33 pages • 1 hour read
William FaulknerA Rose for Emily
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1930A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Grierson House
After her father’s death in 1894, Emily Grierson continues to live in a large, empty plantation house that has deteriorated since the Civil War. The imposing but decaying Grierson house is a symbol of the decline of the old Southern aristocracy. Faulkner’s description of the Grierson house and the changing town that surrounds it is an extended metaphor depicting Emily’s internal decay:
It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores (47).
The decay of the house thematically reflects The Reconstruction Era and the Decline of the Old South and The Dangers of Social Isolation. The house, which was once a highlight of the town, is now a blight. The cotton gins and garages are structures that symbolize the modern, industrial world that is encroaching upon the old Southern way of life. Emily’s stubborn resistance to this new world is reflected in her refusal to allow the town to install modern amenities like a mailbox and house numbers. Additionally, the personified Grierson house serves as a symbol of Emily’s internal decay. As she grows older and more isolated, her mental and emotional states deteriorate, and she becomes increasingly trapped in her own delusions. The dust and decay that have accumulated in the house by the end of the story reflect the decay of Emily’s mind and soul.
Death and Decay
The motif of death and decay reflects the Southern Gothic interest in the decline of the Old South in the years following the Civil War. The recurring presence of death has to do in part with the narrative’s time frame, which incorporates all of Emily’s 74 years of life in one short story. As such, many of the townspeople must live out their lives and die within the frame of the story. This aspect of the storytelling reflects Emily’s own confusion about the thin veil of mortality, as she repeatedly confuses her father, the town’s mayor, and her spurned lover as being alive after they have died.
The portrayal of the Grierson house often relies on images of decay and descriptive language. The motif of death and decay is also evident in the description of Emily’s appearance and Homer’s corpse. The last time she is seen in public, Emily is “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (49). This grotesque description hints at the violence of Homer’s murder. The depiction of Homer’s body in the final lines of the story is equally grotesque: “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay” (59). These images of decay, like the description of Emily’s aging body and her crumbling family home, thematically reflect The Reconstruction Era and the Decline of the Old South.
Emily’s Hair
Throughout the story, Emily’s hair is a symbol of the changes that come with age and emotional distress, highlighting the passage of time and the decay of her physical and mental state. After her father’s death, Emily cuts her hair short, “making her look like a girl […] sort of tragic and serene” (52). This dramatic change reflects her sudden independence. However, the hairstyle is inappropriate given her status as an unmarried 30-year-old woman who is now the head of her own household.
Following the disappearance of Homer, her hair changes again, turning “grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray” (56), which she maintains for the rest of her life. The fact that her hair is “vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man” (56), despite her relative lack of power, is reflective of her stubborn resistance to social expectations. In someone weakened by old age, such hair may be described as white and brittle, yet Emily’s is “vigorous” and “manly,” representing not a diminishment of her power in old age but the growth of it.
The repetition of “iron-gray” in the fourth section foreshadows the significance of Emily’s hair because her hair reveals her culpability in Homer’s death. In the final lines of the story, the townspeople discover a strand of her hair on the pillow next to Homer’s decaying corpse, suggesting she was responsible for his death and the abuse of his body.
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By William Faulkner
