The High and Mighty Miss Emily

Ashley Jones
Mrs. Aiken
English 1102-45
October 5, 2009
The High and Mighty Miss Emily
William Falkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” focuses on Miss Emily Grierson, an aristocratic woman deeply admired by a community. The town judges Miss Emily as a fallen monument, but simultaneously as a lady who is above reproach, who is too good for the common townspeople, and who holds herself distant. In Falkner’s story, he describes Miss Emily’s home which contrasts striking similarities to her; for they have both deteriorated over time. While the narrator obviously admires Miss Emily greatly- the use of the word “Grierson” evokes a certain type of aristocratic behavior- the townspeople resent her haughtiness and her dominance; longing to place her on a pedestal above everyone else, at the same time they wish to see her dragged down in disgrace. Nevertheless, the town, including the new council members, shows complete deference and subservience toward Miss Emily and admiration to her home.
The description of the Grierson’s house reinforces the disparity between the past and the present. Once a place of splendor, now modern encroachments-gas pumps and cotton wagons-demolish most of the neighborhood and leave untouched only Miss Emily’s house with its “stubborn and coquettish decay” (Faulkner 526). The disparity between the past and the present is evidenced by the different approaches that each generation takes concerning Miss Emily’s taxes. In the past, Colonel Sartoris had remitted her taxes for her because he believes it is uncivilized to remind a Southern woman to pay taxes, which Miss Emily does not do after her father dies. The next generation, with its more modern ideas, holds her responsible for taxes. Miss Emily, however, returns the tax notice saying, “I have no taxes in Jefferson” (Faulkner 527).
Throughout Faulkner’s short story, he uses descriptive phrases to compare the physical appearance of Miss Emily and her house. When Miss Emily enters the room with the deputation, she is dressed in black and leans on a cane; her “skeleton” is small; and she looks “bloated,” with a “pallid hue.” Faulkner doesn’t come out and say Miss Emily looks like a dead person; for it is only in retrospect that we realize that the dead-looking Miss Emily has been sleeping with the very dead Homer Barron. Miss Emily’s decaying appearance matches not only the rotting exterior of her house, but the interior as well. For example, the crayon, pastel, picture mentioned prior to the narrator’s description of Miss Emily is supported by a “tarnished” stand, and Miss Emily supports herself by leaning on the “tarnished” handle of her cane.
Two years has passed and a smelled developed around the Grierson’s home. Some ladies in the town just thought since they only saw a Negro man going in and out the house with a market basket that a man couldn’t keep a kitchen properly, and were not surprised about the dreadful smell. “It was another link between the gross, teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons” (Faulkner 528). The older generation, which feels that it is improper to tell a lady that she stinks, arranges for a group of men to spread lime on her lawn and inside the cellar door of her house.
During the summer after Mr. Grierson’s death, Miss Emily falls in love with a Northerner, Homer Barron. The townspeople didn’t believe that Miss Emily would take him seriously because he is a day laborer, and she’s a Grierson. The townspeople relegates her to adultery, condemning has as “fallen,” and the first sentence of the story says, “the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument” (Faulkner 526). A year later, Miss Emily enters a drug store and announces she wants some poison. When the druggist is reluctant to sell her any without a reason, Miss Emily uses her aristocratic bearing to intimidate him. “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” (Faulkner 530). Again, Miss Emily is not condemned for her actions.
The townspeople, never suspecting that the poison is for Homer Barron, conclude that Emily will likely use it to kill herself. After Homer announces he is not a marrying man, the townspeople think that they should stop the relationship. The townspeople write Miss Emily’s cousins and they come to live with her. During the time Emily’s cousins moved in, Homer disappears. After the cousins leave, Homer returns and the narrator notes, “And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron” (Faulkner 531). The townspeople never suspect the horror of what happens; believing that such an aristocratic woman as Miss Emily, could never do any wrong.
In Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” the townspeople places Miss Emily Grierson on a pedestal and sees her as “a tradition, a duty,” or as the narrator describes her, “a fallen monument.” Throughout this short story, there are conspicuous descriptions that link Miss Emily’s appearance to her home. Because the Grierson’s held themselves a little too high, Miss Emily is never held guilty of her actions, yet she uses her high position, respect, and authority to avoid the laws.