Rose for Emily Narration –1 st person periphal (we) Genre –Gothic Title –“here was a woman who had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it and I pitied her – a salute—to a woman you would give a rose

Thesis of Story “ Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care, a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sardtoris, the mayor– he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron –remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity.

First Sentence When Miss Emily Grierson dies, our whole town went to her funeral: the men 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 save an old manservant – a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years.

Sensory Imagery of Smell “It smelled of dust and disuse” “so they were not surprised when the smell developed” –Connection between death and father and the disappearance of Homer “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days…” Will you accuse a lady to her smelling bad?”

Emily’s Sanity and Foreshadowing –“None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily…” –Sanity “remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last…” “We did not say she was crazy then.” “She was sick for a long time.”

Homer “a Yankee – a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face.” “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of Northerner, a day laborer.” “She carried her head high enough –even when we believed she had fallen.” “She was over thirty…”

Homer Rat posion –Druggist knows what she really wants it for but… “For Rats” = Homer “Homer himself had remarked – he liked men, and it was known that he drank with younger men in the Elk’s club– that he was not the marrying man.” –A bachelor? –Homosexual? –Attack on Yankees?

“And that was last we saw of Homer.” –Townspeople assumed they were married. Man’s toilet set, man’s outfit – including a night shirt.

Emily’s Hair and Foreshadowing “her hair was turning gray.” “pepper and salt iron gray Death at 74 it was still that vigorous iron gray “her gray hair propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight.”

Bridal Death Camber “room decked and furnished as for a bridal” “tomb” “man’s toilet things tarnished” The clothing and night shirt

Last Sentence “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a lond strand of iron-gray hair.”

Themes Living in a dead past means living with death. Time is always moving – chained to time and status = stagnation. North vs. South Internal conflict