A Rose for Emily

By William Faulkner
WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-
1962)
 Spire (noun): steeple
 Coquettish (adj.): flirtatious

 Deputation (noun): committee

 Vanquish (verb): defeat

 Temerity (noun): confidence

 Noblesse Oblige (phrase): inferred

responsibility of privileged people

to act with generosity and nobility
to those less privileged
 Sibilant (adj.): sounded with a
hissing effect
 Macabre (adj.): gruesome or

ghastly
 Acrid (adj.): harsh, pungent, bitter

 Pall (noun): funeral cloth OR dark

cloud/covering of smoke or dust

the time of Emily Grierson’s death
and how the entire town attended
her funeral in her home, which no
stranger had entered for more
than ten years. In a once-elegant,
upscale neighborhood, Emily’s
house is the last vestige of the
grandeur of a lost era.
previous mayor, had suspended
Emily’s tax responsibilities to the
town after her father’s death,
justifying the action by claiming
that Mr. Grierson had once lent
the community a significant sum.
As new town leaders take over,
they make unsuccessful attempts
to get Emily to resume payments.
 In section III, the
describes a long
Emily suffers aft
The summer afte
death, the town
workers to pave
and a constructi
under the directi
Homer Barron, i
 Homer soon bec
figure in town an
Emily on buggy
afternoons, whic
the town and inc
condescension a
have for Emily. T
she is forgetting
and becoming in
man beneath he
s and
urther
es to the
e arsenic, a
is required
she will use
s no
package
abeled “For
ator
t some of
e that Emily
kill herself.
e to Homer
nlikely,
d Sunday
ged women
the Baptist
y.
 eaks of what
at he’ll never
wife writes to
bama, who
y. Because
set
er’s initials,
ge resumes.
is believed to
move to the
intrusive
 After the cousin
Homer enters t
one evening an
seen again. Ho
house, Emily gr
gray. Despite th
lesson she give
painting, her do
closed to outsid
 In what becomes
Emily refuses to
tax bill. She even
the top floor of th
for the occasiona
in the window, no
from her until her
seventy-four. Onl
seen going in and
house.
 In section V, the n
describes what h
Emily dies. Emily
in the parlor, and
elders, and two c
service. After som
passed, the door
upstairs room tha
opened in forty y
down by the town
 The room is froze
items for an upco
and a man’s suit l
Barron’s body is s
bed as well, in an
of decay. The onl
notice the indenta
the pillow beside
and a long strand
hair on the pillow.
GENRE
 Southern Gothi
genre of Southe
stories often foc
themes. While i
supernatural ele
focuses on dam
delusional, cha
CHARACTERS
 Emily Grierso
 The object of fas
story. A eccentri
is a mysterious
changes from a
hopeful young g
and secretive ol
CHARACTERS
 Homer Barro
 A foreman from t
is a large man w
complexion, a bo
light-colored eye
townspeople view
if not scandalous
mate
CHARACTERS
 Mr. Grierson
 Emily’s father. Mr.
controlling, loomin
even in death, and
community clearly
lasting influence o
CHARACTERS
 Tobe
Emily’s servant.


voice supposedl
lack of use, is th
that Emily has to
world.
CHARACTERS
 Colonel Satoris
A former mayor of Jefferson.


Colonel Sartoris absolves

Emily of any tax burden after
the death of her father.
CHARACTERS

 Judge Ste
A mayor of Jef


years old.
THEMES
Death
Tradition a

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