Theme Of Old House In A Rose For Emily

In the short story, “ A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, there are many significant symbols. Among the most important symbols is Emily Grierson’s decaying, old house and its contents. Faulkner uses Emily’s house as a symbol that significantly represents her life in many ways through its comparison to the old south, human emotions, Emily’s physical changes, and death. Emily’s house represents the “Old South” as an old southern monument. Her house is the only house from her time remaining on her street. It represents the wealth and nobility of her family and others in the south during the late 1800s. The decoration and appearance of her house represents the style of all houses of elite families during the 1870s. Her home is described as

Her house was once new and beautiful, just as she was as a younger lady. But later in life, she is described as “bloated”, with lost eyes looking like “two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough” (85). Her depressing and completely anti-social life has lead to her depreciating appearance. Later, her house is described as “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay” (84). Her appearance diminishes, along with her house. The emphasis on the decay of her and her house during the story helps the reader visualize and understand the sadness and dreariness of her life (and

The use of the word “dust” is very prominent throughout the many descriptions of her home. Everything about her house is described as old, dirty, and dusty. Her home is “an eyesore among eyesores” (84), although it was once one of the nicest in the town. Many rooms and items in her house are described as being shadowed, cracked, and tarnished and smelling dank, gross, or dry. The disuse and indecency of her home shows the reader what her life was like in that house. She lived a very unused and inconclusive life. She never found a husband, got over her father’s death, or even left the house. She really didn’t live a full and joyous life. Her imperfect house gives the reader an idea about the imperfectness of her life as well. Her home also represents death. Throughout the course of the story Emily’s father, Homer Barron, and Emily all die in that house. Not only did people literally die in the house, but one could say that Emily’s life figuratively “died” in that home as well. In that house she lost her father who was the only man she was ever allowed to love and she rarely left the house after her his death. She lives her whole sad, depressing life in that house. She eventually goes mentally insane there as well. She shows this when she has the “death room” where she stores Homer Barron’s dead body. She clearly has no issues with dead bodies and actually chooses to live with a dead body for more than thirty years. Death is a