" Because of her father's protective behavior, Miss Emily is unable to live independently without him. He has a great impact on Miss Emily's life. His crayon portrait shows that Miss Emily believes her father is still with her and watching her. The crayon portrait also represents Miss Emily's refusal in accepting the fact that her father is dead, and moving on. .
Miss Emily's house is also an important example of symbolism in this story. The readers, as well as the townspeople, just see the house from the outside throughout the story. The writer describes the house: "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." The house looks kind of pretty and a little bit ancient from the outside. Most of Miss Emily's activities happen inside the house, and it is also the placewhere the frightening part of the story happens. When we think about a house, we think about a happy place where we can have a joyful life with people we love. However, Miss Emily turns her house into a virtual prison – with the corpse of Homer Barron rotting in an upstairs room. The house is the symbol of isolation. Miss Emily isolates herself in her house because she is not able to adapt changes in her life. Also, she does not want to have any changes in her life, so she isolates Homer in her house with her. The locked room in Miss Emily's house and the long iron-gray hair which is found on a pillow inside the room are perhaps the most vivid symbols. "The room symbolizes the secrecy and mystery associated with Miss Emily's house and her relationship with Homer" (Mosby). The color and the location of the hair show that there is a continuing interaction between Miss Emily and the corpse of Homer, again indicating Miss Emily's refusal to acknowledge the finality of death.
Another element of language used in this story is situational irony.
