"A Rose for Emily"

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

In the first paragraph, I instantly thought that Emily was a women of high standard and that she was also in a way very secretive and had kept to herself. I got that impression from the part of the story when the women came to her funeral just to see the inside of her house. This proves that Emily wasn't very social with the rest of the community. It's as if she was to good for them. I asked myself why would the women care so much, and be so curious about Emily's house, even after she's passed away?! As I read on, the story talked about how she hasn't paid taxes and that Colonel Saratoris had gave permission that she didn't have to pay taxes, yet the Colonel was dead for over 10 years.

Emily seems to be detached from society and modernization. Emily and her family had a reputation to the town as being all "high and mighty" then once she lost her father and was left with the house, people had a chance to feel sorry for her and pity her. It's like the people wanted her to"humble-down" and be like them and struggle. I wondered, as I read on, why did Emily want to buy poison? and I also thought that she was going to kill herself just like the townpeople thought, but instead she killed her Yankee lover, Homer. Another question that rose to my head was about her Negro worker. Was he happy that Emily passed away? and what was there relationship like? All throughout the story I think that Emily missed her father and kept a hold of anything that reminded her of him. I think that she was depressed and once she found someone like Homer, she was so out-of-it, she killed him. Maybe she felt like she couldn't be loved. By her staying in that house for years and years, she probably lost touch of herself.