Even in death, Miss Emily cannot escape her father: "They held the funeral on the second day . . . with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier . . ." When the townspeople break into a locked room upstairs, they find carefully folded wedding clothes and Homer's remains.
"A Rose for Emily" ends with the discovery of the forty-year-old corpse of Homer Barron. Yeah. It's nasty. The first time we read this story, we assumed that—of course—the town didn't know about Homer Barron until Emily died.
In about 1925, Miss Emily dies. On the day of her funeral, the townspeople, including some old Civil War veterans, invade the house. Tobe leaves by the back door and is never seen again. One group breaks into a locked room upstairs and discovers the corpse of Homer Barron, which has moldered in the bed for forty years.
Homer Barron's body is stretched on the bed as well, in an advanced state of decay. The onlookers then notice the indentation of a head in the pillow beside Homer's body and a long strand of Emily's gray hair on the pillow.
Inside, among the gifts that Emily had bought for Homer, lies the decomposed corpse of Homer Barron on the bed. On the pillow beside him is the indentation of a head and a single strand of gray hair, indicating that Emily had slept with Homer's corpse.
When Emily dies, the townspeople learn that she has kept Homer's corpse. Her loneliness had been so severe that she has been sleeping with his corpse for years.
see her in one of the downstairs windows—she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house—like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not lookingat us, we could nevertell which. Thus she passed from generation to generation—dear, i le. impervious, tranquil, and perverse.
The ending of the story emphasizes the length of time Miss Emily must have slept with her dead lover: long enough for the townspeople to find "a long strand of iron-gray hair" lying on the pillow next to "what was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt" and displaying a "profound and fleshless grin ...
The gray hair on the pillow indicates that she has been lying down on the bed, beside the corpse of her dead former fiance. There's also an indent in the pillow, which suggest that it wasn't a once-or-twice occurrence.
They later on find that this odor was coming from the corpse of Homer Barron, decaying in the house. This home held the body of Homer in a room that was locked up for several years, which was not discovered until the death of Miss Emily, when people began to look through her home.
Miss Emily suffers from schizophrenia because she shows symptoms of withdrawing from society. Throughout Emily's life, her aristocratic father the townspeople highly respected, kept Emily closed in believing no suitors are worthy enough for her.
'' When they are seated in the parlor, ''a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray. '' Dust coats everything in the secret room where Emily's horrifying secret is revealed and the townspeople learn that she has killed Homer Barron, her boyfriend, and kept his body.
'' When Emily finally passes away, the townsfolk hold a large funeral for her. Some of the citizens then enter her home after the funeral. To their horror, they find the decomposing corpse of Homer Barron on a bed next to a pillow where Emily had slept for several decades.
In a sense, Emily's disregard of time also means that she is oblivious of death and decay. Keeping her father's and Homer's bodies indicates that she does not accept death. She can love both in life and in death, as if subjects were still living.
' After Emily's death, he waited until others arrived so he can let them in, 'and then he disappeared. He walked right through the house, out the back, and was not seen again. '
Emily eventually apes that male dominance by killing Homer Barron. Now robbing herself, she becomes the black silhouette of her father and assimilates his characteristics. After Homer's death, she successfully retains the corpse.
Sleeping with a pillow between your legs doesn't only signify that you put your comfort first, it may also mean that you are seeking safety in your life. This position also shows that you don't let your guards down easily and are an extremely sensitive person.
Providing support for your neck and upper back is the most important role that the pillow needs to fill when you are asleep. We need this support when we are sleeping because the human spine is naturally curved. Having support for your head and neck helps to maintain the proper alignment of these areas of the spine.
The men throughout the town were afraid of offending a woman especially one coming from a family like the Griersons'. For example, in the story they notice an awful smell coming from Miss Emily's home, but they don't know how to tell her without her being offended.
Even in death, Miss Emily cannot escape her father: "They held the funeral on the second day . . . with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier . . ." When the townspeople break into a locked room upstairs, they find carefully folded wedding clothes and Homer's remains.
Later, after Homer Barron disappears into the Grierson house, Miss Emily is next seen with “iron-gray” hair, “like the hair of an active man.” First, like an iron helmet, the “iron-gray” hair suggests that Miss Emily has something to protect—and indeed she is protecting a dreadful secret: Homer's murder.
When her father dies, Miss Emily cannot face the reality of his death and her loneliness. Because she has no one to turn to — "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away . . ." — for three days she insists that her father is not dead.
For example, it is stated Miss Emily wore a long gold chain around her neck with an “invisible” watch at the end (Faulkner 149). Any kind of watch or clock is an obvious representation of time.
1935 – Miss Emily dies at seventy-four years old. Tobe leaves the house. Two days later the funeral is held at the Grierson house. At the funeral, the townspeople break down the door to the bridal chamber/crypt, which no one has seen in forty years.
After the neighbors kept coming to the city council and complaining about the fowl smell that was coming from miss Emily's house, the judge sent a few men to put lime around the house to kill the smell. As the reader later finds out, the smell was coming from miss Emily's father's decaying body.