Gender Roles In A Rose For Emily

“A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner is a short story about the life of the main character, Miss Emily. Some may think Miss Emily would narrate the story but it is actually the townspeople who tell it. This way the reader sees the story from an outside perspective and do not know what is going on in Miss Emily’s head. This tragic story begins with the death of Miss Emily then flashes back in time to talk about the events that led up to her death; starting with the death of her father and ending with the death of her boyfriend. The author expresses an abundance of external conflict, symbolism, and foreshadowing within the story.

In part one of the story we learn that Miss Emily has lost her father, but she told many people for three days that he was not dead. This is Miss Emily’s way of not recognizing the truth. Once she said her father was dead that would mean it was the truth. After her father’s death she had no source of income and had no skills, because of this Colonel Sartoris told Miss Emily she would not have to pay any taxes. This represents the gender roles that are played throughout the story because the story is set during the civil war. Within the next generation as teleology and education had increased Miss Emily had been getting tax notices in the mail, since she would not

He uses Miss Emily’s house as a dark isolated setting. Making people wonder what goes on behind those closed doors. No one really knew Miss Emily that well. The foul stench that comes from Miss Emily’s house is also a huge foreshadow within this story. The townspeople complain profusely about the smell but never tell Miss Emily directly about it. Most of the townspeople think the smell is coming from dead rats but little do they know it is Homer Barren. Similarly when she buys the arsenic and does not give a reason why, many people start to wonder about the disappearance of Homer