Miss Emily In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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Many authors use items, settings, and other things to exemplify a character in their writings. For example, an author might describe a solemn character's room with having dark, navy blue curtains. This literary element is called symbolism and is extremely prominent in the short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In this story, the main character, Miss Emily Grierson displays several characteristics that strikingly resemble her environment and surroundings. The settings in the story "A Rose for Emily" that symbolize the main character Miss Emily include the old south, Miss Emily's house, and her bedroom. The overall setting, the old south, represents Miss Emily by its old ways, its unwillingness to change, and a strong sense …show more content…

After the death of Miss Emily, the whole town attends her funeral, mainly "out of curiosity to see the inside of her house," however, the one room the people are hesitant to see, and wait until she "was decently in the ground" is none other than her bedroom (Beers and Odell 720 and 727). The townspeople have to go to the extent of "breaking down the door," just to see the inside so just like many of Miss Emily's secrets, her bedroom was concealed as well (Beers and Odell 727). After the door was broken down, the room was filled with "pervading dust" which could be related to how Miss Emily's secrets have been locked inside of her mind for so long, that she no longer thinks of them and that part of her mind has metaphorically not been visited in awhile (Beers and Odell 727). Finally, the presence of her dead lover in her bedroom that "had become inextricable from the bed" could represent how Miss Emily could not let the things she loves slip away from her (Beers and Odell 727). Even the dust on Homer's body reflects "the gradual accumulation of time without regard for what past events the years cover" (Binder 6). Miss Emily's mind appeared to be just as distraught as the setting of this time period up until her

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