A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily

In this story "A Rose for Emily" the setting takes place in the southern town of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi. We see how past events affect the life of the main character Miss Emily, especially her incapability to accept change. In the story Miss Emily goes to extreme preventions to protect her social status. She lives in the past to protect herself from a future that holds no promises and no guarantees. The writer illustrates her inability to accept changes through the physical, social and historical settings, all of which are intimately related to the her house.

The Grierson house is a physical reminder of her reluctance to change. The "big squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and scrolled balconies in the heavenly lightsome style of the seventies (Faulkner)." was located on one of the most flashy and prestigious neighborhoods in the town of Jefferson. However, times changed and new generations replaced the old ones. And the town moved on towards the future. The houses were replaced by cotton gins and auto garages until only Miss Emily's house was left. The house was a visible reminder that Miss Emily couldn't accept changes.

When Miss Emily met Homer Baron, a construction worker with a lower social standing compared to herself, she fell in love with him. Even though she was in love with Homer she felt he was not good enough for a women like herself, and this was ruining her social image. He was not the marrying type of guy. She thought he doesn't love her. She was once again facing the reality that her life can change, so she retreats to her world of the past and this time took her lover Homer with her.

Emily bought poison that would change Homer's fate and eliminate the only source of change she had ever accepted in her life. The room upstairs becomes her world of the past where she could stay with dead Homer forever and keep it a secret from the entire town of Jefferson.