CONFLICT

Conflict in a story's plot creates interest and context for the events. Explore the conflicts
in William Falkner's ''A Rose for Emily,'' including person versus self, person versus
society, and person versus person conflicts.

Person Versus Self

A person versus self-conflict is an internal struggle that a character faces. The big internal
conflict for Emily is her struggle with reality. She refuses to accept that she is no longer
living in the antebellum South, where backroom deals could be made to evade taxes.
Emily refuses to acknowledge her father's death ''for three days, with the ministers
calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.''
Afterwards, her intention of marrying Homer Barron, a man who has admitted that ''he
liked men'' and ''was not a marrying man,'' further demonstrates her inability to
acknowledge the truth. Instead of making the adjustments to her thinking that are
necessary to retain her sanity, Emily attempts to manipulate the outside world into
conforming to her delusions.

Person Versus Society

A person versus society conflict is a character's struggle to conform to societal norms.

One of the struggles Emily has with society is her refusal to pay taxes. Despite warnings
from the sheriff and the mayor, Emily maintains, ''I have no taxes in Jefferson,'' because
Colonel Sartoris, a former mayor who has been dead for ten years, made that oral
agreement with Emily's father. Emily again shows disdain for the law when she buys
arsenic but refuses to give the reason why even after the druggist tells her that ''the law
requires you to tell what you are going to use it for.''

Emily's neighbours also demonstrate societal conflicts when a judge refuses to cite Emily
for the horrid smell that is coming from her home. When the government officials don't
take care of the problem, a group of men take matters into their own hands. The narrator
explains, ''So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and
slunk about the house like burglars…They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime
there, and in all the outbuildings.''

Person Versus Person

Emily's primary person versus-person conflict is with her father. After his death, Emily is
left completely alone after all the ''young men her father had driven away. '' Her response
is to rebel against him by dating ''a Northerner, a day labourer'' after her father's death.

FORESHADOWING

Foreshadowing is a literary device used to provide readers with hints about plot twists
and other events that may await them. Explore the use of the literary technique in
William Faulkner's short story, A Rose for Emily, including the foreshadowing of
arsenic, letting go, and gray hair.

Foreshadow: Arsenic

One instance of foreshadowing occurs when Emily Grierson buys arsenic from the
pharmacist. According to the narrator, Emily is a haughty aristocrat who thinks she is
better than most of the other townspeople. Emily uses her demeanour to bully the
druggist into selling her poison. ''I want some poison,'' she demands, though she refuses
to tell the druggist the purpose of her purchase. The law requires that the druggist know
what the poison will be used for, so he eventually gives in and writes ''for rats'' on the
box.

Emily actually intends to use the arsenic to kill her suitor, Homer Barron. The box itself
was emblazoned with an image of 'the skull and bones,' a common warning for containers
of poison. This image foreshadows the story's final, horrible revelation: Homer has been
reduced to bones and dust.

Foreshadow: Letting Go

Emily has trouble letting go of those she loves, even in death. The first instance of this
propensity occurs when Emily's father dies: ''The day after his death all the ladies
prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. 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. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling
on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as
they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father
quickly.''

This event foreshadows the story's final revelation where Emily again clings to the dead.
Homer apparently decided to leave town without marrying Emily, so she poisons him and
hides his corpse in a secret room in her house. Emily is so desperately lonely and isolated
that she will go to any length to keep Homer from leaving her. She keeps Homer's body,
just as she has attempted to keep her father's body after he dies.

Foreshadow: Gray hair

The gray hair on the pillow indicates that she has been lying down on the bed, beside the
corpse of her dead former fiance . There's also an indent in the pillow, which suggests
that it wasn't a once-or-twice occurrence. Gray hair is sometimes seen as a sign of
wisdom and respect.

The clues and my case

The cracks of my established assumptions start in Section V after she dies:

“Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had
seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced”

The key terms are “no one had seen in forty years” and “had to be forced.” Taken
literally, “no one” includes her. That the door had to be forced emphasizes the door
wasn’t just locked but stuck because of neglect. Also, there is no mention of a key. If
Faulkner wanted to emphasize that she could have, in principle, been in the room over the
intervening forty years, he only needed to add the adjective “locked” to “door.” But he
didn’t. Then they bust it down. Since she died at seventy-four, going forty years back,
she had to be about thirty-four since being in that room.
When they bust into the room they find the body of Homer Barron on a decrepit bed.
The piece finishes with the famous climax:

“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 iron-grey hair.”

SYMBOLISM

Symbolism: Iron Gray Hair

The description ofEmily’s hair by the narrator as “iron gray” symbolizes Emily’s
perceived strength and hardships. There seems to exist a dichotomy within Emily, one of
a weak lady who often loses her grip on reality, and one who often exercises control over
those around her e.g. Homer Baron, the town’s officials. Emily has been hardened by life,
by her experiences, something which has turned her into the emotionally hard, and distant
woman the reader often sees. Sheltered for most of her life, she loses one of the main
reasons for her pride, her father. Her having to cope with her father's passing as well as
the changing cultural landscape around her, leaves the great Emily Grierson, a striving
woman. Aside from her house help, Tobe, Emily is alone, lacking a spouse or close
friend.

Emily’s through her "iron gray hair" leaves a lasting impression on the town, an
impression which borders on immortality. The discovery of the iron gray hair on the
pillow reveals to everyone the true Emily Grierson. She is more than just eccentric, she is
a necrophiliac, and a murderer. The "iron gray hair" is the last thing the reader is left
with, and it is an imagery which leaves a haunting impact on those she left behind. The
reader gets a sense that Emily Grierson will somehow live on in the stories that will be
told from then on.

Symbolism: The House

The great house in which Emily lives is symbolic of Emily herself. Like Emily the House
remains old, never changing to reflect the changing times. Emily refuses to place a

number on the house or a mailbox, which shows that in some way she projects her views
onto it. Also like Emily Grierson who had once been an iconic member of a privileged
family, the House too once held that distinction being “big, squarish...set on what had
once been our most select street.” Just as Emily physically ages but mentally remains
stuck in time, the House also physically deteriorates becoming an “eyesore”, but still
stands as a mental reminder to all in the town, of a time that has since passed.

THEMES

A Rose for Emily Themes

The main themes in “A Rose for Emily” are secrecy and obsession, the Old South, and
death and control.

Secrecy and obsession: The secretive Emily Grierson is a source of fascination in the
town of Jefferson, and the townspeople regard her with obsessive curiosity.

The Old South: Emily represents the Old South and the aristocracy who held power in
Jefferson prior to the Civil War; she refused to acknowledge that times had changed.

Death and control: After the deaths of her father and Homer Barron, Emily attempted to
exert control over both of them by keeping their bodies in her home.