In many ways, William Faulkner’s famous short story, “A Rose for Emily” is a Southern Gothic narrative about the decadent traditions of the South in the early 20th century. The narrative concerns a woman, Miss Emily Grierson, from a Mississippi town steeped in tradition. Told in a unique third-person point-of-view from the “we” townsfolk, the plot of “A Rose for Emily” begins with Miss Emily’s funeral and doubles back, relating the backstory her upbringing and failed attempts at courtship. Throughout the narrative, the townsfolk judge Miss Emily for many things, i.e., her unmarried status, her eccentric ways, her refusal to pay taxes, the strange smell coming from her home, etc. However, Faulkner utilizes a morbid plot reversal at the end of the tale, where it becomes obvious that for many years Miss Emily had been sleeping in bed with a corpse of the man she murdered, to provide a Gothic touch of the macabre. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner uses setting and aristocratic characterization to critique the tradition of nostalgia for the antiquated ways of the southern past.
Faulkner grew up in Oxford Mississippi, and his family was immersed in the traditions of the south (Song 2291). Therefore, many of his stories and novels center on the southern way of life and its distinct point-of-view. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner reveals his critique of the southern traditions of stagnation and holding onto the past. In some ways, through Miss Emily, Faulkner illustrates a heritage that has yet to move on from the pre-Civil War days. The reader can see southern influences in the setting of the tale, which display a world that has been resistant to change for many years. For example, one can see the southern antiquity in the old architecture of Miss Emily’s house, as shown in this quote from the text: “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” (Faulkner 1). The fact that Miss Emily’s house is one of the relics that still stand serves as the symbolic nature of her existence and a metaphor for the refusal of the South to move on from its old-fashioned ways.
Additionally, readers can see representations of the decadent South in other details as well, such as the aristocratic attitudes of the Grierson family, which extends back through many generations of southern nobility. For example, in this quote from the text, the narrator describes the Grierson family and its snobbish traditions: “the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily” (Faulkner 4). Since the Grierson family thought of themselves as aristocrats, despite their family’s decline, Miss Emily and her obstinate father never found a man “worthy of her,” and her loneliness contributed to her mental instability, which Faulkner punctuates at the end of the tale through the morbid plot reversal. Miss Emily does meet a suitor, Homer Barron, but he is a northerner, and social custom dictates that she should not marry such a man. Homer does not seem all that interested in settling down with her anyway. However, when Homer goes missing, the townsfolk suspect that they perhaps had an affair, and that Homer had left town. Through the big reveal at the end, Faulkner points out the truth of the situation, i.e., that Miss Emily had poisoned him and kept his corpse in her bed for decades, underscoring the diseased mind of the southern nobility.
The significance of the rose in “A Rose for Emily” also highlights the significance of southern tradition in the tale. Scholar Elizabeth Kurtz notes that roses are typically exchanged between lovers as a token of romance (40). However, the love of Miss Emily for Homer Barron goes far beyond any romanticism and becomes a perverted and grotesque infatuation. When she murders him and symbolically keeps his corpse locked away in a rose-colored room, she attempts to recreate a love that had, in reality, never existed except in her diseased mind (Kurtz 40). Here, Faulkner uses deep symbolism to show the tragedy of trying to hold onto antiquated southern ways. The powerful ending of the story makes the reader feel Miss Emily’s madness and the forces of tradition that kept her from marrying all those years.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a compelling illustration of southern tradition and the decadent ways of the declining South in the post-Civil War years and on into the 20th century. At the end of the tale, the narrator remarks, “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-gray hair” (Faulkner 9). This plot reversal at the conclusion captivates the reader, who immediately imagines what horrors Miss Emily must have endured for her to sleep in a bed next to a rotting corpse for so many years. The symbolism in the final scene underscores Faulkner’s critique of stubborn and unchanging southern tradition and shows the consequences of following archaic social mores. It is clear from the conclusion that the old ways would have to be changed and adapted for the South to escape such tragedies as the one described in the text.
