It will borrow heavily on how the author uses different aspects of the story to justify the actions of the main protagonist, Miss Emily. Despite these turnabouts in her social status, Emily continues to behave haughtily, as she had before her father died. She refuses to reveal what she plans to do with the poison, but apparently, she poisons Homer with it. For them as for her, time is relative. Moreover, he did not feel it was her place to act on her own behalf.
She and her father, the last two of the clan, continue to live as if in the past; Emily's father refuses for her to marry. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves. Another symbol of her unwillingness to change was her refusal to allow the new guard to put the numbers of her house for free mail delivery and her use of old paper and old ink in her answer to the demand for tax payment. Miss Emily grew up as part of an aristocratic Southern family, with an overpowering father who refused to allow her to be courted by the young men of the town. William Faulkner sets the mood that our main character is a part of the town, yet uses a collective narration to allow the reader to better see the isolation and separation that Miss.
Once the smell of his decaying corpse becomes noticeable, some of the townspeople sneak over to Emily's lawn at night to sprinkle lime in an effort to combat the smell. Symbols represent ideas or qualities that the author has maneuvered into his or her story that has meaning. Emily is a member of a family of the aristocracy. It is a cover up that symbolizes how the town hides the secrets in that generation Shmoop 5. When she finally finds a man, Homer, people in town believe him to be beneath her place in life and cluck their tongues about their relationship. Understanding the author's intent in the title, the symbolic gesture of handing someone a rose, seems to soften the image of Emily somewhat. Emily goes to the drugstore, where she stares down the pharmacist and manages to purchase arsenic.
Was it a failing relationship or was Emily's pride damaged by the local gossip? Homer, notably a northerner, is not one for the tradition of marriage. After her father dies, she keeps his corpse for three days and refuses to admit that he is dead. We learn about the main character Miss. The new Board of Alderman visit Emily's house to demand that she begin paying her taxes. Homer has not simply disappeared.
He managed to give readers a gift, through the beauty and daintiness of a rose, that even he isn't sure he can open. She isseen buying arsenic, which the townspeople believe s … he will use tocommit suicide. Consider the details on why Emily did the things she did from the narrator's point of view. In the same description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. The mayor of the town, Sartoris, made a to overlook her taxes as an act of charity, though it was done under a pretense of repayment towards her father to assuage Emily's pride after her father had died.
Emily has become a : she is never seen outside of the house, and only rarely accepts people into it. At that time, giving a rose to a woman was common if they had been through a great tragedy. People are afraid of her and have no idea how to approach her, thus in this case, they are forced to sneak around her house at night to lay down lime to resolve the horrible smell. Colonel Sartoris - The former mayor who remitted Emily's taxes. In this way, her father's influence remains after he has passed.
It was Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine. With the acceptance of her father's death, Emily somewhat revives, even changing the style of her hair and becomes friendly with Homer Barron. Her struggle with loss and attachment is the impetus for the plot, driving her to kill Homer Barron, the man that is assumed to have married her. The story was adapted for film in 1987 by Chubby Cinema Company,and has since been released as a 27-minute video. Some of the symbolism was blatant while some was vague and disguised. They kept and cherished the precious memories, and in a fatal and pathetic attempt to maintain the glory of the South people tend to cling to old values, customs, and the faded, but glorified representatives of the past.
Inside, they find her dead husband's corpse and evidence that shehad been sleeping beside him for the past t … hirty years. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. The first time we read this story, we assumed that—of course—the town didn't know about Homer Barron until Emily died. The town does nothing to stop these events, merely entertain the idea. Emily encounters different complications as her father, and Colonel Satoris are deceased. Symbolism is the integral factor involved in understanding the theme.
In any case the townsfolk were surprised but yet glad with Miss Emily's decision. There are no voices, no conversation, and there's definitely no hope. Whether or not this theory is correct, it proves that the story is still being closely analyzed decades after it was written. Faulkner portrays emotions of love and realism through the characteristics of Emily. . She poisons him and keeps him locked away in her room; she did not want to lose the only other person she had ever loved, so she made his stay permanent. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.