a rose for emily --- Plot Summary

Xiao, Lingke

12/31/12

Summary for A Rose For Emily

The story is a first person narrative from the perspective of a town person. When Miss Emily Grierson dies, the whole town goes to her funeral: the men through a sort of respect, the women out of curiosity to see the inside of Emily’s house.

Then the story dates back to the time when Emily is young. Every December, the town government miles her tax notice, but Emily never pays the tax. So some aldermen visit her house to collect the tax, but Emily insists she has no tax in Jefferson since her father loaned money to the town long ago. Her father dies when Emily is about thirty; she refused to accept that he was dead for three days. After her father’s death, she goes out very little. The mayor of the town once receives complains about the smell in Emily’s lawn. This problem is solved by people intruding her lawn to clean.

In the summer after Emily’s death, the town contracts for paving the sidewalks. Emily begins to get closer with the foreman, Homer Barron. Their affair surprises the town because Homer’s status is far below Emily’s. However, after seeing they drive the buggy together for several times, town people believe Emily is fallen, even though she keeps her head high. Emily goes to the druggist to buy

poison. She orders arsenic without giving any reason. People think she will kill herself, since Homer once says he is not a marring man. Nevertheless, people later witness that Emily buys man’s toilet set and man’s clothing, and they are sure that they are going to marry. Homer leaves for few days, during which the town people believe he goes to prepare Emily’s coming. In one evening, a neighbor sees Homer is back and Emily’s Negro servant admits him in her house.

That is the last time people see Homer. And since then Emily hardly comes out her house. When people next see Emily, she grows fat and her hair is turning gray. From that time her front door remains closed, except she gives several china-painting lessons when she is about forty. Daily, monthly, yearly people watch the Negro grows grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket. Eventually, Miss Emily passes away.

Emily’s two cousins come and hold the funeral. After Emily is buried, people come to her house. The black servant lets them in through the front door, and then disappears forever. People come across a room on the second floor which no one had seen in 40 years, and break the door down. They discover a dusty room strangely decorated as a bridal room. Among the items Emily buys for the wedding, a man lies in the bed, rotted beneath the nightshirt. It is Homer’s corpse. On the pillow beside him are the indentation of a head, and a long thread of Emily's iron-gray hair.