This document contains a student's analysis of the short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. The student discusses how the story fits into the sociology genre due to its morbid themes. She analyzes the character Emily, noting that Emily resists change and has control issues stemming from her controlling father. The student also points out how the decaying house represents Emily's decline throughout the story. In concluding, the student notes that while the story is well-written, it deals with strange sociological themes revolving around Emily and her psychological issues.

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Box # 108
Sandra Cash
Professor Bouchard
ENG 132
Paper 1 # “A Rose for Emily”
January 18, 2012
My Insights on “A Rose for Emily”
The story itself is a very well written story, but it is a bit morbid. Due to the fact, that it is
morbid I believe this story fits in a sociology genre. This is especially shown through the
character Emily. Emily has a couple of problems to say the least; she resists any type of change,
and she seems to have control issue, which is probably past down from her father. It is also
fascinating how Faulkner uses the house to also represent Emily throughout the story.
Emily resists any kind of change, which there is a lot of change throughout the story. In
section one this is shown by how she refuses to pay taxes, she says that since her father loaned
the town some money Colonel Sartois made the agreement that they would never have to pay
taxes. She even goes on to tell the city authorities to go take it up with Colonel Sartois, even
though he has been dead for ten years. Another time Emily resists any kind of change is when the
town got free postal delivery she would not let them attach a mailbox or put the numbers for her
address on her house.
Emily has a very controlling father who scares away all of her admirers, which is more
than likely why she has a control issue. This is shown by when her father dies, she refuses to
admit that her father is dead when the ladies of the town come to offer their condolences. In fact,
the town says this about it: “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and
we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people
will (Faulkner).” This shows that her control issue came because her father had robbed her and so
she now clings to have control. This is also shown when she kills her husband Homer Barron. It

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seems like she kills him because she wants to keep him by her side forever. Now Homer Barron
is described as “not the marrying kind”, and he might have been gay (Faulkner). Due to this
Emily, most have known that she could not keep Homer; because of this, she murders him to
control him. Even though he is dead, she keeps his body, and actually sleeps with him until the
day she dies.
While you watch Emily change throughout the story, you begin to realize that the house
represents Emily. In the beginning, it talks about how it had once been a white frame house
decorated with scrolled balconies and had been on one of the town’s most select streets. This was
like Emily when she first young and innocent. She was probably pretty since her father scared off
all of her suitors, and at one time, she was of high society. Although now the house looks
stubborn, coquettish decay above the cotton wagons, it no longer fit in with the rest of the town,
and it was old and shabby. This can also be said of Emily, when the city officials try to get her to
pay taxes she is stubborn and will not pay them. After she murders her husband she stays inside
of her house, and becomes quit big and her hair becomes gray.
The Story is written very well, but is a bit strange, and has to deal with a lot of sociology.
The sociology mainly has to do with Emily who has a couple of problems, like how she resists
any kind of change and has a control issue that was probably due to her father. There is plenty of
symbolism throughout the story; one that fascinated me was how the house represents Emily.
There is plenty more to take from this story, but since I only had two pages to write about this,
this is what I got out of the story most.

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Works Cited
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily ." DiYanni, Robert. Literature:
Approaches to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Madison: McGraw Hill , 2008. 79-86.