1
A ROSE FOR EMILY
1. The narrator
of this
story is an unknown member of the town recounting all
the gossip and stories they know about Emily Grierson.
Why do you think Faulkner chose to narrate this story in
such a way?
2. How might the story be different if it was told from
Emily’s perspective?
3. How does the town’s feelings about Emily change from
generation to generation?
4. Why do you think the druggist sells poison to Emily after
she refuses to tell him what it’s for despite the fact that
he tells her it’s the law that she must tell him?
5. What does the following imply about the town’s
feelings towards Emily, “So the next day we all said,
‘She will kill herself’; and we said it would be the best
thing.”
6. Who does Young Emily (ages 0-35) have for
companionship?
7. Why do you think that Emily does not allow anyone to
take her father’s dead body away until three days after
his death?
8. What was it about Homer’s personality and character
that may have appealed to Emily?
9. Why do you think that Emily chose to kill Homer Barron
instead of killing herself, as the townspeople speculated
she would?
10.
Do you think that Emily knows that the
townspeople feel sorry for her? Why or why not?
11.
What does Old Emily look like?
2
12.
Where do the townspeople see Old Emily?
13.
Who does Emily have for companionship?
14.
What, do you imagine, could be Emily’s motivation
for poisoning Homer and keeping his corpse all these
years?
15.
Why do you think Faulkner chose to call this story
“A Rose for Emily?” What is the rose?
16.
What does Homer look like?
17.
What three words would you use to describe
Homer’s personality?
18.
What may have attracted Homer to Emily?
19.
What are two reasons that Homer may have not
wanted to marry Emily, in spite of all the time he spends
with her and attention he gives her?
20.
Why does the town disapprove of Homer’s
relationship with Emily?