A CharacterAnalysis of William Faulkner's «A Rose For Emily»
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose ForEmily” he had described Emily using five adjectives. These five adjectives wereidentified in Part IV of his story. “Thus she passed from generation togeneration – dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.”(80) AliceHall Petry makes note of Terry Heller’s analysis that “only four” of theadjectives are used by the time we get to that statement and that eachadjective coincides with each Part of the story in the order that they appear. Petry also makes note to a few that have pondered the reason for Faulkner’splacement of this passage in Part IV and sums it up to be Faulkner’s way offoreshadowing.
In Part I, Faulkner described Emily to be “dear.”The word “dear” can have two meanings in this sense. Petry believes Faulknerhad meant “dear” to mean “sweet or cherished” in her article. “On a tarnishedeasel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily’s father.”(Faulkner 76) Because the portrait was done in crayon, it is assumed that MissEmily was a child when it was drawn; childhood is assumed to be a period inlife where everything is sweet and innocent. The tarnished easel would thenrepresent that the portrait was put there in front of the fireplace for sometime, a portrait that her father had cherished. In retrospect, Heller hadbelieved the word “dear” to mean “costly.” (Petry 53) Heller sees this in PartI of the story when Emily refuses to pay her taxes. (Petry 53)
When the next generation, with its more modernideas, became mayors
and aldermen, this arrangement created some littledissatisfaction. One
the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice.February came, and
there was no reply. They wrote her a formal letter,asking her to call the
sheriff’s office at her convenience. A week later themayor wrote her
himself, offering to call or send his car for her, andreceived in reply a
note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowingcalligraphy in faded
ink, to the effect that she no longer went out at all.The tax notice was also enclosed, without comment.
Later in that same Part when the aldermen went to MissEmily’s home “Her voice was dry and cold. ‘I have no taxes in Jefferson.Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to thecity records and satisfy yourselves.’”
In Part II, Faulkner described Emily to be“inescapable.” Alice Hall Petry believes that Faulkner related this to theevents leading to the decomposition of Homer Baron’s body and “the smell.” “…just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about thesmell.” (Faulkner 76) “ ‘Just as if a man – any man – could keep a kitchenproperly,’ the ladies said; so they were not surprised when the smelldeveloped.” (Faulkner 76) To resolve the “inescapable” smell issue, some of thetownspeople went to Miss Emily’s home and put lime about her yard and in hercellar. (Faulkner 77)
The next adjective Faulkner uses in Part III todescribe Miss Emily as “impervious” she is not affected by or influenced byanyone. “She carried her head high enough – even when we believed that she wasfallen.” Another example of Miss Emily being “impervious” is when:
The druggist looked down at her. She looked back athim, erect, her face
like a strained flag. “Why of course,” the druggistsaid. “If that’s what you
want. But the law requires you to tell what you aregoing to use it for.” Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back inorder to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got thearsenic and wrapped it up.
Petry stated in her article “Emily stonily refuses toconcede to the law in regard to the purchase of poison…and on a more ironicnote, her sexual penetration in Part III confirms her imperviousness.” In fact,in Part III Faulkner comes right out and says how Emily is impervious. “It wasas if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the lastGrierson; as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm herimperviousness.”
In Part IV Faulkner suggests that Emily istranquil. Petry refers to this as Emily’s “post murder life.”