Emily’s Comfort in Death

Emily’s Comfort In Death

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” suggests that if one cannot embrace the changing of the times will be left behind by progress and the majority of the population who accepts it. ”A Rose for Emily” is loaded with symbols of death and decay that represent what occurs when one refuses to live in the present. These symbols show an eerie existence that is dark and dreary. By examining the relevance of the symbols the story holds deeper meaning and portrays an even darker existence.

In the beginning the house is descried as “an eyesore among eyesores”(29). It is told that the house was “set on what used to be on the most select street in town”(29), but times have changed and the rest of the homes have been replaced by modern technology such as gasoline pumps and cotton wagons. The gasoline pumps are signs of the modern times when cars are being used. The house however, still stood with its “stubborn and coquettish decay”(29). The changes represented the end to the Southern aristocratic era that Emily was a part of.

He description of the house’s interior was full of symbols as well. “It smelled of dust and disuse-a close dank smell. The leather was cracked and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray”(30). These along with the moldy pillows are symbols of death, Emily’s death. She was physically alive but her existence revolved around a dead world. Everything in her house stopped progressing when her father died. She stayed in the house but made no effort to keep the houses indicated by the dust and mold. In my opinion she felt there was no one left to keep the house for.

Emily herself is an image of decay. She has let herself become obese. She appeared “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water”(30). She used an ebony cane that showed decay with a tarnished gold head. On at least two instances Miss Emily’s mind refused to acknowledge the reality of the present. First, when her father died, she kept telling people who came to the house that they were wrong. Her father was not dead. She was later stuck in the past when they came asking for her taxes and she instructed them to speak to Colonel Sartoris. The problem was that Colonel Sartoris had been dead for ten years.

The most hideous symbol of death and decay was found after Miss Emily had passed away. This was when the skeleton of Homer Barron was found lying in her bed. She had bought engraved combs and razors bearing his initials, they were found in the bedroom tarnished like Homer’s remains. Further evidence of Emily’s refusing to live in the present was found when they noticed an indentation in the pillow laying next to Homer’s remains. It contained a strand of iron gray hair. This indicated that for over thirty years Miss Emily had been lying curled up next to a corpse. Through the events of the story we come to realize that Miss Emily used arsenic to kill Homer. It is my reasoning that she was so afraid of being abandoned again that she decided to take matters into her own hands so that she had some sense of control over her life. She was left first by her father when he died then she felt the threat of Homer abandoning her as well. By killing him she was then able to keep him from ever leaving her and

consequently keep him all to herself. She killed him then lay with him night after night, year after year until she died. When Miss Emily died