How does Faulkner characterize his protagonist in "A Rose for Emily?"

For a physical description of Miss Emily, see the following passage:

They rose when she entered—a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand.

In this paragraph, Faulkner intentionally leads readers astray with a description of a woman who seems as ordinary as anyone's grandmother. She has small bone structure, is carrying too much weight, and wears a gold chain for a more formal occasion. But also in this description is something more ominous: definite allusions to death. Miss Emily is "bloated," looking as one might look after being drowned, with a deathlike hue in color. Her eyes are "lost" in her face. Although the significance of these deathlike images will only become clear in the final lines of the story, Faulkner builds a morbid, eerie tone into his description of Miss Emily.

After her sweetheart seemingly deserts her, Miss Emily's house develops a putrid smell (again, the source of which isn't clear until the very end of the story). The townspeople begin to complain, and the judge asks one of the men if he really expects him to "accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad." Miss Emily and her family have always commanded a certain respect in the town, and no one wants to confront this icon of Southern culture about the possibility of uncleanliness. Instead of potentially insulting her, four men gather to sprinkle lime all over her property, and as they leave, they note that they have not been as secretive as they might have imagined:

A window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol. They crept quietly across the lawn and into the shadow of the locusts that lined the street.

Miss Emily is fully aware of the men outside on her property. She gazes down on them with a sense of authority. The darkness behind her is now "lighted," symbolizing the knowledge that Miss Emily has of the situation. The men creep in the darkness, symbolically ignorant of the true source of the smell which they seek to remediate. Miss Emily is seen as an "idol," connoting her sense of power and respect from the townspeople as she represents a dying sense of Southern culture.

In the final paragraph, readers learn that Miss Emily has been in the bed with the corpse of her former sweetheart even in her old age, noted by the gray hair found on the pillow (Miss Emily's). Miss Emily has taken advantage of her position in society—being so far above reproach that no one even noticed the subtle clues regarding the timing of Homer Barron's disappearance and the smell that began to permeate her property soon thereafter—to hide quite a macabre secret for many years.

These type of descriptions that you are asking about fall under two categories:

Direct characterization and Indirect characterization.

Faulkner uses both cleverly by juxtaposing the direct description of Emily, in contrast with her actions. He does this primarily to deflect the attention of the reader and, ultimately, cause the big shock at the end.

Direct characterization happens when Faulkner gives us a step by step account of what Emily really looks like, for example: 

[Emily is a] small, fat woman in black[...] Her skeleton was small and spare; [...]She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal ...

This direct characterization of Emily is meant to show that the woman whom so many in Jefferson County feared, and thought to be so enigmatic, is merely a short, plump lady of old age whose demeanor may seem unhappy, but is otherwise harmless. 

It is almost as if Faulkner is asking the townsfolk "What is wrong with all of you?" "Can't you see that this little lady is incapable of causing harm?" We know that he does this on purpose, as Emily's actions will proof to be anything but harmless. 

Faulkner therefore uses indirect characterization to contrast the image of this plump, old lady against the absolutely strange things that she does. This builds up for the ending to come ore dramatically.

An example is the time when Emily refuses to give up the body of her dead father for burial because she was in denial that he was dead. Another example is when Emily suddenly starts dating a drifter from the North, Homer Barron, who is the last individual anyone would have ever thought that Emily would be interested in dating. A third example is when Emily looks out the window as the people from town throw limestone at the surroundings of her house, given that a stench that came from the house was so bad that the residents were bothered by it.

All of these are the actions of someone who is quite strange; someone who does not seem to be congruent with one action and the next. This, when contrasted to the otherwise harmless look of Emily, gives the reader a sense that, with this lady, anything could happen. 

Finally, when the reveal that takes place in the end verifies the previous assumption. The reader realizes that, indeed, anything can happen with Emily. The revelation that Emily had lived with Homer's dead body, and that she is likely who may have killed him, makes the reader revert back to all the instances of direct and indirect characterization, in order to connect the dots and put all the details together. 

Therefore, Faulkner juxtaposes indirect and direct characterization as a way to show the contrast between what Emily looks like and how she behaves. This helps to foreshadow the big surprise that will come at the end of the story. 

How would you describe Miss Emily's character in "A Rose for Emily"?

Miss Emily's character in A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is described in part by the narrator's description of her role in the town:

Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town . . .

She is of the old southern aristocracy, and her character is dominated by pride in her family and class and love for and adherence to Southern tradition, of a sort that was disappearing. As a female, she regarded making a good marriage as part of her role. She saw being jilted as dishonorable, and because honor was a central part of her character, saw murder as less shameful than dishonor.

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a masterful short story.  Miss Emily Grierson, the protagonist, becomes an icon and celebrity in her home town of Jefferson, Mississippi.  She was a relic from the Old South when ladies were cherished and protected. 

Emily had been protected by her father while he was alive.  Thinking that no man was good enough for her, he drove all her gentleman callers away. When her father died, Emily was over thirty years old  and discovered that he had left her nothing except the house. Unable to let her father go, she would not let them take her father for three days after he died.   

The townspeople knew there had been insanity in the family, but they would not admit that anything was really wrong with Emily. Unfortunately for Emily, her father had left her penniless;  however, Emily had the strength to survive. Of course, she still had Tobe the black servant to help her. 

Two years after her father died, her fiancee deserted her.  Each time one of these tragedies happened to Emily, she would retreat inside her house and not be seen for several months. 

When next Emily was seen, Homer Barron had come to town to help with the construction of the town's sidewalks.  Homer was a yankee and a self-described homosexual.  Still, every Sunday, he and Emily would go for buggy rides. Gossip ran rampant through the town: what were they doing on those buggy rides?

She carried 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...

Insinuating that there was more going on than just buggy rides did not bother Emily. She was above all of that.   Her cousins came, and they were convinced that Emily and Homer were going to be married.

Homer left for a while. When he was gone, Emily seemed to prepare for the wedding.

We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece. Two days later she had bought a complete outfit of men's clothing, including a nightshirt.

Surprisingly, Emily buys arsenic and refuses to tell why she needed it. No one needed to know Emily's business. Homer was seen going in the back door of Emily's house and was never seen again.

Next, the neighbors complain about a terrible odor coming from Emily's house. The men of the town sneak around and put lime around her house to get rid of the smell. Emily watches them do it from an upstairs window.

Again, Emily is not seen for a long time.  The new generation of council men come to collect the taxes from her. She is now completely gray haired and heavy. She does not offer the men seats nor does she admit that she owes taxes. Emily refers them to Colonel Satoris who has been dead for several years. 

Emily dies in a downstairs chair at the age of 74.  The cousins bury her two days later.  After the funeral, Tobe lets the women into the house and goes out the back door never to be seen again. The women are there to snoop.  They break down the upstairs bedroom door.  There they find a man's skeleton dressed in a nightshirt. On the pillow next to him is one gray hair.

Emily Grierson found a way to keep her man.  Her father prevented her happiness while he was alive, but how does she survive once he is gone?  Secretive, clever, and insane--those were the qualities that kept Miss Emily going.

In "A Rose for Emily," Emily is a complex character, and we can discern several of her important characteristics from Faulkner's descriptions.

One of the first things we learn about Emily is that she is stubborn. After her father dies, town authorities approach her to try to persuade her to pay taxes. However, no matter how much they insist, she refuses, claiming that a former mayor of the town has exempted her from taxation.

Emily is insecure and reclusive. After her father dies, she retreats into her house and stays there, except for a brief interlude during which she goes for buggy rides with Homer Barron. After she kills Barron, she remains in the house for the rest of her life.

Emily is mentally unstable. We see this first when she initially refuses to give up her father's body after he dies. This becomes even more obvious when we learn that she has killed Barron, presumably because he was going to break up with her and move away.

Emily is murderous. Most women, of course, would be sad and depressed if their boyfriend announced his intention to leave. However, they would not resort to killing him and then sleeping with his dead body.

Finally, Emily is proud and duplicitous. She covers up the murder she has committed with an attitude of haughtiness.

What is Emily's secret in "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily's secret in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is that she apparently poisons Homer and keeps the body in her upstairs bed.  What's worse, the hair the men find at the end of the story matches Emily's, which means that she has been sleeping next to the corpse. 

Homer disappears from the town years before Emily dies and the corpse is discovered, but everyone simply thinks that Homer sneaked away because he didn't want to marry Emily. 

Emily's secret is easily kept because the narrator can only reveal what the townspeople experience from the outside of the house.  Since no one ever goes upstairs in the house, no one knows Emily's secret. 

Emily's secret was found in her bedroom.  She had presumably killed Homer Barron all those years ago and left him to rot in bed.  But not only that, she was sleeping next to him every night since she killed him.  That's a pretty major secret!

To see this, look at the last four paragraphs of the story (one is just one sentence).  You can see that his corpse is there, kind of fused to the bed.  And we know that she was sleeping next to him because there was a dent in the pillow and one of her hairs.

What traits does Emily inherit from her father in "A Rose for Emily"?

What Emily inherits from her father that most affects her adult life is her attitude about her position in society.  As a Grierson, her father was considered to be of the elite class in Jefferson, and as such, her father didn't think that any of the young men where "quite good enough for Miss Emily."  The townspeople pictured Emily and her father as a portrait with her father in completely dominant position at the forefront of the picture, and Emily, barely visible behind him.  The superior attitude and the subsequent behavior leave Emily alone after her father's death, and she is more desparate than ever to keep Homer, so she takes the ultimate control and kills him and then keeps his body in the upstairs bed chamber. 

Ironically, the only thing she actually inherits is the house they lived in and little to no money, so she is actually not the most wealthy or elite person in town, and is now at the mercy of the town elders, who for the most part treat her with the respect her father deserved, but that too isolates her and makes her take her desparate actions.

Who is the round character in "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily Grierson is a round character in this story although we never really get her point of view of things.

The town is also well-developed as a "character" since we have the whole story from the point of view of an unknown townsperson who explains the town's reactions to things as the story unfolds.

In this story, the town is a round character, the South, is forced to change in order to survive after the Civil War. 

"The narrator in ‘‘A Rose for Emily’’ notes a change in the character of his town when Jefferson’s Board of Aldermen attempts to collect Emily’s taxes."

While Emily refuses to change or recognize that the world around her is no longer populated by privilged planation owners, she becomes an obstacle to progress. 

"The newer generations are further and further away from the antiquated social mores of their forebears. The men who try to collect Emily’s taxes don’t operate under the same code of conduct as their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did. Emily is not a ‘‘damsel in distress’’ to these men; she is a nuisance, a hindrance to progress."    

A round character is a major character in a fictional work who encounters conflict and experiences change. They are also fully developed. You should pick the obvious, Emily Grierson. She experiences the loss of her overprotective father, insanity in her family and the constant change in the town around her. It is, in fact, ironic that her resistance to change as the town modernizes is what sets her apart as a developed character. She refuses to be molded by the possibility of change, even resorting to act of murder to keep a loved one close. ewww I said "molded"

How does Faulkner describe Miss Emily in the sixth paragraph of "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily is not described favourably: She is a short "fat woman in black" and she is also "bloated like a body submerged in motionless water, and pallid hue." Her character and persona are also described later on with not much grace except for the aristocratic nature of her behavior which is described as:

‘‘an idol in a niche … dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.’’

Furthermore, she also is compared to her cousins, who apparently are even more staunch Southern than Emily herself, in fact, being described as "more Grierson than Emily will ever be."

She is a "small, fat woman" dressed in black.  All of her attire and accessories are in black and gold.  She is essentially lifeless, for Faulkner writes,

"She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue."

Even her face doesn't move, except for her barely visible eyes.  Faulkner's description is a subtle example of foreshadowing for the story's ending, forMiss Emily is dressed entirely in black, indicating that she is in mourning. The reader knows that it is not a sign of grief for her father's death, because the narrator's visit takes place decades after Emily's father's death. This forcesone to consider for whom she might be mourning.

Additionally, Miss Emily is a barely living corpse ("a body long submerged in motionless water") whichhints at the literal corpse she has "stored" in her bedroom.  The words "submerged" and "motionless" are also significant because Miss Emily is weighed down by tradition and stuck in the traditional past. While her town and others around her progress, she barely lives.

What was the perception of Miss Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

Miss Emily has no close friends and she rarely leaves her house except during the short time that she was being courted by Homer Barron. We do know that many people in Jefferson think that

... the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.

People in Jefferson thought of her as a "fallen monument" and a "curiosity."

Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town...

When the authorities came to her home to collect back taxes, she was rude and unfriendly, ordering her servant, Tobe, to show them the way out. Others were happy that she had become "humanized" after her father's death, and they "felt sorry for her" after the episode of "the smell." The townspeople knew that insanity ran in the family, but

We did not say she was crazy then.

When Emily began seeing Homer, some people were happy for her, but they soon began whispering that "she was fallen." They believed that she

... demanded more than ever the recognition of the dignity of being the last Grierson...

Yet they held out hope that she would eventually persuade Homer to marry her. But when the two were seen, unchaperoned, on Sundays, the believed that

... it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people.

Following her death, she was remembered fondly by the older members of the town,

... talking as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing they had danced with her and courted her, perhaps.

Who are the characters in "A Rose for Emily" and how would you identify them?

The characters in “A Rose for Emily” consist of major players and minor yet influential characters with lasting effects.

Emily Grierson is the title character, a spinster descended from Southern gentry who dies at age seventy-four alone in a formerly glorious, now-decrepit family house. Emily is more complex than she appears: small and childlike when young, gaunt and severe with “iron-gray” hair when elderly. Despite her limited contact with townspeople, she has a strong personality when interacting with them. She does not budge in face of law—she refuses to pay taxes and divulge her planned use of arsenic before purchasing it. Both a beneficiary and victim of her family’s high social status, Emily is the object of townspeople’s gossip.

The narrator is the first-person plural “we” representing the townspeople. At first seemingly omniscient but later revealed to be limited, the narrator presents a biased view of Emily and the events. Initially, the “we” is a nosy busybody who describes Emily’s family history and snobbery, her overprotective father, her past suitors, and her actions with judgment and mock pity; by the end, however, “we” are shocked when discovering Emily’s homicidal scheme.

Emily’s father—who is dead before the story begins—was an overbearing patriarchal figure who perpetuated his family’s aristocratic arrogance toward others. He prevented Emily from interacting with any potential suitors, considering none “good enough” for her. Emily’s father is remembered by the townspeople as

a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.

After his death and into her later years, Emily keeps a portrait of her father in a prominent place: “on a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace.”

Homer Barron is Emily’s last suitor, a “Yankee—a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face.” As a Northern day laborer, Barron is not from Emily’s gentry class; he curses and sings while working and socializing with common folk. Unlike Emily, he often is the center of attention. Nonetheless, he attracts Emily, and the townspeople

see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy.

Emily seems to be defying social expectations by fraternizing with him. He also

liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club—that he was not a marrying man.

The narrator seems to imply that Barron is either gay or a confirmed bachelor. In either case, he is not a likely suitor for Emily if she wishes to marry him. At the end of the story, Barron’s corpse is found in Miss Emily’s house after her death. His dead body was preserved by Miss Emily and ominously topped with one long strand of “iron-gray” hair.

Tobe is Emily’s loyal “old man-servant—a combined gardener and cook” who lives with and grows old with Emily. He lets in and shows rare visitors to the door. He waits on her until he becomes "doddering" and "grayer and more stooped.” Referred to as “the Negro” or “the old Negro,” Tobe has little to no contact with others:

He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.

After Emily’s death, he leaves without much notice.

Mayor Judge Stevens (age eighty) and members of the Board of Aldermen (“three graybeards and one younger man, a member of the rising generation”) are four white men who try to collect taxes from Emily. They are dismissed from her home with no success. Later, they stealthily investigate the source of the stench at her house but find no cause.

The druggist is a pharmacist whom Emily consults when she seeks poison. He is stared down by Miss Emily, who refuses to divulge her reason for needing the arsenic. The druggist caves under her glare and sells her arsenic without her justification.

The Baptist minister speaks with Emily after shocked ladies in the town ask him to because of her relations with Homer Barron. The minister refuses to “divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again.”

The minister's wife writes to Emily's relatives.

Two female cousins come to live with Emily, perhaps as a result of the minister’s wife’s letter. They also return to town after Emily’s death and hold her funeral.

Characters from past who are not active in the present story but affect present action and attitudes include the following.

Colonel Sartoris is the former mayor who exempted the Grierson family from paying taxes.

Old Lady Wyatt is Emily’s great-aunt who had gone completely crazy but also perpetuated the Grierson family’s snobbery.

A suitor who courted Emily after her father’s death was a “sweetheart—the one we believed would marry her—[yet] had deserted her.”

What are Emily Grierson's strengths in "A Rose for Emily"?

This is an interesting question because although Miss Emily might be considered a "strong" person in lots of ways in the story, it is clear that her "strength" is also linked to a crucial weakness, which is her tendency to retreat from a reality that we are not comfortable with into a former world or a fantasy world where we get everything our own way. Consider in the first section how she greets the Alderman and then deals with them, insisting that she will not pay taxes:

She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt. Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain.

Her voice was dry and cold. "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves."

She is clearly a "strong" character in the way that she is able to face down the authority represented in the alderman - she will not suffer fools gladly. It is clear however that this "strength" as illustrated here is likewise a weakness, for it is indicative of the way that Miss Emily has retreated into her own world and will not let reality enter. Note the reference in the first paragraph of the quote above to the "invisible watch," reinforcing the idea that Miss Emily is linked with the inexorable passage of time. It is as if she keeps her own time regardless of the rest of the world, and thus can talk as if Colonel Sartoris is still in power, whilst the text tells us that he died ten years ago.

In "A Rose for Emily," how is Miss Emily described in the sixth paragraph?

This description of Emily seems symbolic.  For, Emily has already died in a sense:  She is lost in the world of the Old South.  In funereal clothes with a long gold chain "descending into her waist," suggesting her family line that ends with her, she stands only with the aid of a black cane that has a tarnished gold head on it.  This tarnished gold is symbolic of the once high social and economic prestige that Miss Emily once possessed that she tries to live upon.  But, now her body is pallid and bloated, like one dead.  Her eyes, the "windows to the soul" are lifeless.  They are described as one would describe the eyes children made for snowmen by pressing lumps of coal into the "doughy" head.

In this part of the story a "deputation waited upon her,"  "-a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt,, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head.  Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her.  She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.  Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another..."

What is Faulkner's attitude towards Miss Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner describes a lady who never really had a chance at happiness. Emily’s early life was dominated by her father.  One scene is described showing the father standing in the yard with his riding crop and Emily standing in the background. Her father deterred her from having boyfriends by saying that they were never good enough for her.

When her father died, Emily was left with only the family house.  Refusing to admit that her father died, Emily had to be made to let the townspeople take her father for burial. Emily was sick for several months. 

Two years later, Homer Barron came to town and into Emily’s life.  His attention included taking Emily for a Sunday carriage ride.  This started the gossip.

Throughout Emily’s adult life, the townspeople took an interest in her life. They talked, gossiped, and decided what should be done about her. When the women of the town decided that Homer was compromising Emily’s good name, the Baptist minister was sent to talk to her.  He refused to ever go again.  Then, the cousins were sent for from Alabama.

While the cousins were there, Emily bought arsenic from the druggist.  She ordered a men’s toiletry set with H.B. engraved on it.  Finally, she had a suit of clothing and night wear made with the same initials. 

Everyone thought that the two would marry.  Homer had admitted to being a homosexual. This did not matter since he had to make an honest woman of Emily.  The cousins left, and Homer was seen going in the back door of Emily’s house.  He was never seen again. 

The smell incident occurred.  The neighbors complained to the mayor.  There were covert meetings and a group sent out to place lime around the property.  Eventually, the smell went away. 

The years pass and little was seen of Emily.  She gave china tea painting lessons for a few years. Finally, the new town counsel tried to get Emily to pay her taxes.  By this time, as an old lady, she sent the men on their way telling them to check with Colonel Sartoris, who had been dead for many years. 

The story begins and ends with the death of Emily.

And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to wait on her. We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up trying to get any information from the Negro.

When she died, it was in the downstairs bedroom.  The entire town turned out for her funeral.  Part of them came to actually pay their respects, and the other half to be able to snoop around Emily’s house.

The narrator who is a member of the town informs the reader that the town had known something was strange in the upstairs bedroom for a long time.  When the door was opened, a skeleton was discovered with the H.B. nightshirt on.  In addition, next to the corpse was a pillow with a gray hair lying on it.

To answer the question, Faulkner was interviewed about the story in 1955.   The author was asked about the title of the story and the reference to the rose.  There are no actual flowers given to Emily in the story. 

Faulkner said that Emily had lived a lonely, desolate life that he felt as though she deserved a rose. The people of the town did little to actually help Emily.  Other than Tobe, she was alone all of her life.  She had to resort to a gruesome way to find the love that she so desperately wanted.    Faulkner gave the flower to her in the title of the story.

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Miss Emily Grierson grew up in the "Old South" and never moved beyond that. She grew up in the antebellum South, at a time when southern women were too genteel to deal with money matters or, frankly, anything that was considered unladylike.

She lives in

a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.

As the "New South" emerges and technology advances, however, the Grierson house grows out of place. 

[G]arages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores.

For a time, after her father died and left Miss Emily only the house, the mayor of the town felt the need to find a genteel way to let Miss Emily avoid paying her taxes; however, that is because the mayor, Colonel Sartoris, was also a man of the Old South. "When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction."

This is the beginning of Miss Emily's constant conflict between the old and the new; interestingly enough, this rather pitiable relic of an earlier time wins the battle every time.

The town wants her to pay her taxes, but she refuses and they are unable to make her pay. "So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell." (The townspeople smelled something odd emanating from her house, but they were unable to discover the cause because it would have been an insult to tell a southern gentlewoman that she smells.) 

When Miss Emily begins an affair with Homer Barron, the women of the town send the Baptist minister in to talk to her (since none of the townspeople wanted to do the deed) about her immoral situation (which is ironic, since the "new" should have been more tolerant than the "old.")

He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday [Homer and Miss Emily] again drove about the streets....

The townspeople are part of the New South, and they often find themselves pitying Miss Emily. Miss Emily, however, completely dismisses anything new and continues to act as she was taught--with perhaps the ironic and glaring exception of Homer Barron. Buying rat poison and killing a man because she was afraid he would leave her certainly does not seem in keeping with the thinking of the Old South. Perhaps she is, after all, more modern in her thinking than anyone thought. 

And now Miss Emily [has] gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.

How does Emily's character evolve in "A Rose for Emily"?

When Emily Grierson was young, her father drove away all of the young men who showed an interest in her, and the people in the town believed that "she would have to cling to that which robbed her, as people will." When he passed away, she would or could not accept it, and she told everyone that he had not died. For three days, she stuck to this story, until, finally, when the town ministers and doctors were about to force their way into her home, she allowed them to take the body. However, "she broke down" when they took him. She seems helpless and weak.

When Homer Barron, a construction foreman, comes to town, Emily seems to take up with him, beginning a relationship. He is someone who her father would have found entirely unsuitable—he's a laborer, he's dark complected, and he's from the North. Emily seems to have chosen someone who is the exact opposite of who her father would have chosen, and this makes it seem like she's trying to punish her father, though he's dead, for his responsibility in her sorrowful solitude. Homer, however, is "not a marrying man," and so Emily, rather than allow him to leave her, as all the other suitors and her father did, kills him in order to keep him. While this isn't healthy behavior, we can see that Emily does gain some agency, she takes things into her own hands—having had everything done for her when her father was alive—and she makes her own decisions. Again, they aren't necessarily good decisions, but they show a change in her: she was once willing to be ruled, but she changes into someone who rules instead.

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily changes only superficially.  In fact, one of the traits that makes Emily what she is is her inability to change. 

Emily is a character raised in the ante-bellum South who is trying to hold on to her pre-civil war world.  She even refuses to have a mail box installed.  She won't let go of her father when he dies until she is forced, just as she won't let go of Homer.  If she changes, the change is only that she gets better at holding on to what she wants to hold on to.  She understands that Homer is not the settling down type, so she makes a preemptive strike, if you will, and poisons him so that she can keep him with her forever.  And she manages to keep it a secret. 

She succeeds (by holding on to Homer), where she had failed with her father.

Who are the main characters in "A Rose for Emily"?

The point of view of narration in "A Rose for Emily" is a person who, like Miss Emily Grierson, lives in Jefferson.

Much of the story consists of the unnamed narrator talking about Emily and her interactions with people in the past tense; in other words, it is a retrospective stance. Emily Grierson's words, actions, and interactions are described. The narrator also reports on conversations that others have about Emily, such as one that occurs between the mayor, Judge Stevens, and both an individual lady and a delegation of men.

There is Tobe, Emily's African-American domestic helper, and Homer Barron, a Yankee who courts, then plans to abandon, Emily. There is also the town druggist, from whom Emily purchases the rat poison that presumably kills Homer Barron.

To me, there are four main characters in this story.  They are:

• Miss Emily Grierson
• Her father
• Tobe, the black man who is her butler and all around attendant
• Homer Barron

While these are not the only characters, and while some of them do not actually appear much in the story, they are the ones who drive what happens.

Miss Emily, of course, is the main character.  But her life is completely affected by her father and his penchant for chasing men out of her life.  Homer Barron is very important because he is her one chance for love and it is his death that pushes her over the edge.

Who is Homer in "A Rose for Emily"?

IN this story, Homer Barron is the man that Emily Grierson was supposed to marry (or at least that is what she thought).

Homer was a man who came from up North.  He was in town as the boss of a gang of workers who were working on the roads.  While in town, he started going out with Miss Emily.  She clearly thought that they were going to marry even though he publicly said he wasn't interested in marriage.

She appears to have killed him after he, presumably, told her they weren't getting married.

What are Emily's main characteristics in "A Rose for Emily"?

"Emily is born to a proud, aristocratic family sometime during the Civil War; her life in many ways reflects the disintegration of the Old South during the Reconstruction and the early twentieth century." 

Miss Emily's character can best be described as eccentric, not crazy enough to be in a mental institution, but someone who acts outside the mainstream of thought.  For example, when her father dies, she does not want to bury him, she does not want to let him go even though he is dead. 

Another characteristic that I would attribute to Miss Emily is that of desperation.  She is driven by emotions that cause her to feel desperate.  For example, she begins taking rides in her carriage with Homer Barron, the Yankee who arrives in town to work, but when he informs her that he is not a marrying man, she resorts to desperate measures, she poisons him.

By the time she dies, I would say that Emily has crossed the line from eccentric to mentally unstable.  The proof of this lies in the fact that she has slept next to the corpse of Homer Barron all these years.

Sleeping next to a dead body crosses the line into insanity.   

Are there any stereotypical characterizations of women in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily, of William Faulkner's gothic story, "A Rose for Emily," clearly represents the repressed and subjugated woman of the Victorian era.  Having living under the domain of the patriarchal family, Emily has not been allowed the choice of a beau and she has been directed in her life by the arrangements that her father has made with Colonel Sartoris and others. But, later, Emily stereotypically "clings to that which had robbed her, as people will."

Even after her father's death, Emily lives in his shadow as symbolized by Faulkner in the scene in which she stands before his portrait, with his watch chain engulfing her entire figure: 

a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt.

After her father's death, Emily goes out rarely, maintaining the same lifestyle upon which her father has insisted.  When she retains the old Negro servant, some of the ladies remark,

Just as if a man--any man--could keep a kitchen properly,...so they were not surprise when the smell developed.

This remark is stereotypical, a remark perpetuated by the women themselves, for it assumes that women are better housekeepers.  And, when they report the smell, Judge Stevens says, "...will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"  The stereotypical implication here is that there are certain subjects about which people do not speak to women. 

When Emily begins to become interested in Homer Barron, the townspeople say,

Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.

Learning that this is exactly what Emily does, the kin of Emily are called, and the townspeople whisper, "Poor Emily" as though Emily has become the pathetic, irrational woman.  Some of the ladies label her "a disgrace."

After Homer Barron goes, the narrators are glad that the two female cousins--"even more Grierson" arrive to care for  dependent Emily, the delicate woman who cannot fend for herself.  The front door remains closed and she again is repressed in her own home until she chooses her bizarre act of independence.

Describe the narrator in "A Rose for Emily."

The narrator in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a group of townspeople: 1st person plural (collective) "we."  This is rare in literature to have many voices distilled into one.

The narrators are outside narrators.  They once might have had access to Miss Emily's house parlor, but not any more.  They have never had access to her upstairs bridal suite.  As such, the story is essentially all gossip, rumor, and speculation.

You can make a case that the group is either all male or female.  There is a male authorial tone to the narration: the men confront her about the taxes.  The men spread lime around the house.  There is a male gaze, an objectification of Emily as "other" (hence, the rose).  They represent the patriarchal tradition (male – law – authority):

Colonel Sartoris, the mayor--he who fathered the edict that … the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity.

AND:

We are the city authorities, Miss Emily. Didn't you get a notice from the sheriff, signed by him?

There's also an implicit female voice buried in the narration: the last people granted access to the house were the women who would have taken China painting classes from Miss Emily.  Since they were the last, maybe they began the rumors...

Overall, it's hard to tell which gender is exclusive.  Maybe it's a mix.  So says, Enotes:

There are hints as to the age, race, gender, and class of the narrator, but an identity is never actually revealed. Isaac Rodman notes in The Faulkner Journal that the critical consensus remains that the narrator speaks for his community. (Rodman, however, goes on to present a convincing argument that the narrator may be a loner or eccentric of some kind speaking from ‘‘ironic detachment.’’)

Faulkner uses these narrators to heighten the suspense of the story.  It is the reverse of dramatic irony (when the audience knows what is going to happen before the characters).  Here, Miss Emily knows what has happened to Homer Baron, but we do not, until the end (after she dies).

Who is the narrator in "A Rose for Emily"?

To understand for whom the short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner was written, it is important to grasp the overall plot of the story and the identity of the narrator. The story takes place in a fictional town called Jefferson in the state of Mississippi. It begins at the funeral of Emily Grierson, which the entire population of the town attends. Miss Emily has been an eccentric fixture of the town for decades, living in an old house that had once been elegant but has now fallen into decay, attended only by an elderly African American man.

The story is told by an unnamed narrator, who seems to represent the people of the town. He doesn't refer to himself as an individual, but rather as "we," as if he speaks for the entire population. Additionally, he does not tell the story in chronological order, but in a rambling fashion, going back and forth in time as if sharing details as they occur to him.

According to the narrator, Emily and her father held themselves aloof from the townspeople. None of the local young men were good enough for her. When her father dies, he leaves her the house but not much money, and that's when her eccentricity begins to set in. She briefly dates a visiting construction foreman named Homer Barron, but then the man disappears. Soon after, a horrible smell comes from Emily's home, which the townspeople attempt to disperse by spreading chemicals around it. Just before the smell started, she had bought some poison, but the townspeople don't make the connection right away between the poison and Homer's disappearance.

After Emily's funeral, however, the townspeople crowd into her house and find Homer's desiccated corpse lying on a bed in a locked room. There is evidence that Emily may have slept or rested there sometimes, too.

In summary, the story of Emily's life by the unnamed narrator is told after the discovery of Homer Barron's corpse in Emily's home, where it has evidently been for a long time. We can only speculate whom the narrator was speaking to, but it is possible he is explaining how the corpse came to be there to police investigators or to reporters. Attempting to relate Emily's backstory under the pressure of an investigation would account for the disjointed narrative and also for the way that he says "we" when referring to the townspeople in general.

Who is Emily Grierson in "A Rose for Emily"?

The enigmatic main character of William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" is a product of the Old South.

The townsfolk narrator tells that Emily is an old woman who lives alone in a house which is described as

an eyesore among eyesores.

Emily hardly ever leaves her home, and her looks are, according to witnesses, consistently deteriorating. As far as her temperament goes, it is clear that her reclusive nature has turned her eccentric, particularly in her overall inability of letting go of her Southern aristocratic past. She does this by refusing to pay taxes in the county of Jefferson, where she lives, because the first Colonel who led the town back when she was young had exempted her father from doing so. Yet, she still believes that the same rights will apply to her.

As a family member, we learn that Emily is an only child whose closest relatives are her female, meddling cousins. Emily has also been a proud and loyal daughter to her father who engulfed her life choices and decisions to the point of running off potential suitors, and separating her from the rest of the town. The result of this was that Emily developed a co-dependent relationship with her father and, after he died, she went as far as refusing to give up his body.

We learn that Emily may even have had artistic talents prior to her death. She kept a coal sketch of her father, gave art lessons for a while, and just like that, she disappeared from the public view.

As a woman, Emily Grierson found love in the person of Homer Barron; a drifter and a Yankee who came to Jefferson as part of a construction team. Younger than Emily, loud, rambunctious, and presumably even showing bisexual tendencies, Homer was not liked by the people of Jefferson, but was tolerated simply because he escorted the otherwise lonely Emily.

As a human being, Emily Grierson displayed the typical emotions of someone who fears loneliness terribly. In an erratic attempt to keep Homer, who left town apparently to never come back, Emily lures back and after poisoning him with arsenic, keeps his body in her bedroom until the day that she dies and is found by the townsfolk.

In all, Emily is a scared soul whose loneliness and co-dependent upbringing led her to remain socially unfit, and unable to make healthy human connections.

What type of protagonist is Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” falls very much into the genre of macabre literature. The tale of a woman from a once-prosperous family who was isolated from society by an overprotective father and who essentially kidnaps the one man to whom she gives herself, keeping his dead body in her bed for eternity, involves a category of protagonist that departs from the conventional wisdom regarding character classification. “Protagonist,” as opposed to “antagonist,” suggests positive features in a character, while “antagonist” would seem to imply a villainous character. At minimum, an antagonist is a character determined to prevent the protagonist from succeeding at a presumably positive endeavor. Emily, however, is not a positive character; on the contrary, she is far from admirable in any way, existing as a reclusive figure who, in Faulkner’s day, would have been referred to as a spinster known as much for her failure to pay her taxes as for her “failure” to wed.

Miss Emily Grierson is the protagonist of Faulkner’s story. She is the kind of protagonist, though, who embodies no particular traits for which to commend her. She is the protagonist simply because she is the central character in Faulkner’s story, and the figure whose actions propel the narrative. Emily is the kind of protagonist who is featured in stories about sociopaths and psychopaths—hardly the definition of protagonist that one would ordinarily expect.

What qualities and attitude define Miss Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

In William Faulkner`s A Rose for Emily, the protagonist, Miss Emily, is defined both in her own behaviour and in the way she is viewed by the older generation in the town, by her patrician background. Class, in this story as in many of Faulkner`s other works, has a major influence on the way people think and act. On the one hand, by virtue of her class, Miss Emily has a sense of entitlement (e.g. not paying taxes), but on the other hand, despite her background giving her a certain authority and freedom of action (she sees no need to pay attention to the opinions of those she considers inferior), her class background constrains her actions, in the types of people with whom she can associate and her sense of what constitutes proper behaviour, so, for example, by the code of her class background, killing an errant lover is not half as improper as taking a regular job in a shop.

How is the character of Emily portrayed in "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily Grierson is characterized as a sort of "fallen monument" after her death. She has been such a fixture in the town for so long, such a representative of a bygone era, that people seem to have a hard time imagining life without her there in her big, elaborate house. The narrator says that she "had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town." In fact, a nineteenth century mayor had once concocted an elaborate story simply so Miss Emily would not have to pay any taxes, as a sort of sign of respect to her late father and her own ladylike self. 

Later, when a horrible smell begins to emanate from Emily's home, town leaders cannot bring themselves to approach her openly about the smell, so they sneak onto her property at night to sprinkle lime into her cellars, dealing with it themselves. They do not want to have to talk to "a lady" about her smelling bad. Even then, she sits in her window, "her upright torso motionless as that of an idol." Again, she is compared to some kind of statue or carving: like a monument, she is still and rigid. Further, when a new generation comes up and tries to collect taxes, a few words from Miss Emily is enough to turn them away, disappointed but unwilling to press the matter any more. She is characterized as rather tough and stubborn, as well as quite intimidating. Even when people feel sorry for her because of her status as an old maid, or as a potentially insane person, she still manages to command respect.

Who is the main character in "A Rose for Emily"?

This is an interesting question with two possible and perhaps equally defensible answers. One could argue that Miss Emily Grierson is the main character of the story, certainly; however, one could also argue just as persuasively that the narrator is the main character of the story.

Obviously, the narrative details many events of Miss Emily's life, from her youth through her father's death and her relationship with Homer Barron to her development into an old woman who fits in with society even less than she did as a young woman. We see the conflict between her and her father as a young woman as well as the conflict between her and society as she grows older. However, we equally witness the reactions of the townspeople to her presence, or lack thereof, and by the time the climax of the story occurs—when the narrator describes how the townspeople discover the moldering corpse of Homer Barron in Miss Emily's bed—Miss Emily is already dead herself.

In many ways, we are encouraged to identify with the narrator more than with Miss Emily, who has closed herself off from the rest of society, and the reader's tendency to relate to the narrator helps lend credibility to the idea that the narrator is actually the story's main character rather than Emily herself.

What qualities define Miss Emily's character and behavior in "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily is from a proud Southern family. Her father is most responsible for shaping her character. He won't allow any men to date his daughter because he thinks none of them are good enough. Her father becomes the only person in her life. When he dies, she's so upset that she won't allow anyone to take his body out of the house for three days. At this point, Emily shuts herself off from the town for most of her life. Then she meets Homer Barron, a Yankee foreman who is paving the streets of the town. He is the only person Emily allows in her life. She takes buggy rides with him, and the town's ladies look down on her for her relationship with Homer. They never marry, and the narrator suggests that Emily is driven to murder because she's afraid Homer will leave her.

Regarding her taxes, Emily's father leaves her without any money, so Colonel Sartoris, the former mayor of the town, decides the town will take on the responsibility of paying her taxes to keep her from being embarrassed. Later in the story, new leaders of the town try to collect taxes from Emily and go to her house. Emily tells the men to talk to Sartoris, who has been dead for almost ten years. She sends the men away and gives them nothing.

What type of character is Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

When discussing Emily Grierson's characterization, it should be remembered that "A Rose for Emily" is told from the perspective of the larger community in which she inhabits (and a community from which she is held at a distance). This lends her character an enigmatic quality, as many of the relevant details of her life are implied in the narrative rather than depicted within it. This is very much a purposeful decision on Faulkner's part: in a way, Emily exists as an object of fascination more than anything else, a subject of rumor and hearsay, rarely interacting with the people from whose viewpoint the story is told.

From this perspective, I think Emily can be labeled a symbolic character as much as anything else, given the degree to which she is written as embodying the social culture and mores of the Old South (a world that is rapidly disappearing within the time period in which the story is set). Indeed, this sense by which Emily Grierson exists as a relic to a bygone age, and a direct link to a fading past, is a critical component as to why she is such an object of fascination within the community, even as she remains at a distance.

How is Emily portrayed at the start of "A Rose for Emily"?

"A Rose for Emily" begins with a sense of mystery. It begins with the death of our title character, Emily Grierson.  In fact, the audience learns that "Miss Emily" has been a mystery to the town for the years leading up to her death.  Her death gave the people in the town the chance to look into her house and look for answers to questions they've had for years. 

At the beginning we learn that her house had been nice, years ago, but years of disrepair have left the house, and its inhabitant to fall apart and become an eyesore.  Her taxes are also a mystery.  Tax records show that in 1894 mayor, Colonel Sartoris, remitted her taxes for an unknown reason.  Future mayors have trouble getting her to pay after this.

The opening gives many questions about Emily. This technique draws the reader in to continue reading to understand more bout her.

Who is the narrator, and what does he say about Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

In Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily," the narrator is unidentified, but he relates the story from the point of view of the townspeople.  He begins his story:

When Miss Emily died, our whole town went to her funeral:...

So we know he is a person from the town, since he uses "our." 

He tells us that Emily tried to keep her father's body in the home with her and did so for five days until she was somewhat forced to give it up.  He tells us she was courted by an outsider named Homer.  He tells us Emily bought rat poison.  He tells us that Homer disappeared, and then he tells us that after Emily died a skeleton was found in an upstairs bedroom of her home, as was a hair that matched Emily's, on a pillow beside the skeleton. 

He says many other things about Emily as well.  If you're looking for something other than what I've written, feel free to email me and I'll try to help.

How does William Faulkner portray the female character in "A Rose for Emily?"

One could argue that Faulkner at first does not portray Emily in the short story "A Rose for Emily" with much sympathy. For example, here is his grotesque description of her physical self: "She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue." Her grotesqueness is further emphasized when the story recounts that a foul smell begins to emerge from her house, one that the townspeople have to surreptitiously treat with lime.

However, as the story goes on, Faulkner's take on Emily is more sympathetic. Her story is deserving of pity, as her father drove away any eligible bachelors and the one man who took an interest in her, Homer Barron, seems to have left her. She is eventually forgotten as she ages, and she dies alone. When she dies and the townspeople unearth the skeleton of Homer Barron in a kind of bridal chamber in a sealed room, the scene is both grotesque and pitiable. Faulkner describes the dead man's body in the following way: "The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him." In other words, Emily poisoned her lover so that he would always remain true to her. Though this scene is grotesque in the true spirit of Gothic horror, it also presents Emily is a sympathetic light. Faulkner presents her as a sympathetic character who is so lonely that she kills her lover to make sure she is never alone. 

Provide a brief description of each character in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner.

I would add to the previous post that for a short story, the characters in this one are so complex.  The most important character is Miss Emily, and while she may be lonely, she is also a murderer!  She buys arsenic and makes sure that Homer doesn't leave her -- she is desparate for love and company.  The final detail of the story, the long gray hair on the pillow, suggests that she slept with the corpse of Homer for at least a couple of years after his death.

The narrator seems to be of the younger generation and knows that he has a great story to tell.  In giving us a stream of consciousness narration, we learn all the details, but don't learn the full weight of Miss Emily's story until the narrator wants us to, in the final lines.  He manages to create a sympathetic character in Miss Emily, even though we are shocked by her actions.  The other characters of the story all highlight the plight of Emily.  Her father was over-controlling; Homer was "not a marrying man;" her servant was loyal because a Negro in this time period knew better than to get mixed up in the murder/disappearance of white man. 

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the major characters are the narrator, Emily Grierson, Homer Barron, and Emily's father, although there are some other minor characters in the story.

The narrator remains unnamed throughout the story and takes on the first person plural voice of neighbors/spectators in the town.  The narrator knows much about Miss Emily's family background and is interested to see how her life turns out.

Emily Grierson is the daughter of a long line of Griersons who have lived in the town for generations.  Emily now lives alone since her father passed away some years ago.  She has one caretaker who looks after the yard and house, but she herself is rarely seen outside.  Emily is described as a lonely woman who was sheltered for much of her life by her father. 

Homer Barron is the man with whom Miss Emily eventually falls in love.  Homer is a worker from the North, so he does not know much about Emily's past.  One day, he decides to end their relationship, but Emily has other plans, and the end of the story suggests that she murders him.

Finally, Emily's father was very protective of his daughters and drove away any suitors that she might possibly have.  As a result, she continued living with him until he passed away.

In "A Rose for Emily," who is the narrator?

The short answer to that question is that nobody knows who the narrator is.  Or you could say that the only person who truly knows the narrator's identity is William Faulkner himself.  

The narrator remains unnamed for the entire story.  The narrator uses the collective pronoun "we" in reference to himself or herself.  It's not even known if the narrator is male or female.  "We" allows the narrator at times to be the collective voice of the town itself or the townspeople as a whole.  Critics also disagree on who exactly the narrator is.  Some say that he/she is a former lover of Emily's or even the town gossip.  There is some speculation that the narrator is Emily's servent -- Tobe.  This suggestion has some merit, because the narrator has a fairly intimate knowledge of Emily.  At times, the narrator refers to Emily as "Miss Emily," which sounds like the language a servant might use.  

At one point near the end of the story, the narrator switches over to the pronoun "they."  It's only briefly and very subtle, but it functions as a way to distance the narrator from the townsfolk.  The reader is meant to interpret this as a sign that whoever the narrator is, it is someone that cared for Emily more than a common townsperson.  

What is the characterization in "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily Grierson is the most drawn out character. She is described as an idol for the town to worship or tear down, an out-of-touch, isolated woman and the last member of a family whose time has passed.
Faulkner introduces the thread of insanity in her family to foreshadow the upcoming plot. What he leaves out, however, is an internal monologue to shed light on the thought process she undertakes. We see Emily only through her words and actions. Her dismissal of the town's progress show in her an inability to change. She is clinging to something and refuses to let go.

What are four striking characteristics of Miss Emily in "A Rose for Emily"?

NECROPHILIAC TENDENCY.  The surprising resting place of Homer Barron was not the first instance of Emily's handling of the bodies of men who were close to her. She had also held on to her father's corpse for several days until forced to surrender it by the authorities (though there is no evidence of sexual misconduct in this case).

IMPERIOUS ATTITUDE.  Miss Emily's unfriendly and haughty behavior always seemed to indicate that she considered herself better than the other residents of Jefferson.

HAIR.  Emily's hair is mentioned often--long, short, graying, iron-gray--and it becomes even more significant in the final scene.

ISOLATION FROM SOCIETY.  Emily was never a social butterfly, but her withdrawal into the hidden sanctity of her home confounded her neighbors. Rarely seen after Homer's disappearance, her decision to hide inside becomes more understandable in the final scene.

Who are the characters in "A Rose for Emily" and their descriptions?

Enotes gives a brief description of the characters and the story on the link below.  Here are some other ideas to get you started.

Miss Emily Grierson - she is the protagonist of the story.  The story spans a good portion of her life.  She is indepedent, unmarried, and stubborn.  She sticks to her families ways even when all of her family is gone. Her sanity is also in question because of what happens at the end of the story

Homer Barron - a love interest of Emily's.  He is a .man's man' - very popular, but he is not a gentleman.  

The cousins - Emily's cousins brought in by the town to try and 'fix' her behavior.  They are as the town says worse than Emily

The town - the narrator of the story is plural indicating the town.  The town is nosy and intrusive, but they are also intimidated by Miss Emily so they watch her from afar for most of the time.