ROMAN FEVER
Plot Summary
The story opens with two middle-aged American ladies enjoying the view of Rome from
the terrace of a restaurant. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have been lifelong friends,
thrown into intimacy by circumstance rather than by true liking for each other. They first
met as young ladies vacationing in Rome with their families, and they have lived for
most of their adult lives across the street from each other in New York. Now, in the
1920s, they find themselves again in each other’s company. Both are spending the
spring in Rome, accompanied by their daughters, Jenny Slade and Barbara Ansley
respectively, who are roughly the same age. Jenny is safe and staid, unlike her mother.
Barbara is vivid and dramatic, apparently unlike either of her parents.
When Jenny and Barbara leave to spend the day with Italian aviators, Mrs. Slade and
Mrs. Ansley wile away the afternoon on the terrace overlooking the ruins of the Forum
and the Colosseum, chatting and remembering old times.
Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have in some ways led parallel lives. Besides living in the
same New York neighborhood, they both became widows at approximately the same
time. Mrs. Slade, the widow of a corporate lawyer, finds her new life dull, without the
excitement of entertaining and going on business trips. She believes that Mrs. Ansley
cannot find life as dull, because her life has never seemed interesting in the first palce.
In Mrs. Slade’s eyes, Mrs. Ansley and her husband represented “museum specimens of
old New York.” However, Mrs. Ansley believes that Mrs. Slade must be disappointed with
her life.
Toward the end of the afternoon, Mrs. Slade remembers how Mrs. Ansley became sick
during the winter that they spent in Rome when they were young. Although at that time
of year people no longer caught malaria, or Roman fever, the dampness and cold night
temperatures could still make people quite sick. Mrs. Slade recalls how Mrs. Ansley
became seriously ill after going to the Colosseum after sunset one evening. Mrs. Ansley
seems to have a hard time remembering this event, but Mrs. Slade reminds her of the
details.
Suddenly, Mrs. Slade, wanting to hurt her friend, bursts out that she must tell Mrs.
Ansley that she knows why Mrs. Ansley went to the Colosseum that night. Mrs. Slade
then recites the contents of a letter asking Grace [Mrs. Ansley] to meet Delphin Slade
(then the fiance of Alida [Mrs. Slade]) at the Colosseum. When Mrs. Ansley wonders how
Mrs. Slade could know the contents of the letter, Mrs. Slade confesses that she had
written it. She had been afraid that Grace [Mrs. Ansley], who was in love with her fiance,
would win Delphin away from her. She hoped that Grace would catch cold, and so be
unable to be involved with Delphin for a few weeks until she (Alida/Mrs. Slade) could be
more sure of Delphin’s affections. But she never thought that Grace would get so sick.
Mrs. Ansley is upset by the revelation because it represents the loss of a cherished
memory; as she says, “It was the only letter I had, and you say he didn’t write it?” Mrs.
Slade realizes that Mrs. Ansley still cares for Delphin, although Mrs. Ansley claims to
cherish only the memory. Mrs. Slade says that she wishes she hadn’t told her friend
about the letter, but she defends her actions by saying that she didn’t believe Grace
(Mrs. Ansley) had taken Delphin so seriously, since, after all, Grace had married Mr.
Ansley just two months later, as soon as she left her sick bed.
After a pause, Mrs. Slade says that she sent the letter as a joke; she remembers how
she spent the evening laughing at her friend, waiting in the dark by the Colosseum. Mrs.
Ansley surprises her companion by saying that she didn’t wait, that Delphin had
arranged everything and that they were let into the Colosseum immediately. Mrs. Slade
accuses Mrs. Ansley of lying, wondering how Delphin would know that Mrs. Ansley was
waiting for him. Mrs. Ansley says that she answered the letter, and that she is sorry for
Mrs. Slade because Delphin came to her that night. Mrs. Slade responds by saying that
she doesn’t begrudge Mrs. Ansley one night; after all, she had Delphin for 25 years and
Mrs. Ansley had only a letter that Delphin didn’t write. Mrs. Ansley has the final word: “I
had Barbara.”
Characters
Barbara Ansley
Barbara Ansley is the brilliant and vivacious daughter of Mrs. Ansley. Barbara and her
mother are vacationing in Rome with their neighbors, Mrs. Slade and her daughter Jenny
Slade. Barabara and Jenny are away spending time with some Italian aviators during the
story’s conversation between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. Mrs. Slade envies Mrs. Ansley
for her brilliant daughter. During the course of this conversation, Mrs. Ansley reveals to
Mrs. Slade that Barbara is the daughter of Mrs. Slade’s late husband, Delphin.
Grace Ansley
Mrs. Grace Ansley, a middle-aged widow, is a wealthy New Yorker who is vacationing in
Italy with her daughter Barbara, and her neighbor Mrs. Slade, and her daughter Jenny
Slade. In Mrs. Slade’s opinion, Mrs. Ansley has led a staid, uneventful life. Although she
presents the picture of the proper middle-aged widow, for instance, knitting and looking
at the Roman view, her calm exterior hides a secret past.
As a young lady in Italy, Grace (Mrs. Ansley) fell in love with Alida’s (Mrs. Slade’s)
fiance, Delphin. However, after meeting him one night at the ruins of the Colosseum,
she had become quite ill. When she rose from her sickbed, she immediately married Mr.
Ansley.
Despite her marriage to Mr. Ansley, she has always nursed the memory of her evening
with Delphin, and the letter he had sent her. When Mrs. Slade reveals that she, in fact,
sent the letter, not Delphin, Mrs. Ansley’s fantasy is destroyed. She, in turn, reveals to
her friend an even more devastating secret: that her dynamic daughter, who Mrs. Ansley
has long noted is so different from either of her parents, is in fact Delphin’s daughter.
Alida Slade
Mrs. Alida Slade, a middle-aged, wealthy, New York widow, is vacationing in Italy with
her daughter Jenny, her neighbor Mrs. Ansley, and her daughter Barbara Ansley. The
wife of a famous corporate lawyer, Mrs. Slade found her married days filled with
excitement and adventure. She prided herself on being a charming entertainer, a good
hostess, and a vibrant woman in her own right. After the death of her husband Delphin,
Mrs. Slade finds life dull, with only her daughter to divert her; however, Jenny is quiet
and self-sufficient.
Mrs. Slade feels both superior to and envious of her lifelong friend, Mrs. Ansley. She also
has been nursing a decades-long resentment against Mrs. Ansley, for falling in love with
Delphin when Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade were both young ladies on vacation in Italy.
Afraid that Grace (Mrs. Ansley) would steal away her fiance, Alida (Mrs. Slade) sent
Grace a note, signing Delphin’s name. When Grace went to meet Delphin, she became
quite ill.
During this trip to Italy, Mrs. Slade, wanting to hurt her friend even after all these years,
confesses to Mrs. Ansley that she, not Delphin, sent the letter. Mrs. Slade immediately
regrets her action, and she can’t help but feel sorry for her friend, after she sees how
Mrs. Ansley has cherished the memory of that letter. When Mrs. Slade expresses this
feeling, however, Mrs. Ansley shocks her with the revelation that Barbara (the daughter
of Mrs. Ansley) is Delphin’s daughter.
Delphin Slade
Although Delphin Slade is dead at the time the story takes place, he remains a
prominent figure in the minds of both his wife and his former lover, Grace (Mrs. Ansley).
The story hinges on his past actions. As a young man, while engaged to Alida (Mrs.
Slade), Delphin met Grace at the Colosseum one night and fathered Barbara. This secret
has been concealed from his wife for the past 25 years.
Jenny Slade
Jenny Slade is the quiet, staid, self-sufficient daughter of Mrs. Slade. She is
accompanying her mother to Rome along with Mrs. Ansley and her daughter Barbara
Ansley. Jenny and Barbara are away spending time with some Italian aviators during the
story’s conversation between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley.
Themes
Friendship
Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have been friends since they first met as young women in
Rome, when
Alida (Mrs. Slade) was engaged to Delphin Slade. This friendship forms the enduring tie
between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. However, their friendship is undercut by the
deeper, hostile feelings they have for each other, feelings that they hardly dare to admit.
Because each has something to hide about the early days of their friendship, they have
not been honest with each other in their friendship.
In addition, their friendship has not been very intimate, despite their similar
backgrounds and close proximity to each other on same street in New York. Mrs. Slade,
in particular, strongly dislikes Mrs. Ansley, because of Mrs. Ansley’s love for Delphin. She
has made fun of Mrs. Ansley to their mutual friends, and she believes that Mrs. Ansley
has led a much duller life than she and Delphin. At the same time, however, she cannot
shake her envy of Mrs. Ansley. Mrs. Ansley, on the other hand, believes that “Alida
Slade’s awfully brilliant; but not as brilliant as she thinks.” She also believes that Mrs.
Slade must be disappointed with her life, alluding to undisclosed failures and mistakes.
The competitive nature of their friendship reaches a climax one afternoon in Rome. As
Mrs. Slade views the ruins of the Colosseum in Rome, she cannot help but remember the
anger she felt at Grace’s (Mrs. Ansley’s) love at the time for her fiance. She confesses,
after 25 years, that she had lured Grace to the Colosseum by forging a note from
Delphin. Mrs. Ansley’s repsonse to this confession that Barbara is Delphin’s child
completely alters the relationship between the women.
Rivalry
Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have been rivals throughout their long friendship. Sometimes
this rivalry is expressed subtly, as when Mrs. Ansley says that the view upon the Palatine
ruins will always be the most beautiful view in the world “to me,” as if she alone is privy
to the glories of Rome. Sometimes the rivalry is expressed directly through the women’s
thoughts. For example, Mrs. Slade compares herself directly to Mrs. Ansley. She believes
that her widowhood is more difficult than Mrs. Ansley’s widowhood, for she had led a full,
active life as the wife of an international corporate lawyer, while Mrs. Ansley and her
husband were more of “museum specimens of old New York,” or in even less kind terms,
“nullities.” Mrs. Slade also admits to envying her friend, a habit that she developed long
ago.
The cause of this barely acknowledged rivalry becomes clear as the story develops. Mrs.
Slade has never gotten over the fact that Grace (Mrs. Ansley) had fallen in love with her
fiance Delphin Slade, and had gone to the Colosseum to meet him.
The rivalry between these women runs very deep. At one point, Mrs. Slade implies a
desire for her friend’s death. When she brings up their past adventures in Rome, she
refers to Mrs. Ansley’s great aunt, a woman who sent her sister to the Forum because
they were in love with the same man — the sister caught malaria that night and died.
Love and Passion
Mrs. Slade considers herself more dramatic and passionate than Mrs. Ansley. She
believes that she had contributed as much as her husband to “the making of the
exceptional couple they were.” She also values the quality of being dynamic, and admits
that she has “always wanted a brilliant daughter.” However, neither Mrs. Slade’s words
nor her actions seem to reveal great depths of love or passion she felt for her husband
or her daughter. Her greatest passion seems to have been for her late son, whose death
made her feel “agony.” But she blocks out this feeling, because the “thought of the boy
had become unbearable.” Finally, the life that Mrs. Slade now leads seems to be one of
order, even if she does not embrace such order.
Ironically, Mrs. Ansley emerges as the more passionate of the two women. Although she
seems to be involved in more mundane activities, such as knitting and playing bridge,
her revelation of the night that she spent with Delphin at the Colosseum demonstrates
that she is capable of hidden depths of passion. Living across the street from Delphin for
twenty-five years and raising his child suggest that she is capable of enduring love as
well.
Style
Setting
“Roman Fever” is set in Rome, Italy, around the mid-1920s. On the one hand, the ruins
of Rome become the focus of Wharton’s skill at descriptive writing. On the other hand,
the ruins of Rome remind both women of an earlier time spent in Rome together when
their friendship and rivalry both began. More generally Wharton shows the kind of life a
woman of independent means could lead in Rome at that time.
The setting of Rome is contrasted with the home neighborhood of the two women on
Manhattan’s East Side in New York. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have lived across the
street from each other so close that each woman knows all the mundane details of the
other’s everyday life. But this setting is too confining to allow them to communicate their
true feelings. It is only in Rome that Mrs. Slade feels able to reveal the truth to Mrs.
Ansley.
Point of View
The story is told from a third-person, omniscient point of view. This means that readers
see and hear what the characters see and hear, and that readers are also privy to their
thoughts. However, in this case, the interior life, motivations, and reactions of Mrs. Slade
are revealed to a greater extent than those of Mrs. Ansley’s. For example, readers know
that Mrs. Slade decides to tell the truth about the letter Delphin was supposed to have
written 25 years ago because she is envious of her rival and dislikes her, though at the
same time she believes she is a good person. Readers also know that she regrets her
words after she has said them. On the other hand, not much is revealed about Mrs.
Ansley’s motivation. Readers do not know, for instance, why Mrs. Ansley decides to
reveal the truth about Barbara’s parentage.
Structure
Although the story is relatively brief, it is divided into two sections. The first section
provides the background and history of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. The second section
develops the theme of the rivalry between the two women, concluding with the truth
about Barbara’s parentage. The two parts also represent the past and the present.
In the first part of the story, Mrs. Slade notes Mrs. Ansley’s odd emphasis on the
personal pronoun me when she talks about the view of Rome from the terrace. She also
notes Mrs. Ansley’s emphasis on the personal pronoun / when she says “I remember” in
response to Mrs. Slade’s comment about the summer they spent in Rome as girls.
Although Mrs. Slade attributes this emphasis to Mrs. Ansley’s being old-fashioned, the
emphasis really alludes to Mrs. Ansley’s fond memories of the time she spent with
Delphin.
In the second part of the story, Mrs. Slade’s musings show that she is gearing up toward
something more significant than a simple conversation about malaria. At one point, she
watches Mrs. Ansley knitting and thinks, “She can knit — in the face of this!” The reader
wonders what thisrefers to, since up to this point the women are simply having a casual
conversation about the past.
Symbolism and Imagery
Wharton makes use of a number of symbols and images to reinforce the emotions of the
story. The ruins that the two women are gazing at of the Palatine, the Forum, and the
Colosseum symbolize the ruins of these women’s perceptions of themselves and each
other. Mrs. Ansley calmly knits, which would seem to be the staid activity of a middleaged woman, but what she is knitting is described as “a twist of crimson silk.” Her
knitting can be said to represent the passionate and more frivolous side of her nature.
Also, the women’s actions can be viewed symbolically, to indicate their feelings toward
the conversation and each other. As soon as Mrs. Slade starts to talk about their shared
past, Mrs. Ansley lifts her knitting “a little closer to her eyes,” thus shielding herself and
her reactions from Mrs. Slade. However, when Mrs. Slade learns that Mrs. Ansley did
meet Delphin at the Colosseum, it is Mrs. Slade who must cover her face and hide her
deepest emotions. In fact, by the end of the story, the power structure has changed, as
shown by Mrs. Ansley’s actions. After revealing the truth about Barbara’s father, she
“began to move ahead of Mrs. Slade toward the stairway.”
A ROSE FOR EMILY
Plot Summary
The story, told in five sections, opens in section one with an unnamed narrator
describing the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson. (The narrator always refers to himself in
collective pronouns; he is perceived as being the voice of the average citizen of the town
of Jefferson.) He notes that while the men attend the funeral out of obligation, the
women go primarily because no one has been inside Emily’s house for years. The
narrator describes what was once a grand house “set on what had once been our most
select street.” Emily’s origins are aristocratic, but both her house and the neighborhood
it is in have deteriorated. The narrator notes that, prior to her death, Emily had been “a
sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” This is because Colonel Sartoris, the former
mayor of the town, remitted Emily’s taxes dating from the death of her father “on into
perpetuity.” Apparently, Emily’s father left her with nothing when he died. Colonel
Sartoris invented a story explaining the remittance of Emily’s taxes (it is the town’s
method of paying back a loan to her father) to save her from the embarrassment of
accepting charity.
The narrator uses this opportunity to segue into the first of several flashbacks in the
story. The first incident he describes takes place approximately a decade before Emily’s
death. A new generation of politicians takes over Jefferson’s government. They are
unmoved by Colonel Sartoris’s grand gesture on Emily’s behalf and they attempt to
collect taxes from her. She ignores their notices and letters. Finally, the Board of
Aldermen sends a deputation to discuss the situation with her. The men are led into a
decrepit parlor by Emily’s black manservant, Tobe. The first physical description of Emily
is unflattering: she is “. . . a small, fat woman in black” who looks “bloated, like a body
long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.” After the spokesman
awkwardly explains the reason for their visit, Emily repeatedly insists that she has no
taxes in Jefferson and tells the men to see Colonel Sartoris. The narrator notes that
Colonel Sartoris has been dead at that point for almost ten years. She sends the men
away from her house with nothing.
Section two begins as the narrator segues into another flashback that takes place thirty
years before the unsuccessful tax collection. In this episode, Emily’s neighbors complain
of an awful smell emanating from her home. The narrator reveals that Emily had a
sweetheart who deserted her shortly before people began complaining about the smell.
The ladies of the town attribute the stench to the poor housekeeping of Emily’s
manservant, Tobe. However, despite several complaints, Judge Stevens, the town’s
mayor during this era, is reluctant to do anything about it for fear of offending Emily
(“Dammit, sir. . . will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?”). This forces a
small contingent of men to take action. Four of them sneak around Emily’s house after
midnight, sprinkling lime around her house and in her cellar. When they are done, they
see that “. . . a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light
behind her, and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol.”
The narrator notes the town’s pity for Emily at this point in a discussion of her family’s
past. The narrator reveals that Emily once had a mad great-aunt, old lady Wyatt. He also
notes that Emily is apparently a spinster because of her father’s insistence that “none of
the young men were good enough” for her. The narrator then describes the awful
circumstances that follow Emily’s father’s death. Emily is at first in such deep denial she
refuses to acknowledge that her father is dead. She finally breaks down after three days
and allows the townspeople to remove his body.
The narrator begins to detail Emily’s burgeoning relationship with Homer Barron, a
Yankee construction foreman, in section three. The narrator seems sympathetic, but the
ladies and many of the older people in town find Emily’s behavior scandalous. They
gossip about how pathetic Emily has become whenever she rides through the town in a
buggy with Homer. However, the narrator notes that Emily still carries herself with pride,
even when she purchases arsenic from the town’s druggist. The druggist tells her that
the law requires her to tell him how she plans to use the poison, but she simply stares at
him until he backs away and wraps up the arsenic. He writes “for rats” on the box.
At the beginning of section four, the town believes that Emily may commit suicide with
the poison she has purchased. The narrator backs up the story again by detailing the
circumstances leading up to Emily’s purchase of the arsenic. At first, the town believes
that Emily will marry Homer Barron when she is seen with him, despite Homer’s
statements that he is not the marrying type. However, a marriage never takes place,
and the boldness of their relationship upsets many of the town’s ladies. They send a
minister to talk to Emily, but the following Sunday she rides through town yet again in
the buggy with Homer. The minister’s wife sends away for Emily’s two female cousins
from Alabama in the hope that they will convince Emily to either marry Homer or end the
affair. During their visit, Emily purchases a toilet set engraved with Homer’s initials, as
well as a complete set of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt. This leads the town to
believe that Emily will marry Homer and rid herself of the conceited cousins. Homer
leaves Jefferson, apparently to give Emily the opportunity to chase the cousins off. The
cousins leave a week later, and Homer is seen going into Emily’s house three days after
they leave. Homer is never seen again after that and the townspeople believe he has
jilted Emily.
Emily is not seen in town for almost six months. When she is finally seen on the streets
of Jefferson again, she is fat and her hair has turned gray. Her house remains closed to
visitors, except for a period of six or seven years when she gives china-painting lessons.
She doesn’t allow the town to put an address on her house and she continues to ignore
the tax notices they send her. Occasionally, she is seen in one of the downstairs
windows; she has apparently closed the top floor of the house. Finally, she dies, alone
except for her manservant, Tobe.
The narrator returns to his recollection of Emily’s funeral at the beginning of section five.
As soon as Tobe lets the ladies into the house, he leaves out the back door and is never
seen again. The funeral is a morbid affair. Soon after Emily is buried, several of the men
force the upstairs open. There they find what is evidently the rotten corpse of Homer
Barron. Even more grotesque, they find a long strand of iron-gray hair on the pillow next
to his remains.
Characters
Homer Barron
Homer Barron is the Yankee construction foreman who becomes Emily Grierson’s first
real beau. His relationship with Emily is considered scandalous because he is a
Northerner and because it doesn’t appear as if they will ever be married. In fact, it is
known that he drinks with younger men in the Elks’ Club and he has remarked that he is
not a marrying man. The lovers ignore the gossip of the town until Emily’s two female
cousins from Alabama arrive. Homer leaves town for several days until the cousins go
back to Alabama. Meanwhile, Emily purchases arsenic, a monogrammed toilet set with
the initials H.B., and men’s clothing. Homer returns to Jefferson three days after Emily’s
cousins leave and he is seen entering her home. He is never seen (alive) again.
However, what is presumably his corpse is discovered in a ghastly bridal suite on the top
floor of the Grierson house after Emily’s funeral.
Druggist
The druggist sells Emily arsenic while her two female cousins from Alabama are visiting
her. Emily just stares at him when he tells her that the law requires her to tell him why
she is buying it. He backs down without an answer and writes “for rats” on the box.
Miss Emily
See Emily Grierson
Emily’s Cousins
Emily’s cousins arrive after receiving a letter from the Baptist minister’s wife.
Apparently, they visit to discourage Emily’s relationship with Homer Barron. Homer
leaves while they are in town, and then returns after they have been gone for three
days. The narrator, speaking for many in the town, hopes that Emily can rid herself of
the cousins because they are “. . . even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been.”
Emily’s Father
Although there is only a brief description of Emily’s father in section two of the story, he
plays an important role in the development of her character. Certainly Emily learns her
genteel ways from him. It is his influence that deprives her of a husband when she is
young; the narrator says that the town pictured Emily and her father as a “... tableau,
Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette
in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by
the backflung front door.” Emily at first refuses to acknowledge his death. She doesn’t
allow anyone to remove her father’s body; finally, after three days she breaks down and
lets someone remove the cadaver. This foreshadows the town’s discovery of Homer
Barron’s decomposed corpse on the top floor in Emily’s house after her death.
Emily Grierson
Emily Grierson, referred to as Miss Emily throughout the story, is the main character of
“A Rose for Emily.” An unnamed narrator tells her strange story through a series of
flashbacks. She is essentially the town eccentric. The narrator compares her to “an idol
in a niche . . . dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.” Emily is born to a
proud, aristocratic family sometime during the Civil War; her life in many ways reflects
the disintegration of the Old South during the Reconstruction and the early twentieth
century. Although her mother is never mentioned, her father plays an important part in
shaping her character. He chases away Emily’s potential suitors because none of them
are “good enough” for his daughter. His death leaves Emily a tragic, penniless spinster.
She may even be mad — she denies that her father is dead at first and she won’t allow
anyone to remove his corpse until she breaks down after three days. However, she later
causes a scandal when she falls in love with Homer Barron, a Yankee construction
foreman who is paving the streets in Jefferson. The narrator’s various clues (Emily’s
purchase of arsenic; the awful smell coming from her home after Homer disappears) and
the town’s grotesque discovery at the end of the story suggest that Emily is driven to
murder when she begins to fear that Homer may leave her.
Minister
The Baptist minister, under pressure from the ladies of the town, goes to Emily
(although she is Episcopal) to discuss her relationship with Homer Barron. He never tells
anyone what happens and he refuses to go back to her. The following Sunday, Emily and
Homer are seen riding through the town in the buggy again.
Minister’s Wife
The minister’s wife sends a letter to Emily’s relations in Alabama after her husband calls
upon Emily. The letter prompts a visit from two of Emily’s female cousins.
Narrator
The unnamed narrator refers to himself in collective pronouns throughout the story. As
Isaac
Rodman points out in The Faulkner Journal, “The critical consensus remains that the
narrator of ‘A Rose for Emily’ speaks for his community.” Although there are a few subgroups to which the narrator refers to as separate (for example, the “ladies” and the
“older people” of the town), readers assume that he speaks for the majority of the
average people of Jefferson. He tells Emily’s story in a series of flashbacks which
culminates in the dreadful discovery of a decomposed corpse on the top floor of the
Grierson home after her death. The narrator never directly claims that Emily murders
her lover, Homer Barron, and keeps his corpse in a bed for more than forty years.
However, the events he chooses to detail, including Emily’s purchase of arsenic and the
stench that comes from her house after Homer Barron’s disappearance, lead readers to
that perception.
The Negro
Colonel Sartoris
Colonel Sartoris is the mayor of Jefferson when Emily’s father dies. He remits Emily’s
taxes “into perpetuity” because he knows that her father was unable to leave her with
anything but the house. Sartoris, being a prototypical southern gentleman, invents a
story involving a loan that Emily’s father had made to the town in order to spare Emily
the embarrassment of accepting charity. The narrator contrasts this chivalrous act with
another edict made by Sartoris stating that “. . . no Negro woman should appear on the
streets without an apron.” Colonel Sartoris appears in other works by Faulkner; he is a
pivotal character in the history of Yoknapatawpha County.
Judge Stevens
Judge Stevens is the mayor of Jefferson when the townspeople begin to complain of the
awful odor coming from the Grierson house. Like Colonel Sartoris, he is from a
generation that believes an honorable man does not publicly confront a woman with an
embarrassing situation. He refuses to allow anyone to discuss the smell with her.
Instead, four men sneak onto the Grierson property after midnight and sprinkle lime
around the house to rid the town of the disgusting stench.
Tobe
Tobe is Emily’s black manservant and, for most of the story, her only companion. He is
often the only sign of life about the Grierson house. The ladies find it shocking that Emily
allows him to maintain her kitchen, and they blame his poor housekeeping for the
development of the smell after Emily is “deserted” by Homer Barron. He rarely speaks to
anyone. He is the only person present when Emily dies. He lets the townspeople into the
Grierson house after her death, after which he promptly leaves, never to be seen again.
Old Lady Wyatt
Old lady Wyatt is Emily Grierson’s great-aunt. The narrator makes reference to her as
having gone “. . . completely crazy at last,” suggesting perhaps that madness runs in the
Grierson family. The narrator also mentions that Emily’s father had a falling out with
their kin in Alabama over old lady Wyatt’s estate.
Themes
Death
Death is prevalent, both literally and figuratively, in “A Rose for Emily.” Five actual
deaths are discussed or mentioned in passing, and there are obvious references to death
throughout the story. The story begins in section one with the narrator’s recollections of
Emily’s funeral. He reminisces that it is Emily’s father’s death that prompts Colonel
Sartoris to remit her taxes “into perpetuity.” This leads to the story of the aldermen
attempting to collect taxes from Emily. The narrator’s description of Emily is that of a
drowned woman: “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water,
and of that pallid hue.” One of the reasons the aldermen are bold enough to try to collect
Emily’s taxes is that Colonel Sartoris has been dead for a decade. Of course, this doesn’t
discourage Emily — she expects the men to discuss the matter with him anyway. When
the narrator returns to the subject of the death of Emily’s father, he reveals that Emily
at first denies that he is dead. She keeps his body for three days before she finally
breaks down and allows her father to be buried. This scene foreshadows the grisly
discovery at the end of the story. The narrator also mentions the madness and death of
old lady Wyatt, Emily’s great-aunt. Finally, the discovery of a long strand of iron-gray
hair lying on a pillow next to the moldy corpse entombed in Emily’s boudoir suggests
that Emily is a necrophiliac (literally, “one who loves the dead”).
The Decline of the Old South
One of the major themes in Faulkner’s fiction is the decline of the Old South after the
Civil War. There are many examples of this theme in “A Rose for Emily.” 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. For example, Colonel Sartoris concocts an
elaborate story to spare Emily’s feelings when he remits her taxes; the narrator states,
“Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’s generation and thought could have invented [the
story], and only a woman could have believed it.” When the smell develops around the
Grierson house, a younger man suggests that Emily should be confronted with it. Judge
Stevens, who is from the same generation as the Colonel, asks him, “Dammit, sir. . . will
you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” It is also noted that Emily’s father is from
this same generation, an arrogant Southern aristocrat who believes that no man is good
enough for his daughter.
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, “. . . garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the
august names of that neighborhood.” The generation that follows Colonel Sartoris is not
swayed by his old Southern code of honor. This is why the twentieth-century Jefferson
Board of Aldermen attempts to collect Emily’s taxes a decade after the Colonel’s death.
The reaction to the Yankee, Homer Barron, also serves to delineate the difference
between the generations. The younger generation finds it easier to accept Homer, while
the older folks find his relationship with a woman born to old Southern gentility
unacceptable. Emily’s china-painting lessons also show the change in Southern society.
Her pupils are the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris’s 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.
Community Vs. Isolation
The odd relationship between the town of Jefferson and Emily is a recurrent theme in “A
Rose for Emily.” At her funeral, the narrator notes that Emily has been “. . .a tradition, a
duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.” However, Emily has
very little to do with the townspeople during her life. Her father prevents her from dating
anyone because he doesn’t believe any of the men in Jefferson are good enough for her
and, after his death, Emily continues to isolate herself from the rest of the community
for the better part of her life. The only notable exceptions to her isolation are her Sunday
rides with Homer Barron, her shopping trips for arsenic and men’s clothing, and the
china-painting lessons she gives to the young women of the town for a few years. These
exceptions only serve to show how alienated Emily is from the rest of Jefferson.
Although Emily is indifferent to the town, the town seems to be almost obsessed with
her. The reaction Jefferson has to her relationship with Homer Barron exemplifies this
obsession. The ladies of Jefferson are mortified because they think the relationship is “. .
. a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people.” The older people
dislike the relationship because they think it is bad form for a Southern woman to
associate with a Yankee. The narrator pities Emily and secretly hopes that she will
outsmart her cousins and marry Homer. These various reactions demonstrate an
interesting conflict. Even though Emily views herself as separate from the community,
the community still embraces her. They view her as “. . . an idol in a niche . . . passed
from generation to generation — dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.”
Point of View
The point of view in “A Rose for Emily” is unique. The story is told by an unnamed
narrator in the first-person collective. One might even argue that the narrator is the
main character. There are hints as to the age, race, gender, and class of the narrator,
but an identity is never actually revealed. Isaac Rodman notes in The Faulkner
Journal that the critical consensus remains that the narrator speaks for his community.
(Rodman, however, goes on to present a convincing argument that the narrator may be
a loner or eccentric of some kind speaking from “ironic detachment.”) Regardless of
identity, the narrator proves to be a clever, humorous, and sympathetic storyteller. He is
clever because of the way he pieces the story together to build to a shocking climax. His
humor is evident in his almost whimsical tone throughout what most would consider to
be a morbid tale. Finally, the narrator is sympathetic to both Emily and the town of
Jefferson. This is demonstrated in his pity for Emily and in his understanding that the
town’s reactions are driven by circumstances beyond its control (“. . . Miss Emily had
been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”).
IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
Plot Summary
“In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it anymore.” So begins Ernest
Hemingway’s short story, “In Another Country.” The war he refers to is World War I; the
setting is Milan, away from the scene of the fighting. The narrator describes the city he
passes on his way to the hospital to receive physical rehabilitation for the leg wounds he
received while at the front. Though the narrator remains unnamed, scholars generally
agree the young man is Hemingway’s alter ego, Nick Adams.
At the hospital, the narrator, a young man, sits at a machine designed to aid his
damaged knee. Next to him is an Italian major, a champion fencer before the war,
whose hand has been wounded. The doctor shows the major a photograph of a hand
that has been restored by the machine the major is using. The photo, however, does not
increase the major’s confidence in the machine.
Three Milanese soldiers, the same age as the narrator, are then introduced. The four
boys hang out together at a place called Cafe Cova following their therapy. As they walk
through the city’s Communist quarter, they are criticized for being officers with medals.
A fifth boy, who lost his nose an hour after his first battle, sometimes joins them. He
wears a black handkerchief strategically placed across his face and has no medals.
One of the boys who has three medals has
lived a very long time with death and was a little detached. We were all a little detached,
and there was nothing that held us together except that we met every afternoon at the
hospital. Although, we walked to the Cova through the tough part of town, walking in the
dark, with the light singing coming out of wineshops, and sometimes having to walk into
the street where the men and women would crowd together on the sidewalk so that we
would have to jostle them to get by, we felt held together by there being something that
had happened that they, the people who disliked us, did not understand. (Excerpt from
“In Another Country”)
Having all faced death and survived, the boys are linked in a way that the outsiders
cannot understand. This special bond exists between them even though the narrator as
an American, is otherwise more of an outsider to the soldiers than the unwounded
Italians on the street who despise them. They feel particularly connected at the Cova,
where they drink and carouse with local girls.
The Italian soldiers change their manner toward the narrator when they realize he
received some of his medals for being an American, and not for bravery, as they had.
Though the narrator likes to imagine he would have been as brave as they had, he
knows this is not true because he is indeed afraid to die. Despite their initial common
bond, the Italian soldiers drift from the narrator due to this difference. Only the
undecorated boy, without the nose, remains his close friend. This boy will not return to
the war, so will never get the chance to find out if he also is afraid of death.
The major, the great fencer, is cynical about bravery, and so the narrator then feels a
bond with him. As they sit at their respective physical therapy machines, the major helps
the narrator improve his Italian.
One day when the narrator feels as hopeless about his machine as the major does about
his, the major, usually poised and soldier-like, suddenly calls the narrator “a stupid
impossible disgrace,” who he had been “a fool to have bothered with.” Standing upright
to calm himself, the major asks the narrator if he is married. He answers, “No, but I
hope to be.” The major bitterly tells him, “A man must not marry,” explaining that a man
“should not place himself in a position to lose [everything] . . . He should find things he
cannot lose.” When the narrator counters this statement, the major angrily exclaims,
“He’ll lose it. Don’t argue with me!,” then demands his machine be turned off.
The major goes into another room for a massage, then asks for a phone, shutting the
door for privacy. A short time later the major returns, composed. He apologizes to the
narrator, then announces his wife has just died. The narrator feels sick for him, but the
major remains controlled, saying, “It is difficult. I cannot resign myself.” He then begins
to cry. Quickly, however, the major stands erect, like a soldier, and fighting back his
tears, exits.
The doctor says that the major’s wife, a young, healthy woman, had died unexpectedly
of pneumonia. The major returns three days later, wearing a black band on his sleeve to
signify mourning, a symbol which further separates him from the narrator. Large framed
photographs of healed hands have been hung to offer the major hope. However, the
major ignores them; instead, he just stares out the window, knowing the machines
cannot cure him of this different kind of injury.
Characters
American Soldier
See Narrator
Italian Major
The Italian major, a former fencing champion, is in the Milan hospital because his hand
has been mangled in battle. A controlled military man, he is cynical about the machines
that are used to rehabilitate his wounded extremity, and about the tales of bravery and
heroism he hears from the young Italian officers. He befriends the narrator, who is also
injured, and tutors him in Italian. The Italian major has recently married a young
woman, something he would not do until he was injured — and therefore would not be
sent into battle again. However, when his wife dies unexpectedly from pneumonia, the
major loses his soldier-like composure, and weeps, not just for her death, but also,
according to Earl Rovitt in his essay, “Of Human Dignity: ‘In Another Country,’” for his
understanding that he must now confront the meaninglessness of life, one that has
shown him that his strict military code could not protect him from life’s vulnerabilities.
Major
See Italian Major
Major’s Wife
Though the major’s wife never appears in the story (she is mentioned only in the
second-to-last paragraph of the story), she plays a major role. A young, healthy woman,
her sudden death from pneumonia leads the Italian major, her husband, to learn he
cannot control life, a lesson which is also observed by the story’s young narrator.
Narrator
The narrator is a young American in Italy during World War I. Though unnamed, the
narrator’s identity is assumed to be Nick Adams, an alter-ego for many of Hemingway’s
semi-autobiographical short stories. The narrator is in an Italian hospital receiving
therapy for his injured leg. He befriends several other officers with whom he shares the
experience of facing death and surviving, and of getting decorated for their efforts. When
the other soldiers learn that the narrator’s other medals are merely for his being an
American, and not for acts of heroism or bravery, he becomes an outsider to their circle.
Realizing that his fear of death would make him an unlikely member of their group in the
future, the narrator befriends an Italian major whose hand is wounded, a man whose
cynicism toward bravery does not alienate the narrator from him. The narrator senses
their connection is lost, however, when the major unexpectedly loses his young wife to
pneumonia. According to Laurence W. Mazzeo in his “Critical Survey of Short Fiction,”
Nick comes to realize that “nothing of value can last in this world.”
Signor Maggiore
See Italian Major
Themes
“In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it anymore.” So begins Ernest
Hemingway’s short story, “In Another Country.” The war he refers to is World War I; the
setting is Milan, away from the scene of the fighting. The narrator is a young American
man who is in the hospital to receive physical rehabilitation for the leg wounds he
received while at the front. Sitting next to him is an Italian major, a champion fencer
before the war, whose hand has been wounded and with whom the narrator speaks
about life. At the story’s end, having learned of his wife’s death of pneumonia, the major
must face the future knowing the machines cannot cure him of this different kind of
injury.
Dignity and the Human Condition
In the story, the young narrator has faced death and survived. This is also true of the
Italian officers who, like the narrator, come to the hospital each day to receive therapy
for the wounds they have received while at the front. The narrator learns about dignity
and the human condition primarily through his interaction with an Italian major. While
the young narrator is fearful of dying on the battlefield, the major seems to have made
peace with this possibility. He knows he must do his duty in the dignified manner
consistent with being a professional soldier and, more specifically, an officer. He is
uninterested in the bravado expressed by the young decorated officers. Bravery requires
acting on impulse, making snap decisions based on one’s emotions. The major instead
depends on control and precision. One day, however, the major breaks his composure;
while sitting at the machine intended to heal his injured hand, he becomes angry with
the narrator’s hope to marry in the future, irately adding that the young American
“should not place himself in a position to lose [everything]. . . . He should find things he
cannot lose.” The major then does the previously unthinkable; he breaks into tears. The
narrator soon learns from a doctor that the major’s young and, presumably, healthy wife
has suddenly died from pneumonia. When the major returns to the hospital, three days
later — his first break in his regime of daily visits — he is a more openly vulnerable man.
He sits dutifully at his machine, stands in an erect, soldierly manner, but now his
dignified stance is more hard won. He has learned that life cannot be controlled, that it is
filled with arbitrary tragedies, even off the battlefield, for which one may be unprepared.
The major may have been prepared for his own death, like any good soldier, but his
wife’s sudden passing leads him to confront life’s meaninglessness, an aspect of the
human condition he, who has survived, must now struggle to face with dignity.
Courage and Cowardice
Not unconnected is the theme of courage and cowardice. While many heroes, particularly
in American fiction, especially American films, are portrayed as stoic and unafraid, “In
Another Country” depicts a more complex and humanistic type of courage. Following the
unexpected loss of his wife, the major’s return to the hospital signifies his willingness to
survive, even with his new awareness of chaos in the world and his inability to prevent
being touched by it. His willingness to face life with this new and painful understanding
can be seen as a definition of genuine courage, the kind of courage befitting a real hero.
This truer, more human heroism even requires the initial shedding of tears, an act that is
seen in some circumstances as a sign of cowardice.
This definition of heroism contrasts with the more traditional kind of heroics, the kind
that wins medals, displayed by the brash young Italian officers. These men are
seemingly proud of their naive bravado; however, because they have not dealt with the
emotional consequences of the violence they have faced, they have become “a little
detached” and withdrawn.
Alienation and Loneliness
This theme is expressed initially in the story’s title, “In Another Country,” which refers to
being or feeling alienated from the comfort of the familiar, a circumstance which often
leads to loneliness. In this story, the narrator is literally in another country, Italy, an
ocean apart from his home, the United States; however, he is also apart in other ways.
When he walks in the streets of Milan alongside the young Italian officers he is first
accepted by, he knows the civilians who verbally abuse them do not understand what
they, the officers, have faced. Though the officers and these native Milanese share the
same streets, they are in “another country” from each other, separated by their differing
life experiences. Once inside the warmth of the cafe, the narrator feels the loneliness
this alienation causes disappear. Later, these same officers drift from him because they
discover that some of his medals are for being an American, while theirs are for feats of
bravery, acts the narrator knows his own fear of death would probably not permit him to
perform. This leads to his being separate, in “another country,” from his former friends.
Out of loneliness, the narrator maintains a friendship with the only member of the group
who has not received a medal and, since he is too injured to return to battle, never will.
The narrator likes to pretend this friend would be like him in battle, cautious and a little
afraid. The narrator insists on imagining he and this young man are connected in this
way to alleviate the loneliness he feels now that he has become alienated from the
others. At the end of the story, the narrator becomes alienated from his new friend, the
major, after the major experiences a loss that the narrator has not, the death of a wife
to pneumonia. The major’s resulting understanding of life’s cruel lack of meaning puts
him in “another country” from the younger, still somewhat idealistic narrator. The mind
set of the major is both alien to him and lonely, yet it is inevitable to all human beings.
After all, the story suggests, attempts to avoid loss are only temporary.