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Rose for Emily


Standing out negatively in the community, the house mirrors the old belief of weak women; the community is disgusted by the home like it is disgusted by the thought of passive females. Later on in the story, there is a smell from the house, which the town quickly destroys by "sprinkl[ing] lime [in the cellar], and in all the outbuildings-(77). The town quickly and secretively does away with the smell of the home like it does with the old viewpoint of women. .
             Though the Gierson's home encompasses characteristics of the past, it also hints at the future, showing that it is in the middle of a transformation from past to present. No matter how weak the house seems, it is also "stubborn" (75), with a "big, squarish frame-(75) that demands to be recognized and respected. When Emily dies, the town enters the home, "which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced"(80). The house is strong, and it takes the entire community to force it open. The town and the ideals it stands for force their way into the home, physically taking over the place; the new view, of powerful, self-sufficient women, takes over the last hint of the town's past. The house still looks old and ancient, yet it comes to represent a new idea and so it has made the shift, along with the community, to welcoming powerful women as a new part of their world.
             Emily is a woman that belongs in the past yet inevitably changes with the times, getting caught in the contradictory beliefs of past and present. Emily embodies a woman that the town does not want: old- fashioned and reliant on men. When the townspeople try to collect taxes from Emily, she turns them over to Colonel Sartoris, though he is dead; she cannot defend herself without a man for backup. Because her father controlled her whole life, she cannot hand over the body for three days after his death. When she finally does, Emily had "nothing left"(77) and "would have to cling to that which had robbed her-(77).


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