A Rose for Emily - Character Analysis

Many of the characters in A Rose for Emily are simply there to fill space, to keep the story moving when the main character, Miss Emily Grierson, is not in focus. They are nameless, flat characters who are not really important in the overall story. Out of the three characters that are vital to the story, Emily Grierson is the most complex, the center of the story.

The first given view of Emily is in the form of the opinions of the people in town. Emily is said to stay home constantly, never really seen by the public, which leads to a generally misconstrued opinion of her as a person. It is said that Miss Emily is stuck in the past, in simpler times when she was a younger woman. She simply just did not adjust to the changing times and the way that society works in the present. She is a mystery – little is known about her by the people. Their basic knowledge extends to the fact that Emily rarely ventures out of her home, she broke down after her father’s death, and her lover disappeared without a trace. 

As her past comes into light, Emily goes from being a flat character to being the center focus of the story, the most important part of it. Throughout her life, everyone that managed to become important to her has departed from her life. The result of this was that Emily became clingy and bitter to the point that she snapped and murdered Homer, her lover. She feared his imminent departure, and in a fit of desperation, took his life, keeping his body concealed in the home. 

The fact that Emily is a murderer adds onto her character. She was a strong willed woman who put on a charade of mystery to everyone surrounding her. If one managed to get close to her, it would be seen that beneath her hardened exterior, she indeed had a heart and was afraid of it being broken once more. Her heart, as fragile as it was, was capable of feeling emotion, specifically love. This love extended to Barron so much that she was able to lie beside his dead and decomposing body every night. Overall, Miss Emily Grierson is a very complex character, twisted by tragedy and molded into a mystery.