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A Rose For Emily

n the short story, “A Rose for Emily”, the author, William Faulkner, creates a mysterious, respectable character in a small town. This character, Emily Grierson, keeps to herself and her silence adds to her mysterious life. Throughout the story, Miss Emily Grierson undergoes various changes as she experiences the death of her father and lover. She becomes distant from her community which she is a “[…] tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation […]”(315). As her community changes, she also changes, both physical and mental. In the story, there are many objects in which William Faulkner uses to help illustrate and symbolize the passing of time and the changes in Miss Emily Grierson. He uses objects such as Miss Emily Grierson’s hair, her house, and the ticking of the watch to help create the changing images and the life of Miss Emily herself.

The changes in Miss Emily’s hair can be taken as a symbol for the changes in Miss Emily herself. Before the death of Homer Barron her hair is “[…] cut short making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows […]”(317). As the story moves on her hair “[…] [grows] grayer and grayer until it [attains] an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray […]”(319). Her hair grows a dull color as Miss Emily turns into a dull person. Her hair, in the beginning, is described as one of an angel, and then described as one you would find on a witch. In the beginning of the story Miss Emily has no bed intentions and later, her fears of being alone leads her to turn evil as she poisons Homer Barron. As her hair’s appearance goes from innocent to evil Miss Emily goes from being innocent to evil. Her hair loses its life, foreshadowing the future of Miss Emily.

As men visited her, to persuade her to pay her taxes, Miss Emily comes out “[…] with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt […]”(315). As silence came upon the room the men “[…] could hear the invisible...