- Emily Grierson – Emily at first was a young, happy, filled with life kind of gal. Though presented with many suitors, her father rejects them all. Once her father dies and still no husband by her thirties, everyone in the town starts to pity her. She meets a new fella but he fails to pop the question of marriage. So she ends up poisoning him and keeping his body locked away in her room. As time goes by she becomes a mysterious, secretive, and eccentric woman. When her old days reach her, she has become bloated and colorless and her hair turns gray. Far from the fresh, brown-haired, young girl she used to be.
- Colonel Sartoris – Sartoris was the previous mayor of Emily’s time. He allows that Emily doesn’t have to pay taxes after her dad dies and now that she has been left alone.
- Tobe – Tobe is Emily’s servant and for years takes care of her and her needs. He is the one that goes outside in her place. He seems emotionless almost and his voice is rusty from the lack of use says so by the townspeople. After her death, he just leaves and never is seen again.
- Judge Stevens? The present mayor of the town, who is 80 years old. He tries to help ease the complaints of the smell coming from Emily’s house. So he politely tries to talk to her but is shut out and ignored. Since he wants to really intrude on Emily, he gets some guys to sprinkle lime around her house inconspicuously.
- Homer Barron – Homer comes from the North and appears working in front of Emily’s house. He is a big muscular brute with a loud voice, light eyes, and a nice tan. They take an interest in each other and he takes her out a few times. People have rumors that he’ll ask for her hand.
He never pops the question and Emily ends up killing him. As time goes by, he slowly decomposes on her bed. “A Rose for Emily” Questions
- One example of local color in this story is the fact that everyone in the town seems to gossip. Everyone knows everything and they all know who Emily is. That gives it away that this town Jefferson is a really small one. Another example is when Emily asks for poison. A doctor of present time would not just give it away to a depressed looking person. This time tells you there are no laws about that yet.
- Emily is described as a “fallen monument” because when she was young, she was considered to be a person high in class. Things started to go downfall after her father died and she still couldn’t find a husband. She never really got back on her feet. In the end it seemed she died a sad and lonely woman all alone in a dreary mansion.
- After two years have passed since her father’s death, a smell seems to arise from the property. One could only hypothesize that Emily herself is rotting away in the house. Or no ones cleaning it and rodents are infiltrating the house.
- A new man comes into town named Homer and him and Emily start to date. He came to the town in the first place to get some work.
- I would say the climax is when the body of Homer if found in Emily’s room. All the events lead up to this moment and answers all the questions that surround the story in the beginning and throughout the story.
- Emily buys a suit and toilet seat engraved with the initials H. B., which was only bought for Emily’s own happiness/desires. She also had bought a poison called arsenic before and gives no explanation to the doctor why, so it is assumed for rats
- I would say that mostly all the sections are in chronological order except the first section. The first section should be the last one if the story was meant to be in chronological order. The first section talks about the fact that she just died. But if this was rearranged that way, then I feel that the climax would of lost it’s wow factor…in a way.
- When the two cousins left, Homer came back to Emily’s house. Although Emily loved Homer, she ended up killing him somewhere around the time he came back.
- When the townspeople enter the room upstairs, they open the room to a cloud of dust. After the dust settles, they come upon a severely decayed body on Emily’s bed, with an imprint next to him and a strand of gray hair.
Homer was poisoned and killed by Emily. Things got suspicious when she bought the arsenic and then things pertaining to a wedding. Then things got weirder when he went in her house and was never seen again. Although at the time one would just assume he left, but if fact, it’s just like how the context says it is.
