Behind Closed Doors-What Happened to Miss Emily? (First Draft)

April McCleary
Mrs. S. Aiken
English 1102-45
October 2, 2009
Behind Closed Doors- What Happened to Miss Emily?
A lonely, frail, old woman had become so desperate for companionship that she laid in a cold, dark room, gazing into the hollow eyes of the fleshless skeleton that was all that remained of the man she loved. This is the haunting image that William Faulkner leaves his readers with in the backwards short story “A Rose for Emily.” He masterfully paints a vivid picture of a mysterious, complicated woman and the deteriorating house that mirrored her unfortunate life in a town called Jefferson. In this town, Emily Grierson became known as a “fallen monument” and an obligation following her father’s death. He had kept her isolated, unable to pursue relationships outside of her home all of her life. Although she didn’t show recognizable grief when he passed away, she refused to allow his body to be buried, insisting that he was not dead, until she was threatened with legal action. This illustrates Miss Emily’s declining mental health, which according to the story’s narrator (a Jefferson resident) ran in her family.
A sense of loyalty and obligation was put into place in 1894 by Jefferson’s Mayor, Colonel Sartoris. The old-fashioned and racist ideas of Colonel Sartoris faded over time, but the obligation to Miss Emily was passed down from generation to generation. Despite the sympathy the town seemed to hold for the woman after her over-bearing father died and left her only the house in which she resided, the younger generation was unhappy with the tax-exempt status Colonel Sartoris had granted her. They sent letters and visited her house in attempts to collect the taxes they felt she owed. Miss Emily insisted she owed nothing. She seemed to be stuck in the time of Colonel Sartoris’ term as Mayor, even challenging them to “See Colonel Sartoris,” even though the Colonel had been dead for nearly 10 years.
Not much information is given about Emily’s father, and what is said about him creates more questions than it answers. In a time when a woman’s value was not in the workplace, but in the home as a wife and mother, Emily’s father was resistant to Emily’s independence. He drove away all of her potential suitors, which the narrator attributes to the Grierson’s sense of superiority, despite the insanity that ran in the family. No mention is made of Miss Emily’s mother or any other female role model. The combination of psychiatric problems, unreasonably protective father, absent mother, and the strange way Miss Emily reacted to her father’s death leaves room for the reader to speculate. Perhaps there was some abuse, or even incest, between Emily and her father. It is possible that the town’s sense of obligation and sympathy for Emily was not only about her marital status or the fact that she was left with only an old house when her father died. Perhaps there was an unspoken suspicion about a perverted family secret.
When Miss Emily became involved with a man named Homer Barron, the town let out a momentary sigh of relief, thinking finally she would be married and would no longer be a burden on the town. Even after Barron revealed to Miss Emily that he was homosexual, she pursued him. The town’s relief soon turned to disgust as it became clear that this was a less than holy union. As everyone but Emily realized Barron would never marry her, the town’s sympathy for Emily deepened. She seemed completely oblivious to the hopelessness of the relationship as she bought expensive gifts for the man who would never love her the way she loved him. This adds to the suspicion of abuse on the part of Emily’s father, as she seemed to be drawn to an extremely unhealthy relationship with a homosexual man. She seemed to be happiest during this twisted courtship. Perhaps because of a sick, wifely obligation to her father, she thrived in unhealthy relationships.
There was only one person who remained by Miss Emily’s side. He was a servant named Tobe, and though he is mentioned several times, the reader can only form theories about who he was and the role he played in Miss Emily’s life. He let Homer Barron into Miss Emily’s home the last time Barron was ever seen alive. When Miss Emily poisoned Barron with arsenic and left his body to decompose in her home, Tobe was there. When her neighbors began to complain to the mayor about the smell as the dead man’s body decayed in an upstairs room, Tobe was there. He was there until Miss Emily died, and the people of the town curiously came to see what was inside of her mysterious, old house. Before they kicked down the door of that cold, dark, upstairs room to discover the body of Homer Barron, Tobe quietly walked out the back door of the house, and was never seen again. Tobe may not have assisted Miss Emily in the murder of Barron, but it is hard to imagine that he didn’t know what she had done. Maybe it was out of the same sympathy and sense of obligation as the rest of the town, but Tobe was a loyal servant and he kept Miss Emily’s secret.
The concluding paragraphs of the story finally reveal what happened to Homer Barron after the people of Jefferson had believed for years that he had simply abandoned Miss Emily. Although she did take his life, it wasn’t a cold-blooded act of murder. When all the details of her life are considered, it is clear that she saw it as the only way to hold on to the man that she loved. There is no indication that she had a hand in her father’s death, but she attempted to hold on to his lifeless body the same way. Miss Emily wanted to spend her life with Homer Barron, and in a sick and twisted way, she did.