North vs. South Symbolism in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

Faulkner's Southern Roots and Historical Context

William Faulkner was born, raised, and wrote in the South, and his deep Southern roots are evident throughout his fiction. One of the earliest nationally published examples of this work is A Rose for Emily. In this short story, Emily represents the South while her lover, Homer Barron, represents the North. Though Homer's description is brief, his connection with the North is unmistakable. Miss Emily's portrayal is more subtle in some respects but mirrors the Old South in a number of significant ways.

The work of William Faulkner (1897–1962) grew from his Southern roots. Born in Oxford, Mississippi only 32 years after the Civil War, Faulkner was raised there as a member of an old Southern family and wrote most of his works on a farm in Oxford (Nobel Media AB, 2012). He spent his life creating characters that represented "the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South" (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Faulkner himself stated, "…no man is himself, he's the sum of his past…" (Gwynn & Blotner, 1995, p. 48).

It is within this context that Faulkner wrote his first short story for national magazine publication, A Rose for Emily, published on April 30, 1930, in Forum (Padgett, 2006). The main character, Miss Emily Grierson, apparently represents the Old South. The Old South of the pre-Civil War years was an agrarian society built on a plantation system that highly valued adherence to a fading, archaic tradition of gentility. The Civil War created upheaval in the South's agrarian culture and effectively destroyed the old way of life through hard economic realities and Northern control of the region. The destruction of slavery dismantled the plantation system and erased many cultural practices of the Old South. The South attempted to preserve the old ways — including elements of its labor system — through various means; however, Congress reinstated military rule in the South, and a compromise labor system was created that was "part compromise" and "part tragedy," leaving millions of post-Civil War Southerners poor and hopeless (Beck, Frandsen, & Randall, 2009, p. 16).

Emily Grierson as Symbol of the Old South

Emily Grierson's life mirrored the Old South and the post-Civil War South in that she went from being an old-fashioned member of the upper class to a poor recluse who clung to old ways and was "tragic and serene" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 52). She came from the distinguished Grierson family but lived in an increasingly seedy "house filled with dust and shadows" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 57) in Jefferson. She was "a tradition, a duty, and a care" for the town (Faulkner, 2012, p. 48) and wrote to the Mayor "on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 48).

With stubbornness and dignity, she refused to pay taxes (Faulkner, 2012, p. 48), forced the druggist to give her arsenic without providing the legally required reason (Faulkner, 2012, p. 54), refused to stop seeing her boyfriend despite the Baptist minister's visit to her house (Faulkner, 2012, p. 55), and refused to allow a mailbox on her house when mail delivery became a free service (Faulkner, 2012, p. 57). She also relied on an old-fashioned means of earning money when she was 40 by giving lessons in china-painting (Faulkner, 2012, p. 56). The new generation, however, stopped attending or sending their children for those outdated lessons (Faulkner, 2012, p. 56).

Despite becoming a pauper, "…she passed from generation to generation — dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 57), carrying "her head high enough — even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 53). Emily and her life thus show clear parallels with the genteel, stubborn, outdated decadence of the Old South, as well as the poverty, hopelessness, and perhaps madness of the post-Civil War South.

Conclusion

William Faulkner's work grew from his old Southern roots, and A Rose for Emily is a compelling example of this. The Old South was agrarian, built on plantation life and dedicated to a fading, archaic tradition of gentility. The Civil War destroyed the old way of life and left Southerners poor and hopeless. Emily Grierson mirrors these qualities of the Old South and the post-Civil War South. Her affair with Homer, who clearly represents the North, is a strange mixture of two very different people. Worse yet, years after Homer apparently vanishes, the town discovers that he has been dead all along — apparently murdered by Emily, who lay beside his corpse. In this way, Faulkner illustrates the strange and tormented relationship between the North and South, and possibly the South's desired revenge against the North. Faulkner himself denied yet implicitly supported that possibility. Despite his denial, the symbolism in the story seems unmistakable.