William Faulkner'sA Rose for Emily?, is the remarkable story of Emily Grierson, an aging spinster in Jefferson, whose death and funeral drew the attention of the entire town. The men went through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one except an old manservant - a combined gardner and cook - had seen in the last ten years.? The story is sometimes regarding as symbolic of the changes in the south during the representative period. A Rose for Emily? is simply a ghost story, a story of a wronged woman (Faulkner 2169).
Emily has an obligation to the nobility of her family name. After all,A Grierson would not think seriously of a northerner.? The Grierson family is presented as the typical southern family, with the old money and the big house, and family ties to the Bible, which make their lives look simple. With the Civil War over, there are no more barriers for the southerners to hide behind, except their traditions. It is these traditions that seem to drive Miss Emily to kill Homer, for if she can not have him, then no one can, and the town can take their traditions and go to hell for all she cares. It is not her family name that prevents her from having a marriage with homer; it is tradition. There is nothing for Miss Emily to hide behind; she has no excuses for not accepting a match with Homer. It is the opinion of the town that she is concerned with; the invasion of the new class does not coincide with the old southern traditions of her youth (Faulkner 2172).
Emily's fear of change is first noticed with her relationship with her father. She was to do everything to his best wishes and to let him down would have been disastrous. For three days after her father had died, she kept his body inside the house with her. .
Ministers, doctors, and even law enforcement kept trying to convince her to let them take the body until she finally gave in.
