The Life of Miss Emily Grierson in A Rose for Emily, a Short Story by William Faulkner

In the short story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson is the protagonist, and the whole story revolves around her. The story begins with a large funeral of Miss Emily and unfolds her life. Miss Emily Grierson is described to be a fat woman living in a modernized town which was full of people who rather saw her as a distant woman, very cold and a woman who lived in her past. (Nichols 150)

Miss Emily is referred by the town people as a duty, care, and tradition. She is portrayed to be very stubborn, mean and old woman before her story unfolds. Later as her story unfolds, she is portrayed by people as a sympathetic character whose story cannot be full. Understood .The title of the story A Rose for Emily also portrays Miss Emily as the protagonist of the story. All that is reflected in the story is about the life of Miss Emily, it starts by her funnel and narrates the life story of Miss Emily after her father`s death and the life after she started dating Homer Barron. (Faulkner 170)

She is stuck in both space and time and does not involve her views in the changing interactions with the society. Emily is a brave woman, in one of the most prominent events in life she refused to pay taxes. Other instances include her slow acceptance to her father`s passing and by her rejecting to have a mailbox put up. She enforces her sense of conduct and law when she refuses numbers to be attached to her house. Her dismissal of the law, however, takes some more sinister consequences, and she takes the life of the man. Despite Emily`s mental instability, she portrays herself as a strong woman.

Miss Emily as described by the narrator in the story lives in an isolated house together with her servant. It took for people from the community to visit her house. At one point in time, some tax collectors came to visit her and noticed a mysterious smell was coming from her house. The smell came two weeks after Miss Emily’s father had died and after her boy boyfriend had left her. The town later came to realize that Miss Emily`s father had died two weeks ago and they gave Miss Emily some condolences. His father was everything to her, and his death brought poverty in her life. After Mr. Grierson dies, however, Miss Emily controls herself by refusing to give up his body. Doctors and preacher visited Miss Emily, talked to her, and finally, she agreed to give out the body of his father. People in the town though she was insane for denial of his father’s body. (Nichols 160)

All that is reflected in the short story is about the life of Miss Emily , it starts by her funnel and narrates the life story of Miss Emily after her father`s death and the life after she started dating Homer Barron.