William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a story that uses flashbacks to foreshadow a surprise ending. The story begins with the death of a prominent old woman, Emily, and finishes with the startling discovery that Emily as been sleeping with the corpse of her lover, whom she murdered, for the past forty years. The middle of the story is told in flashbacks by a narrator who seems to represent the collective memory of an entire town. Within these flashbacks, which jump in time from ten years past to forty years past, are hidden clues which prepare the reader for the unexpected ending, such as hints of Emily's insanity, her odd behavior concerning the deaths of loved ones, and the evidence that the murder took place.
Without bluntly saying it, Faulkner, in several instances, hints that Emily has gone mad. At a few points in the story, the narrator mentions Emily's Great Aunt Wyatt, who "had gone completely crazy at last" (paragraph 25). This is the narrator's insinuation that insanity runs in the family. The beginning signs of Emily's own mental deterioration start after her father's death. When the people of the town try to explain away her odd behavior, they "did not say she was crazy then" (paragraph 28). This implies that although at that time she wasn't considered insane, and although the narrator never states so directly, there will come a time when she will be.
An important idiosyncrasy of Emily's that will help the reader to understand the bizarre finale of the story, is her apparent inability to cope with the death of someone she cared for. When deputies were sent to recover back taxes from Emily, she directed them to Colonel Sartoris, an ex-mayor that had told her she would never have to pay taxes, and a man that had been dead for ten years. Years before this incident, however, after her father had died, she continued to act has if he had not, and only allowed his body to be removed when threatened with legal action. Considering the fate of her lover's corpse, one suspects she would have kept her father's corpse also, had the town not known of his death.
Littered throughout the story is evidence that the murder took place. When Emily takes up with Homer Barron, a man whom the narrator makes clear was not the marrying kind; rumors start to fly about the two at a time when it was not considered proper for a man and woman to live together. The town, her relatives, and the Baptist minister disapproved of the relationship, and Emily was in danger of loosing Homer. A year after the relationship begins, and the pressures to either marry or separate is great; Emily purchases arsenic for an undisclosed reason. A short time after that, Homer is seen entering her home and disappears forever, which the town considers to mean abandonment. After her lover's supposed desertion, a stench emanates from Emily's home, and lasts a couple of weeks. What the town believes may be a dead snake or rat, is in fact Homer's rotting corpse.
When the facts of Emily's life are laid bare in an easy to follow schematic, not only is the ending not a surprise, it is expected. The murder of Homer, and the keeping of his corpse, was a desperate act of a lonely, insane woman who could not bear to loose him. The structure of this story, however, is such that the important details are delivered in almost random order, without a clear road map that connects events. The ending comes as a morbid shock, until a second reading of the story reveals the carefully hidden details that foreshadow the logical conclusion.
By Matthew R. King
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily". An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. Ed. Barnet, Sylvan, et al. 287-294.
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