A Character
Analysis of William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily"
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose For
Emily” he had described Emily using five adjectives. These five adjectives were
identified in Part IV of his story. “Thus she passed from generation to
generation – dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.”(80) Alice
Hall Petry makes note of Terry Heller’s analysis that “only four” of the
adjectives are used by the time we get to that statement and that each
adjective 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’s
placement of this passage in Part IV and sums it up to be Faulkner’s way of
foreshadowing.
In Part I, Faulkner described Emily to be “dear.”
The word “dear” can have two meanings in this sense. Petry believes Faulkner
had meant “dear” to mean “sweet or cherished” in her article. “On a tarnished
easel 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 Miss
Emily was a child when it was drawn; childhood is assumed to be a period in
life where everything is sweet and innocent. The tarnished easel would then
represent that the portrait was put there in front of the fireplace for some
time, a portrait that her father had cherished. In retrospect, Heller had
believed the word “dear” to mean “costly.” (Petry 53) Heller sees this in Part
I of the story when Emily refuses to pay her taxes. (Petry 53)
When the next generation, with its more modern
ideas, became mayors
and aldermen, this arrangement created some little
dissatisfaction. 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 the
mayor wrote her
himself, offering to call or send his car for her, and
received in reply a
note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing
calligraphy 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 Miss
Emily’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 the
city records and satisfy yourselves.’”
In Part II, Faulkner described Emily to be
“inescapable.” Alice Hall Petry believes that Faulkner related this to the
events leading to the decomposition of Homer Baron’s body and “the smell.”
“…just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the
smell.” (Faulkner 76) “ ‘Just as if a man – any man – could keep a kitchen
properly,’ the ladies said; so they were not surprised when the smell
developed.” (Faulkner 76) To resolve the “inescapable” smell issue, some of the
townspeople went to Miss Emily’s home and put lime about her yard and in her
cellar. (Faulkner 77)
The next adjective Faulkner uses in Part III to
describe Miss Emily as “impervious” she is not affected by or influenced by
anyone. “She carried her head high enough – even when we believed that she was
fallen.” Another example of Miss Emily being “impervious” is when:
The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at
him, erect, her face
like a strained flag. “Why of course,” the druggist
said. “If that’s what you
want. But the law requires you to tell what you are
going to use it for.” Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in
order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the
arsenic and wrapped it up.
Petry stated in her article “Emily stonily refuses to
concede to the law in regard to the purchase of poison…and on a more ironic
note, 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 was
as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last
Grierson; as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her
imperviousness.”
In Part IV Faulkner suggests that Emily is
tranquil. Petry refers to this as Emily’s “post murder life.”
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