Analysis - A Rose for Emily

Analysis - A Rose for Emily In the short story, "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner paints a vivid picture of an old woman, Emily Grierson, that is attempting, as many elderly people do, to hold on to the last shreds of dignity and status that she once held in her community. Miss Emily, however, not only stands for herself in the story, but the whole southern era of which she was a part - her …

…the story implies, is hopeless since everyone, even Emily, was finally subject to death and to the invasion of his or her world by the clamorous and curious inhabitants of the world of the present. "When Miss Emily died, [the] whole town went to her funeral...the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant...had seen in at least ten years" (Norton Anthology, 2044).