William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily begins with the citizens of a small town, Miss Emily Grierson and her father. The citizens of the town remember Miss Grierson as a beautiful young woman; however, we soon learn she was not only beautiful but very shrewd and manipulative as well. Now an old woman, she is never seen in public and only one servant, a Negro woman remains to take care of Miss Grierson.
“A Rose for Emily” takes place in the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi during an unspecified time. A narrator relates that at least thirty-two years have passed between the events of the short story and its telling. For almost fifty years prior to that day, Miss Emily Grierson had not been seen outside her house; supposedly she has never left it except for her father’s funeral (he died before 1894), when she wore his wedding suit and rode with the coffin on top of an open hearth log down Main Street.
It is implied that she was young, unmarried and beautiful at the time of her father’s death. A year later, Miss Emily returns to her house and has a man load two chairs and a table into a carriage waiting outside. A week later, the same man sees Miss Emily again and remarks how much weight she has lost in just this short time.
The townspeople believed Miss Emily had taken ill; however, they learn from A Mis’ Hines that Miss Emily is not sick but dead as A Mis’ Hines had seen her funeral in Jefferson before coming to visit Miss Emily’s house for tea (later A Mis’ Hines reveals that there were no flowers on the grave, which makes sense since everyone thought Miss Emily was still alive).
A few days later A Mis’ Hines reveals to A Mr. Grierson, Miss Emily’s cousin who is now the head of the household, that Miss Emily was in fact buried under her father’s name since A Mis’ Hines knew that A Mr. Grierson would not be able to pay for a marker with both his mother-in-law and niece being dead.
A Mr. Grierson asks A Mis’ Hines if she knows where Miss Emily bought the arsenic so he can look at it as they are getting low on supplies at home; A Mis’ Hines replies she does not know but remembers Miss Emily buying quicksilver one time when A Mr. Grierson was sick with pneumonia and she had sent over some flowers and Miss Emily asked A Mis’ Hines where she could buy quicksilver.
A Mr. Grierson thanks A Mis’ Hines for this information and A Misses Mollie Dean asks A Mis’ Hines if she had seen Miss Emily’s hair, to which A Mis’ Hines replies that it is still in the comb she wore it pinned up in when A Mis’ Hines saw her last. A few days later A Mr. Grierson pays a visit to the druggist who had sold Miss Emily the arsenic; the druggist confirms he does not believe arsenic is very effective against rats but admits he has never used it on his own farm or around his barnyard due to its high cost.
A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, is a story of the life of Miss Emily Grierson. A Rose for Emily begins with the narrator talking about buying poison from Miss Emily’s servant. This serves to introduce Miss Emily as an old woman who keeps to herself and lives in complete isolation with only her servant left. The opening paragraph sets up the theme of A Rose for Emily which is that all things must pass away (Davis 36). A critical point in A Rose for Emily is when the men watching over Miss Emily’s house hear her letting someone into her bedroom after they heard something fall.
They find Homer Barron inside Miss Emily’s room dead on the bed with blood coming out his mouth (Davis 38). So A Rose for Emily begins with Miss Emily as an old woman, the end of A Rose for Emily has Miss Emily dying and everyone is gossiping about how it happened (Davis 37). A critical event in A Rose for Emily between these two points is when Miss Emily’s father dies. Her father was a commanding man who had never liked Homer Barron (Davis 38). The first time Homer Barron came to town he called on Miss Emily and her father told the servant to say that she was not at home even though she was just upstairs hiding from him.
When Homer began calling on her again her father would tell the same servant that this time Miss Emily was at home but then he would lock her door so that she could not come down to see him (Bruccoli 753). A critical event in A Rose for Emily that took place before this point is when Miss Emily was to marry a young man, Homer Barron (Davis 38). The young man who wanted to marry Miss Emily died and she never married again. A critical event after this time is when the narrator hears about Homer Barron’s death and sees Miss Emily as an old woman with no one to take care of her (Davis 39).
A final critical event near the end of A Rose for Emily is when Miss Emily dies and so does her servant because they both ate arsenic-laced cornbread that Miss Emily made just before she died (Bruccoli 753). This sets up A Rose for Emily as an ending story. The theme of A Rose for Emily is that all good things come to an end (Davis 36). A Rose for Emily is a sad story about how Miss Emily Grierson’s life ended. A critical event in A Rose for Emily, between the beginning where the narrator talks about buying poison from Miss Emily’s servant and the end where everyone sees Miss Emily’s death, is when her father dies.
A Rose for Emily begins with Miss Grierson living alone with no one taking care of her while A Rose for Emily ends with only her dead being taken care of. A critical event that takes place after Homer Barron dies near the middle of A Rose for Emily is when Miss Russel dies. A Rose for emily continues on page 755, “Two days later” Emily sent for sugard that she had bought when her father was alive, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. A week later the smell of cooking began to fill the house” (Faulkner 755).
A Rose for Emily continues with the townspeople gossiping about Miss Emily’s strange behaviors in buying spices after she has so much money already. The narrator hears this gossip and reflects on all of it in A Rose for Emily. A critical event before this time is when Miss Grierson marries Homer Barron who dies shortly after they are married (Davis 39). A critical event after this time is when Miss Russel dies which sets up A Rose for Emily being a story that ends in death.
