A Rose for Emily
William Faulkner
About the Author
• William Faulkner was born in New Albany,
Mississippi, on September 25, 1897
• Faulkner belonged to a once-wealthy
family of former plantation owners
• He was a high school dropout
• He later signed on with the Royal
Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to train as a
pilot, but the war ended before he saw any
combat.
• Faulkner used pieces of his own life and
family history in his fiction
• His great-grandfather, William Clark
Falkner, served as the inspiration for
Colonel Sartoris
• Faulkner based part of the character of
Emily on a cousin, Mary Louise Neilson,
who had married a Yankee street paver
named Jack Barron
• Faulkner published almost twenty novels,
several volumes of short fiction, and two
volumes of poetry.
• He wrote many screenplays, essays, and
articles for magazines and newspapers.
• He won two Pulitzer Prizes, a National Book
Award, and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Faulkner died on July 6, 1962, the same day his
great-grandfather, the Old Colonel, had been
born on 137 years earlier.
What was the Old South Like?
• Before the Civil War, Southern society was
composed of landed gentry, merchants,
tenant farmers, and slaves.
• The aristocratic men of this period had an
unspoken code of chivalry, and women were
the innocent, pure guardians of morality.
• However, post-Civil War society in the South
was radically different. At one time, the
Grierson home was in one of the finest
neighborhoods in Jefferson; by the time of
Emily’s death, it was one of the most rundown.
• The generation that follows is not swayed by the old
Southern code of honor.
• Emily’s china-painting lessons also show the change
in Southern society. Her pupils are the daughters
and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris’
contemporaries. However, the narrator notes that “. .
.the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did
not send their children to her with boxes of color and
tedious brushes and pictures cut from the ladies’
magazines.”
• Finally, Emily’s dark secret might serve as a
metaphor for the general decadence of the Old South
Themes
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Death
The Decline of the Old South
Community vs. Isolation
Characters
Miss Emily
 The main character
 The story starts at her death, then loops
back around and tells you her life, starting
from the death of her father
 Miss Emily is from a very wealthy southern
family, and she is snobby and very proper
Characters
Homer Barron
 A Yankee (Northerner) brought to town to
fix the sidewalks.
 His relationship with Miss Emily is not
approved of because he has no intention of
marrying her.
 He is a typical man: loves to hang out with
the guys and drink.
Characters
Colonel Sartoris
 Emily’s father
 After his death, Emily will not let the
townspeople take his dead body from her
home for three days.
Characters
Toby
 Emily’s slave, who appears to have
covered Emily’s secret