A Rose For Emily

            
             In the short story A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, Emily, and the main character of the story shows an obsession for the past. In the first paragraph the whole town attends her funeral to pay their last respects to a "fallen monument-, not to mention to allow the townspeople their curiosity and have a look at her house that no one has seen in ten years. It as if, through Miss Emily, they are able to keep a link to this dying past while living in the present. I believe Emily Grierson is a symbol for the longing of the old way of aristocratic life. She is, or was a monument of stature to this town. .
             When the narrator describes Emily's house as " only Miss Emily's house was left lifting its own stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps "an eyesore among eyesores,"" I grasped this depiction as if the past was stubborn. This deteriorating but noble house on one of the town's most "select streets- was not willing to give up. It held Miss Emily within and did not want to release the tradition and glory it had in earlier days. .
             It also seemed as if everyone from Miss Emily's past held that same bond even in the as the present days went on. Colonel Sartoris had a financial deal with Miss Emily about her taxes and even after his death; she refused to acknowledge he was gone. His word was supposed to be good even after the fact. Judge Stevens also was aware of the precarious situation he was in when he had been handed complaints about Miss Emily's house and the smell that came from it. The narrator makes it a point to announce his age of eighty years .
             old as he says, "Dammit, sir, will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?- He is also keeping compliant with the old mannerisms of the past. .
             At the end of the story you see that Miss Emily tried to keep her past within her grasp also by keeping the body of her fiancé in the bedroom.