A Rose for Emily Summary

A Rose for Emily is a short story of Gothic horror and tragedy. It presents a portrait of a lonely Mississippi woman who suffers from mental illness. Gothic horror is a fiction presents dark, terrifying, and mysterious events which has a gloomy and ghostly setting.

Tragedy is the fictional genre which is about the downfall of the main character. The genre sympathies of the narrator where the audience often lie with the character when he or she has committed a crime. Such case is in “A Rose for Emily”.

In this story, the title character is a tragic figure. She is manipulated by her father and is unable to function normally in the modern world. She is isolated from the world and this make her insane. She holds for a companion but he later decides to abandon her, so she murders him and keeps his corpse in an upper room of her house.

This story is divided into five parts. Part one states the death of the protagonist Emily Grierson. Entire community come together for her funeral, but the narrator suggests that, no one exactly knew Emily. This story is told by a narrator, who is unnamed and seems to be one of the townspeople. Narrator describes that Emily rarely went out from her house and is not married. She died at the age of 74. In this story, her entire existence was a puzzle for the townspeople. Part one also describes the reason of her death. Emily’s father had turned down most of the Emily’s suitors. By the time he died, Emily had no more suitors. During that time, women were generally defined as a figure of mother, daughter or wife. Town had a soft corner and felt bad for Emily. Out of respect of Emily’s deceased and a well- regarded father, she was free from paying town taxes.

In part two, narrator shows the pity part for Emily, as she only had her father’s house with her. Emily told others that her father was not dead. This strange odor from Emily’s house had left everyone in scare. They thought that Emily had kept her father’s corpse in her house.

In the third part, narrator describes that how Emily had physically transformed. The narrator describes that Emily was sighted after her father’s death. When they saw, she had short hair and she made herself look like a girl. Her resemblance was like an angel in coloured church windows. Narrator introduces a character named Homer Barron, who is a single Northerner in the town. He came to check the construction crew making new sidewalks in the town. Homer’s reputation is not so good. He is a man who never meant for marrying. Narrator questions whether Homer is gay or he do not want to settle down. When the town noticed them spending time together, they reported to union. The climax was that Emily bought arsenic from pharmacy and pretended to buy it for rat killing. There was a red flag for the reader in confusion. At the end, the narrator describes the state of Emily’s death. This confirms that the dead body is of Homer Barron. But townspeople thought that he left Emily as he was not seen in the town.