father had died and kept his body in the house in a bid to return to normalcy (Faulkner, William). While people process grief in different ways, Emily’s denial of her father’s death portrayed her as a person who insists on living in the past, supporting the central theme of her resistance to change.
In the final part of the story, people discover a dead body in Emily’s house after her burial. The body, which was presumed to be Homer’s, was rotting and decaying in the bed for some time before it was discovered. What was even more worrying was the fact that she was sleeping next to the body. “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of acrid grey hair.” (Faulkner, William) She refused to let go of the man once he died and went to the extent of laying next to the rotting corpse in a bid to live in the past. She refused to accept the death and instead kept a rotting corpse in her house. This supports the central theme of the story and shows just how resistant Emily is to change.
Homer Baron was a Northerner and a day labourer when he started dating Emily. Emily was a Grierson, a prestigious family that belonged to the upper eschalon of society. The people in society did not think that it was right for her to date Homer because it went against societal expectations of a person of her stature. They said, “Of course a Grierson would not seriously think of a Northerner, a day labourer.” (Faulkner, William) The old people said, “Even grief would not cause a real lady to forget nobless oblige-“ (Faulkner, William). It was known that Homer loved the company of men and did not show any interest in settling down. His character went against the social norms and distressed many townsmen. His demeanour also went against everything Emily’s father stood for. Her father did not think that any suitor was good enough for his daughter (Faulkner, William). It was therefore surprising when she started dating Homer, a man who would not meet Emily’s late father’s expectations. Even after the townsmen sent a representative to present these concerns to Emily, she stood by her actions and refused to change for anyone. “She carried her head high enough-even when we believed she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever, the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson-“(Faulkner, William).
Emily’s lifestyle is also another indication of her resistance to change. Emily did not interact with many people. She had one negro servant who was both gardener and cook for the length of her life (Faulkner, William). She would also stay in the house for long periods. Emily hardly went out after her father’s death. She also disappeared when she fell ill and when she and Homer cohabited. Her life was stuck on a consistent cycle of interacting with the same people and disappearing from the public eye. She was also very fixated on her ideas. The townspeople thought she was very arrogant. “She carried her head high enough, even when we belied she had fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson.” (Faulkner, William) Humans are social beings, and her refusal to interact freely with the people she had lived with all her life showed her resistance to change.
In conclusion, we can see how Faulkner portrays his overarching theme of resistance to change in his short story. He uses the character of Emily to bring this theme to life in his story. Emily was a lonely old woman who was fixated on her ideas and resisted any form of change. Faulkner uses literary devices such as imagery to illustrate her stubbornness to accept change, such as the description of Emily’s house as a structure that stood defiantly in the face of change happening in its environs (Faulkner, William). He also uses Emily’s personality to signify the resistance to change. He shows Emily’s inability to move on after her father’s death by refusing to give the body away for burial. In his depiction of the theme, Faulkner also makes us see the damage that resistance to change can bring to a person’s life. Emily lived a lonely life, had few friends and did not get married. She denied herself happiness and social support and ended up dying alone and lonely. We can therefore conclude from the story that accepting change is the key to a happy life.
