William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily: The Battle of Change vs. the Past

William Faulkner portrays the tale of an old and lonely woman trapped in her own time in “A Rose for Emily.” Her domineering father passed away almost thirty years ago, and she hasn’t really established her own footing since. On the once most exclusive street in the town, her house has to be the most repulsive house. It was once elegant and white with scrolled balconies, but today it is overrun with dust and rot. People in Miss Emily’s city talk negatively about her and feel sorry for her lost spirit. She quickly develops feelings for a younger guy named Homer Barron who works for the construction company laying the sidewalks on her block. Townspeople start talking more and feeling more sorry for Miss Emily when they start riding in buggy together. However, things gradually alter when Miss Emily is seen considerably less with Homer and is seen purchasing arsenic from the nearby pharmacy. Homer is eventually nowhere to be found, and Miss Emily passes away at the age of 74. After Miss Emily’s death, the locals demolished her upper chamber, which had been shut off for a few decades. They discover Homer’s lifeless, decomposing corpse with the imprint of another person and an unmarried gray hair strand. Through the story’s premise, characters, and setting, “A Rose for Emily” shows the conflict between conventional and unorthodox values and old and new.

It is immediately apparent from the start of the narrative that it will be about vintage rather than new. The author starts out by describing Miss Emily’s once beautiful home, which is now outdated and dusty. It transformed from a large, angular frame house that was originally white and an eyesore amid eyesores (Faulkner 146). The home itself is a symbol of tradition; it is old and hasn’t changed along with the reconstruction of the South. It becomes very evident that Miss Emily’s family is well-liked in the community when the story begins to discuss Miss Emily’s background. She is revered so much that when she enters a room, everyone is supposed to stand up in awe of her. Everyone feels bad for Miss Emily since she is the stereotypical woman. Her father, who protected her a great deal, had already made a sizable donation to the family’s estate, absolving Miss Emily of any further tax obligations. When Miss Emily is asked to make a tax payment, the well-worn subject of old versus new comes up once again. She doesn’t exactly answer no, but she does it in a way that implies she shouldn’t have been asked the question in the first place. The “old” Miss Emily shouldn’t be invited to one of these events, according to these “new” authorities. “In Jefferson, I pay no taxes” (Faulkner 147). They understand that the old is preferable to the new, thus no additional information is sought. Similar circumstances emerge when Miss Emily buys rat poison; state law requires that she provide the reason for her purchase, but Miss Emily doesn’t, and she really is able to pay and depart. Miss Emily murdering her boyfriend is the most dramatic act. Because Miss Emily is working so hard to maintain her old-fashioned ways and ways she is familiar with, this has led her to murder her lover. She realized that killing him was the best way to keep him close to her. This altered the manner in which she was brought up. Miss Emily was reared by a strict father who forbade her from leaving the home or even going out with anybody. She is unsure about what to do after his death. so much that she can sustain his body for a short while. While the world around her is evolving and changing, she is not. In his opening words, Faulkner uses a symbol for something that is utterly bizarre. “A little, chubby lady wearing all black, with a thin gold chain slipping into her belt at her waist” (Faulkner 147). Time is now literally out of her line of sight. She cannot see it because it has “vanished inside her belt.” Miss Emily is adrift, and the only straightforward behavior she is aware of is customary. Homer Baron is everything she knows she should no longer be doing when she first meets him. He is a basic creation worker, a dubious homosexual man, and a bachelor of sorts. She defies everything she has ever been taught in courting him, either out of retaliation for her father’s extensive protection of her or simply because she has no idea what she should be doing. Homer begins to spend less and less time with Miss Emily as the story progresses. But Emily isn’t done with him; she wants to marry him more than anything, and she’s even gone so far as to get him a wedding suit. Homer had no desire to wed her since he was not the marrying kind. She realized that killing him was the most practical method to keep him at her side, therefore she took that action. Then we saw that a head’s imprint had appeared on the second pillow. Long iron-gray hair strand (Faulkner 152). Until she was unable to any longer, she laid next to Homer’s worthless, deteriorating body. Because she understood how to freeze time this way, she poisoned him so that she could be with Homer for as long as she desired. In-depth analysis of the story’s setting reveals a significant period of change for the South as a whole, which would include Miss Emily and the locals. The period between the 1860s and the 1930s was when this happened. The middle class was growing in prominence, slavery had just come to an end, and society as a whole had altered to become much less cliquish. The Grierson family rose to extreme wealth and position, perhaps with a large number of slaves. Everything they believed in turns on its head once Miss Emily’s father dies. The once-common practice of slavery is today seen as immoral and abhorrent. The residents of the town seem to be adjusting extremely well, but Miss Emily is struggling since she has no one to help her. Her father passes away, the New South begins to take shape, and she is forced to make her own way in the world. Her struggle with this made her crazy and made her feel awful about herself. Miss Emily was most adept at following; she was unaware of how to lead. This is very immediately apparent in her connection with her father. Miss Emily is shown as a tiny white person in the distance, while her father is seen returning to her in the foreground while holding a horse (Faulkner 148). She certainly was treated like a horse by her father, and that is how she lives. She feels as if she has someone to guide her again when Homer appears, but when he chooses to leave her, she must murder him. She murders him because she wants a guy in her life, and she believes that killing him would make him more convenient.

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is brimming with character, story, and location symbolism. Everyone seems to have said that Miss Emily is trapped in time and has no way out. There are many unique reasons why she poisons Homer Barron. She wants a man to take the lead in her life since everything in her life has turned upside down and she or he has no one to turn to. Was this deed motivated by love or just self-interest? She became really mentally unwell, but she also carried a great deal of stress from everyone around her speculating about and criticizing her every action. Perhaps she did it to surprise people. Whatever else the reason could have been, she really got to keep her “rose,” Homer Barron, for all time.