This story was a sort of "exercise" for Faulkner. Faulkner was trying to write a story in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, the great mystery/suspense writer. Therefore, it is vastly different from his usual style. Faulkner begins with the end, or at least nearly the end of the story of Emily Grierson, the symbol of the dying South. She was the last remnant of the Old American South, with its traditions and practices dating from before the Civil War. She represented a social system that no longer existed in the post Civil War era, a different world order, as the opening page so beautifully illustrates. She and her house were like a monument to these traditions, so with her death, the town could move on as a united group.
One significant literary choice to notice immediately is that the story's narrator chooses to draw the reader into the story as a towns person. In the first sentence, Faulkner writes, "our [my emphasis] town went to her funeral..." rather than perhaps saying "my town" or the third person "the town". This enables the narrator to have, "freedom in moving back and forth in time but also enabled him to present Miss Emily through a narrator who represents the collected viewpoint of the community." (464) Therefore, the whole town is writing this story. In a sense, this is a sociological piece depicting the change of attitudes as well as a piece of literature concerning one woman's life.
Also notice immediately how Faulkner divides the sexes and attributes different motives to each. This is a significant development that is carried throughout the story. In the very first sentence, Faulkner says that the men attended the funeral because they were respectful and admiring of the family, but the women attended out of "curiosity" and nosiness. Throughout the story, the men -- especially the older men who remembered the old fashioned ways and Emily's father -- are polite and well mannered. The women, on the other hand, are gossipy, gullible, and unkind. On the opening page (465), Faulkner tells us the story of the Grierson's taxes and says, "Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented it, and only a woman would have believed it." Thus, here we are taught the ways of the old gentility: men in those days had to create tales to preserve their dignity, but Faulkner's women were simply gullible and believed what the men told them.
Faulkner continues logically by jumping ahead in time and tells of the second issue with the taxes when the next generation of city officials were in power. They did not have the "understanding" that the older generation had with Miss Emily, so they expected her to pay her taxes like everyone else. They mailed the tax notice and received no reply. They mailed her a formal letter, which surely would not be done today, and then the mayor himself writes to her offering to even send his car for her to come down or accompany her himself to take care of the matter. So, they were being cordial and polite, yet still expecting the money. In response to the mayor's letter, she at least replies, but not to the issue at hand. She simply replies to his offer to pick her up by saying that she "no longer went out at all" (466). She returns the tax notice without comment. Now, the town officials have a problem! They held a meeting and decided that they would all go to her house to discuss this with her personally. Faulkner tells the reader that no one had been to the house for eight to ten years but also tells us that the last visitor had been for china painting lessons, which is an art form that wasn't practiced anymore, all a sign of the "old world".
Note the many descriptions of Miss Emily and the house, for they are often written of in the same way; she and the house represented decay and death. Faulkner uses the image of shadow often, which is a symbol for mysterious, eerie, unknown happenings. Shadow is also a symbol for the mind's mysteries, depicting some possible insanity or mental disturbance. It is supposed to make the reader uncomfortable and nervous. Faulkner uses "dust, disuse, dank-smells". What do these words suggest to you? Certainly not a cheery home. Her home is more like a morgue or cemetery, isn't it? Notice that her father is watching the meeting silently through his picture. He dominates the room, as he may dominate her life even though he is dead. Every tiny detail in this story has a purpose, so it is important to notice every tiny detail and figure out its purpose in the story.
Whenever a great writer repeats something such as an image or any word, examine it because they are never just running out of ways to say something! Every word is chosen with great care to show something important. Also notice when there are short sentences, and also notice when they are set apart or start a paragraph. This is to call your attention to them, so they are important.
She enters, and they stand, like good Southern gentlemen. She wears black, the color of death and mourning, and twice in a very short time, Faulkner uses the word "tarnished gold". This indicates something that was once valuable and shiny is now faded, dead, and blackish, like the Old South, the house, the values, and Miss Emily herself. Faulkner describes Emily's body as a "skeleton", small and spare. This term certainly suggests death, and he says that she looked "Bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water" (466). There is no life in her eyes; they look like two pieces of coal. Since they are not invited guests, she does not ask them to sit down. As nice Southern gentlemen, they cannot sit, so there is discomfort in the air. She treats them like servants, merely waiting for them to leave. The spokesman stumbles because he is uncomfortable, and the clock ticks, adding to the tension. Her voice, with no formality simply says, "I have no taxes in Jefferson." The spokesman says that they have checked the records and can find no records allowing her to avoid the taxes and ask her if she received the letter from the sheriff. Miss Emily's answer is very significant because she reveals that she did receive a paper, but she does not consider him an authority over her. "Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff..." She then repeats her previous statement about having no taxes. When the spokesman protests this remark, she interrupts him and says once more that she has no taxes. He persists once more, and she repeats once more! She refers them to the dead Colonel Sartoris, not knowing he has died, most likely, and for the fourth time states that she has no taxes. She summons her servant to remove them from her home.
The first sentence uses the unusual word vanquished. She vanquished them as though they were an enemy in a war, the way her father fought for the South. In addition, Faulkner tells us about a previous meeting with the town officials thirty years before. Now, the narrator jumps back in time to show the reader a picture of a younger Miss Emily. The narrator mentions THE SMELL (467), and informs the reader that the smell occurred two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweatheart...had deserted her. These two events are mentioned together for very important reasons. This passage links the death of her father with the disappearance of her suitor, even though they are two years apart. What do these two events have to do with one another? Faulkner skillfully teases the reader with a little information, and then keeps up the suspense by not completing the thought. Faulkner begins this section by discussing her father's death, since that event was before the desertion of her sweetheart. The ladies of the town are mentioned again, in contrast to the previous section where the men paid a call to her house. They were not allowed in at all. So, they merely gossip about the ability of a man to take care of a house properly; this reveals their true purpose in wanting to be there -- to inspect the house rather than expressing sympathy over Emily's father's death.
The ladies assumed the smell was the result of improper cleaning. Notice that a neighbor complained, but the neighbor, it is emphasized, is a WOMAN. It is further pointed out that the Judge is a man of eighty, so he is of the old world, Emily's world, so he is unable to do anything. The woman, though, asks if there is a law that they can enforce. Then, more complaints come. The man's complaint is polite, so the three older men and one younger man, representing the new regime, meet. The younger man speaks like the woman issuing demands, but the older Judge reminds the reader of more polite days when he asks, "will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?" (467) Instead, the four men creep around like burglars, sniffing for the smell, and sprinkle lime to kill the smell. Lime was used when burying the dead to kill the smell of decaying flesh; it was a deodorant of sorts. The reader then learns that Miss Emily was watching the whole event from her window, "motionless as that of an idol", like some sort of God to be worshipped. Again the symbol of shadow is used.
On page 468, Faulkner begins to hint that Miss Emily might head towards insanity. He mentions that her great-aunt was crazy. After father's death, she refuses to release the body, denying that her father was really dead. After three days of the corpse lying in the house with her, she finally lets them remove him to be buried. The town assumed that she had trouble letting go of her father because she had nothing left. They thought she was clinging to the person who had robbed her of a husband.
Faulkner notes the passage of time. The town is modernizing right around Miss Emily, and as they put in streets and sidewalks, a man named Homer Barron comes to work. A fine Southern lady of Miss Emily's status would never associate with a Northerner, especially a man who worked outdoors as a laborer. This would have been scandalous in these times, as the second paragraph on page 469 indicates. Notice the repetition of "Poor Emily" four times and the mention of the crazy relative, a woman, of course. The ladies gossip about what is developing between Miss Emily and the laborer and believe she has lost her position because of it. In the same paragraph as their discussion of Emily's dignity, the narrator skips in logic to the purchase of rat poison. Nevertheless, the reader realizes later that her dignity and the rat poison are very much connected. Interestingly, she buys it while "two female cousins are visiting."
The scene in the drug store is fascinating with respect to the dialog Faulkner writes. The paragraph starts out very abruptly with her statement, "I want some poison." Faulkner then mentions her age and her physical appearance, her coldness. She then repeats the request for poison. The druggist begins to suggest something, and she interrupts him as she had done with the group of men who came to her home. She interrupts him by asking for the best kind of poison (469). On page 470, she interrupts him a second time by asking about arsenic and then a third time by asking for the arsenic. These are very short pieces of dialogue indicating Miss Emily's state of mind. There is no formal ladylike discussion or politeness here at all. Then the druggist attempts to ask her what she will use it for because of the law, and Miss Emily only stares at him. She has no respect for the modern laws, and she scared the druggist so much that he didn't even come back out to give her the package! The druggist wrote "For rats" on the box.
Here the narrator opens with the collective thoughts of the town, "we all said she will kill herself". What is shocking is the next sentence: that they said it would be the best thing! In a Christian society, suicide is a mortal sin, one that would not admit the person into heaven, and the town felt that it would be BEST? This is truly an amazing comment. Faulkner then gives the speculation that her suicide would be because he did not marry her, and the refrain "Poor Emily" is voiced again. What do the townspeople feel is going on between Emily and Homer? It certainly was disgraceful and a "bad example to the young people". The LADIES forced the minister to do something, but Faulkner tells readers that she was not like the people in the town; she was Episco-palian, like the British aristocracy. Obviously Miss Emily acted strangely enough to scare the minister away, and he was never willing to return. What could she have done or said to him?
The minister's WIFE (not the minister) wrote to her family, and they did arrive. The town watched this as though it were a kind of television drama, though of course then there was no television. The town soon assumes there was a wedding, as she buys items a bride might purchase for her groom. Then, Homer vanishes (471), and the town only sees Emily after a long period. They see her now with hair that is turning gray, a salt and pepper iron gray she had until her death. Her hair color becomes a very important issue when the ending is discovered, but Faulkner doesn't reveal it in Part Four. Then, time passes, and the newer generation takes over. Emily's door remains closed to everyone. Emily even refuses progress so that she doesn't get a mailbox or house numbers. She pays no attention to the town then either. More time passes (472), and Faulkner tells us that Emily's tax notices are unclaimed and returned to the post office and only appears to live in the rooms downstairs. Again Faulkner refers to her as an idol as in the incident with the lime spreading. Then Emily dies. She dies in one of the downstairs rooms.
The ladies who come to call are met by Emily's servant, and he is never seen again; he walks out the back door and keeps on walking, having done his lifelong duty to her. The female cousins arrive first, most likely the two cousins who were there when Emily bought the arsenic. They hold the funeral before finally approaching the room upstairs that they had not seen Emily standing in for forty years. They have to force the door, causing clouds of dust to swirl around the room. It is compared to a tomb, yet it is furnished as a bridal suite.
Homer himself is lying on the bed! This appears in its own paragraph to heighten the shock. The body, "had once lain in the attitude of an embrace." The "sleep that outlasts love", of course, is death. He is rotting into the sheets. The final discovery is that the pillow next to his has been used, and Miss Emily's hair is lying there as well!
Why has she done this? One can speculate that it was because he refused to marry her. Some have suggested that he might have even been a homosexual referring to the line that he liked men. (470) What if there had been a sexual relationship in her belief that there would be a marriage? Was she acting as her father would have done if he had been alive? Then again, how did her FATHER die? The reader can speculate that her father met the same fate that Homer met, and only with Homer did she succeed in keeping the body with her. Issues like this will be brought up in class (chat) discussions.
Page was last updated: 12/03/02
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Copyright © 2002 by Meri Rogoff. All rights reserved.