What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner?

In "A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the protagonist lives a solitary existence.  There were many things that caused Emily Grierson to be alone most of her life.  Miss Emily was a product of her environment.

In literature, the conflict moves the story forward.  It is what the protagonist must face and hopefully defeat if the story is to end in his/her favor.  Emily lived in a society that found her interesting but unacceptable.

What creates Emily’s conflict with society?

Her father demanded Emily’s full attention as his companion.  Because he refused to allow her to have suitors, he forever doomed her to a solitary life.  By the time that he died and she was able to have “gentleman callers,” Emily was past her prime.  There were no men to call on her.

Emily would not allow the help of outsiders, particularly when her father died.  Acting in a peculiar manner, Emily refused to let them take the body for three days.  She did not accept their condolences and shut herself away for several months. 

Society observes Emily rather than intercedes or interacts to help her.  They see the things that happen to her and gossip, make judgments, and sit back and wait.  They know about the things in the upstairs room but do nothing. As the narrator tells the reader, they were waiting for her to die.

Insanity had previously shown its ugly head before in her family. 

That was when people had begun to feel really sorry for her. People in our town, remembering how old lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.  So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.

The townspeople excused her behavior because they thought that she was crazy.  Sadly, no one in town helped her. 

The new generation did not understand the Old South’s genteel life in which Emily had been raised.  In the past times, women were venerated, petted, and idealized.  Doing menial labor or engaging in business was considered improper for a lady.  Colonel Sartoris took care of Emily’s taxes because he knew that she could not afford to pay them. 

In the last years of her life, the new council harassed Emily about her taxes.  They bombarded her with letters and then a meeting.  At the meeting, Emily told them that she had no taxes since the colonel who had been dead for many years took care of them for her.  This should have been a sign as to her mental state.

Clearly, Emily Grierson’s conflict with society was only resolved by her death.

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner?

One of the story's many conflicts you might like to consider is that between past and present. The townsfolk are as trapped in the past as Emily herself. They look upon Emily as a symbol of a supposedly glorious pre-war era: a time of stability, order, and gracious Southern living. Because of this idealization of the past, the people of the town cannot adequately deal with the present.

On a more mundane level, this means that Emily gets a pass for her rudeness and eccentricity. It even means that she's not required to pay the long-overdue taxes that she owes the authorities. But on a darker, more sinister level, the chronic inability of the townsfolk to move on from the past leads to their ignoring the unpleasant smells emanating from Emily's house—smells that in due course will reveal a sordid secret that could, and should, have been uncovered much earlier.

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner?

All literature involves conflict of some kind. Without conflict, there is not much of a story. There are four types of conflict. Most works will involve more than one. In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner employs all four. The types of conflict are:

1. Man* v. Man
2. Man v. Nature
3. Man v. Society
4. Man v. Self.

*Note: “Man” refers to both men and women.

1. Man v. Man

There are two primary man v. man conflicts in the story.

Emily v. Her Father

Emily’s father deliberately keep his daughter single by chasing away all her suitors:

None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father 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. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized (II.25).

Emily v. Homer

There are both class and social conflicts between Emily and Homer. Emily is of Southern aristocracy, while Homer is a day laborer. Emily is desperate for marriage, while Homer is not ready to settle down.

So the next day we all said, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said, “She will marry him.” Then we said, “She will persuade him yet,” because Homer himself had remarked—he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club—that he was not a marrying man (IV.43).

2. Man v. Society

When an individual’s values and needs conflict with society’s values and needs, conflict results. There are three types of “man v. society” conflicts in “A Rose for Emily.”

Emily v. Aldermen

When Emily’s father was alive, he paid the property taxes on their home; he arranged for his friend, Colonel Sartoris, to continue paying the taxes after his passing on behalf of his daughter. After the colonel’s death, the younger generation was no longer interested in maintaining their “hereditary obligation.” For her part, Emily feels no sense of duty to pay the taxes herself.

When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. February came, and there was no reply. They wrote her a formal letter, asking her to call at the sheriff's office at her convenience. A week later the mayor wrote her himself, offering to call or to send his car for her, and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink, to the effect that she no longer went out at all. The tax notice was also enclosed, without comment (I.4).

Emily vs. Public Acceptability

There are two areas of Emily’s private life encroaching on the public, and the public finds her choices unacceptable.

The first is her outings with Homer. The town views her suitor as beneath her:

At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige—without calling it noblesse oblige. They just said, “Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her.” She had some kin in Alabama; but years ago her father had fallen out with them over the estate of old lady Wyatt, the crazy woman, and there was no communication between the two families. They had not even been represented at the funeral (III.31).

The second is the smell that begins wafting from her home and becomes increasingly intolerable:

The next day he received two more complaints, one from a man who came in diffident deprecation. “We really must do something about it, Judge. I'd be the last one in the world to bother Miss Emily, but we’ve got to do something.” That night the Board of Aldermen met--three graybeards and one younger man, a member of the rising generation.

“It’s simple enough,” he said. “Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don’t . . .”

“Dammit, sir,” Judge Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?”

So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings (II.21-24).

3. Man v. Nature

At the turn of the twentieth century, an unmarried woman past the age of thirty had very few chances of ever finding a husband. Aging is not helping Emily's prospects, and whatever beauty she may have had is fading fast. Here is a description of her appearance when the aldermen pay her a visit:

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 (I.6).

4. Man v. Himself

For Emily, the entire story is one large internal conflict. She has suitors and seems interested, but her father chases them away. She must experience some conflict when she dates Homer, a man well beneath her social station. The most obvious conflict she has is whether to let the man with whom she has fallen in love go or keep him with her. Forever.

The man himself lay in the bed.

For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. 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. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.

Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner?

Let us first establish that the story "A Rose for Emily, as it is the case with many other stories, presents more than just one conflict.  

A conflict is the confrontation of two opposing forces, one of them being the main character, and the other being either natural or supernatural forces that directly oppose the success of the main character in achieving a specific goal. 

In "A Rose for Emily", the eponymous main character is actually a victim of her circumstances. Struggling alone to fit in a changing world, Emily is left to her own devices to try and manage life the best way she knows how. But, is it effective? Is that "enough"?

Other conflicts that emerge from the story include Emily versus the changing society of Jefferson County, and Emily versus her kinsfolk; the cousins from Alabama that are always asked to meddle in Emily's life. However, out of all the conflicts in the story, the one which stands out the most is that of Emily versus herself. 

The conflict of Emily versus Emily is simple: Her oppressive upbringing, combined with the inevitability of social change, has made the woman into an outcast. The irony is that she has definitely tried, over and over, to come out into society as a "normal" citizen. We know that, at least once, Emily has either changed her looks, or opened her home to the public. She even takes the risk of being seen in the company of Homer Barron! We cannot say that she has not at least "tried" to catch up. However, nothing is ever enough. She never gets to make the full transition into normalcy. As such, the story of her life ends the way that it starts: alone, and in isolation. 

The phrase that best encompasses the conflict, aside from the constant "Poor Emily" that we see the townsfolk narrator say over and over in relation to our main character,  is the following excerpt that attempts to explain Emily's nature: One which is complex and misunderstood. It is a nature so profoundly impacted by the wrong kind of paternal love that it debilitated, rather than empowered, an otherwise normal woman. 

We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.

Hence, the phrase entails that Emily was robbed of her opportunities to be a normal woman. Her father's insistence in keeping her isolated from the "lesser folk", and the ingrained idea that the Grierson clan was better than everyone else, made Emily grow codependent on her father. After his death, Emily was left with the few defense mechanisms that she was able to learn on her own. They were obviously not enough. However, as the excerpt says, "she has to cling to that which has robbed her". 

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" and who is the antagonist?

I think an important question to ask before we discuss the antagonist is who is the protagonist? In response to your question, I would actually argue that Miss Emily Grierson is the antagonist and that the first-person plural "we" who narrates the story is the protagonist. The plot does convey portions of Miss Emily's life, but it more closely follows the thought processes and reactions of the community to Miss Emily's actions. This is one major reason why the story is not told in chronological order. If the narration followed Miss Emily's life's events, rather than the community's response to the events which it can observe, then it seems more likely that it would be written in the order in which she lived them, and it would likely have been revealed to us much sooner that she murdered Homer Barron with poison. However, because her community is the real protagonist, the narrative discusses events as and when they understand them, rather than when they actually take place.

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" and who is the antagonist?

An antagonist can refer to a person, a group of people, an institution, a situation, or any circumstance that opposes the protagonist or lead character in a literary work. In terms of this definition, the lead character, Miss Emily Grierson, is opposed by many.

The city authorities are definitely antagonists. They have constantly been harassing her about unpaid taxes. Miss Emily, however, refuses to give in to their demands and states that she has no taxes and that the authorities have to speak to Colonel Sartoris, the town mayor who originally exempted her from paying any taxes because her father had lent the town some money. The colonel has long passed away, but Miss Grierson refuses to budge. The authorities send her a tax notice every year until her death without ever getting a positive response.

The townspeople, especially Miss Emily's neighbors, are also antagonists. They perpetually gossip about her and continuously express disdain about her and the fact that the Griersons hold "themselves a little too high." The inhabitants are clearly jealous of the family and vent their resentment and ill-feeling behind closed doors. Their expressions of pity whenever she encounters some misfortune are mere platitudes and more condescending than sincere.

Some of her neighbors lodge complaints against her for the stench emanating from her house. This encourages the authorities to send out men to secretly inspect her premises and saturate them with lime. The unpleasant smell eventually disappears.

Miss Emily's two cousins can also be seen as antagonists since their sole purpose seems to be to restrict her freedom. The text also suggests that she finds their presence an unwelcome intrusion. We are informed:

... to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins. (By that time it was a cabal, and we were all Miss Emily's allies to help circumvent the cousins.)

This is patent evidence that she does not want them around and that she wants to focus on Homer Barron's interest in her. Homer's declaration that he is not the marrying kind might make him an antagonist. Miss Emily obviously likes him or even, in her own way, loves him. When she realizes that he has misled her (or perhaps that she has misled herself) and that he will not be hers, she decides to permanently claim at least his body by killing him with arsenic and sleeping next to his corpse.

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" and who is the antagonist?

Emily Grierson is the protagonist, aka the main character, of the short story "A Rose for Emily." The tale opens with the death of the main character, but through the narrator's reflections, we learn the gruesome and sad details of her lonely life.

Emily suffered two losses one right after the other. Her father died, and shortly after, the man she thought she would spend her life with left her. These events caused Emily to become a recluse which meant the town folk never saw her out and about. She kept a servant that ran errands and cooked for her so she never had to leave the house. Her entire narrative became speculation and gossip.

On top of the physical loss of her father, financially, she fell on hard times after his passing. Colonial Sartoris, the mayor at the time, felt bad for her and made up a lie about a loan to ensure she had enough money to live. Once a well-known name in the aristocracy, Emily now is bordering poverty and spends her hours locked away in her home. Her only companion becomes Homer Barron, the foreman of a town construction project. Their relationship was the talk of the town before and after her death as they find his body rotting in a bed in her home.

What is the conflict in "A Rose for Emily" and who is the antagonist?

One could argue that there are several antagonistic forces at work in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily."  First, the obvious antagonist in the story is the culture of the town that impedes Miss Emily's character and causes her to live as a recluse.  She appears to not want to be judged by the townspeople and as a result closes herself off from them.

However, other forces in the story are antagonistic such as Homer Barron and Emily's father.  These men attempt to form and mold Emily according to their own whims and beliefs.  They do nothing to nurture her character.  But Emily is perhaps her own antagonist--she cannot deal with her personal sense of loneliness, and she allows her feelings to consume her.  Loneliness leads Miss Emily to commit murder and from this she never recovers.

What is the main conflict in "A Rose for Emily"?

I'm not sure you can pinpoint a single conflict in "A Rose for Emily." Emily's refusal to adhere to the changing world around her is a general problem that seems to affect her throughout her life. She considers herself a little better than everyone else, and the townspeople believed that

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

This attitude is evident in the major conflicts of the story: She refuses to pay her taxes because her father had been exempted many years before. Her last-ditch desire to marry leads her to courting the Yankee commoner, Homer Barron--a man of whom her father would never approve. She flaunts their courtship in the face of the disapproving townspeople; and she kills Homer after he refuses to marry her, keeping the body close to her--a perverse decision by any standard. 

What are the contrasts and oppositions in "A Rose for Emily"?

In addition to the very good oppositions identified by the previous two posters, you may also be interested in exploring a less concrete opposition in William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily": the known versus the unknown.

This opposition structures the entire story. The collective narrator and the reader are not in on the complete truth from the story's start. As many posters have commented in other, earlier enotes.com posts on this short story, the reader -- much like the townsfolk -- has to piece together information iand make a number of assumptions n order to make sense of the story.

One previous poster on your question identitied the opposition of downstairs versus upstairs. Couple that with the opposition of known versus unknown and you pretty much have the core structure of this Southern Gothic tale,

What are the contrasts and oppositions in "A Rose for Emily"?

Male vs. Female: our collective narrator(s) are male, and Emily is female.

South vs. North: Emily, a Southerner, marries Homer Baron, a Northerner

Past vs. Present: Emily lives in a fantasy world of the past, where her father and the Old South are still alive.  The house, too, used to be the grandest on the block; now, it is a decrepit, smelly eyesore

Appearance vs. Reality: Emily appears to be an eccentric miser, but in reality, she is mentally disturbed, a necrophiliac.

White vs. Black: Emily, white, only lets one person inside her home, a black handyman, who is basically a mute--showing the powerlessness of blacks in the South.

Aristocracy vs. Working Class: Emily thinks she is of the aristocracy, the Chevalier culture of the Old South, a Southern Belle; she marries a working class construction worker from the North because no one else would have her.

Gay vs. Straight: Homer is obviously gay; who knows what Emily is... But it's an odd marriage, to say the least.

Upstairs vs. Downstairs: guests used to be admitted, but only to the downstairs parlor; no one was allowed upstairs to see the unholy bridal suite.

What are the contrasts and oppositions in "A Rose for Emily"?

The main contrasts that are shown in "A Rose for Emily" relate to the social classes and changing world of the south.  Emily's family used to be the upper echelon of society, at the top of the social ladder.  They were rich, they were respected and held in awe, and they were exempt from typical regulations and expectations as a result.  Emily would only marry the best, and their family would only have the best.  However, this type of thinking was quickly becoming outdated and old-fashioned in a world that was modernizing itself.  The old upper-class of the south, which had been centered mostly around wealth from plantations, was a time period that was gone.  Emily's family was the last of the last of these types of families in the town.

Throughout the entire story, Faulkner constrasts Emily's haughty attitude with the reality of the situation.  Her mind and behaviors are stuck in the past with the elitism of her family, whereas everyone and everything around her had moved on.  The town became modern, but she stayed old-fashioned.  The town remodeled itself, but her and her house remained the same, becoming victims to age and wear, ending up decrepit and a joke, an old relic in a town that liked new things.  The contrast fuels much of the storyline and tension--Emily's refusal to align her expectations leads to her dismissal of the townspeople who demand taxes.  Her stubbornness in regards to Homer Barron leads to his demise and her isolation.  Her snobbery, contrasted with the lack of it in the social classes in the town, lead to her ostracization and alienation.   These contrasts are a crucial part of the plot and suspense.  I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!

What is the conflict between Emily and her father in "A Rose for Emily"?

As with many facts and details about Miss Emily, the particulars about her conflict with her father are sparse. We must read between the lines to decipher what Faulkner wants us to know. Two passages from the story hint at Emily's relationship to her father. First, the narrator describes the "tableau" that encapsulated the community's impression of them. In this tableau, the father is silhouetted in the foreground, holding a whip, and Emily, wearing white, stands behind. Both are framed by the open door of the house. This suggests an abusive relationship. One might wonder whether the father sexually abused his daughter, but certainly there was a measure of at least emotional abuse and very possibly physical abuse as well. It's clear that the father wanted to reserve Emily for himself; he wouldn't allow her to date because "none of the men were quite good enough."

In the second pertinent passage, we learn that Emily denied her father's death for three days. When at last she allowed her father's corpse to be taken, "she broke down," and "she was sick for a long time." Here the narrator speaks for the citizens when he states that "we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will." This clinging to one's abuser is what we now call "Stockholm syndrome." By living under threat of severe harm, a captive—in this case, Emily—comes to appreciate the captor and takes on that person's goals as her own. Thus Emily couldn't allow anyone to take her dead father from her at first, and years later and until her death, she kept a portrait of her father in her living room. And just as her father drove all her suitors away, she disposes of Homer Barron—even as she tries to hold on to him the way she tried to hold on to her father.

From hints in the story, we can surmise that Emily's father was overly possessive of her, emotionally abusive, and possibly physically and or sexually abusive. The extreme trauma Emily endured from her father resulted in Stockholm syndrome and no doubt precipitated or at least aggravated her insanity.

What is the conflict between Emily and her father in "A Rose for Emily"?

Emily Grierson suffers under the authority and supervision of her strict, oppressive father, who prevents her from developing genuine, healthy relationships with men her age. The conflict between Emily and her father concerns her independence, which is stifled by her father's domineering nature. The tableau of the Grierson family represents Emily's father's authoritative demeanor as he stands in front of his daughter's slender figure holding a horsewhip. Emily's father is portrayed as a proud, overbearing man who believes that nobody is good enough for his daughter. As a result, Emily never dates anyone and is under the constant supervision of her stern father. Emily's lack of social interaction negatively affects her mind as well as her ability to maintain healthy, romantic relationships as a grown woman. The citizens of Jefferson also mention that Emily was still single at the age of thirty and refused to acknowledge her father's death until three days after he died. Emily's oppressive life under her father's authority dramatically impacts her mental health as an older woman, which is emphasized by the fact that she poisons the first man who she genuinely cares for outside of her father. The crayon portrait of Emily's father that sits before the fireplace and is positioned by her grave symbolically represents Emily's father's constant presence and influence in his daughter's life.

What is the conflict between Emily and her father in "A Rose for Emily"?

The relationship between Emily and her father should not be described as "conflicting", but rather as "codependent". The once-"mighty" Griersons were led by their patriarch, Mr. Grierson. From what we learn from the story, this was a very dominant man whose only daughter, Emily, became the epicentre of his life. A combination of Old South male-dominance combined with Emily's gender, made him a very jealous and over-protective father.

Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father 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.

The downside of what could have been a healthy father/daughter relationship is that, as a result of the co-dependence of allowing the father rule her life, Emily lost many opportunities to become independent, or even to marry a good man. As a result, she ages alone, eccentric, and enigmatic.

So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.

This means that, had Emily had better chances and more opportunities to develop, she may have turned out quite differently. Therefore, it is co-dependence, rather than conflict, what has turned Emily's life into what it now is.

What contrasts and oppositions are developed in "A Rose for Emily"?

I am a bit unclear on your question but I will try.

The town of Jefferson has a strict social structure. This structure has changed a bit over time, yet Emily's family has lived in a state of suspended development. This is one contrast. The townsfolk and their leaders have progressed somewhat yet Emily and Tobe live in a cocoon as if no time has passed.

There is a contrasting opposition between the Grierson family and the rest of the town. Emily's family has fallen from its lofty position, yet Emily does not seem to recognize this. The growing resentment between Emily and the town is seen in the cruel pleasure the town feels as she falls from grace.

The other oppositions and contrasts such as the racial divide and the lingering conflict with the North are evident.

What is the main conflict in "A Rose for Emily"?

One conflict in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is recounted through the narrator's retrospective stance. He describes how Emily Grierson had long been a prominent citizen of the town, but as she grew older, she became more and more out of step with the inevitable changes that time brings. She failed to understand and accept, for instance, that the gentleman's agreement that her father had enjoyed with regard to his tax liability was no longer recognized by the town government. This conflict could be thought of as "man v. society."

The conflict that takes place between Emily Grierson and Homer Barron is only evidenced by Homer Barron's presence, then absence, from Emily Grierson's life until his skeleton is found in her home. It is not known exactly what transpired between them to precipitate her murdering him, but it is implied that he was not going to marry her, thus in her mind compromising her social reputation. This can be seen as "man v. man."

A final way to see conflict in the story is perhaps as "man v. himself." It is arguable that Emily Grierson was in conflict with herself. Presumably, she had the intelligence to know that times had changed, even if she she did not want to let go of the old ways of her genteel upbringing. In resisting the inevitable social changes of the postwar South, Emily Grierson severely limited her existence and created a legacy that ensured that she would not be remembered fondly or with respect.

In "A Rose for Emily," who is the antagonist to Miss Emily?

The collective town of Jefferson could be considered the antagonist throughout the short story "A Rose for Emily." The citizens of the town view Emily as a peculiar, intriguing individual and do not genuinely seem to care about her. Despite the fact that Homer Barron brings Emily happiness, they disapprove of her relationship and talk behind her back. They feel that Emily is too good for a Northern laborer and even petition a Baptist minister to talk to Emily after she agrees to marry Homer. The newer generation of aldermen also confront Emily about not paying her taxes, and they do not investigate the disappearance of Homer. The town members also sit idly by as Emily struggles with her mental illness. They do not offer her help or support of any kind and choose to watch her from a distance. 

In "A Rose for Emily," who is the antagonist to Miss Emily?

If one were to name an antagonist, I think it would have to be the Old Southern Traditional society. Emily, as a member of a family with high social standing, has certain expectations placed on her by society. She is not expected to work, but to marry well and have a family. However, he father prevented her marriage to anyone while he was alive. He leaves he little money and she is no longer young when he dies. Thus, the expectations of the town are really unrealistic. When she takes up with Homer Barron, everyone expects they will marry in spite of his statement that he "likes men." This puts Emily is a real bind. She has no money, a boyfriend who won't marry her and a town who expects her to marry. Yet they provide little support and much judgement about her behavior. Therefore, there is little wonder she took matters into her own hands and lost some of her sanity because no one took the time to approach her on a close level.

Who are two antagonists in "A Rose for Emily" and what conflicts do they create?

In the story, "A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, there are several antagonists towards Miss Emily the protagonist. The intitian antagonist would have to be Miss Emily’s father, who was so controlling that he drove any potential suitors away. The image of him in the doorway with the whip and Miss Emily in the background is disturbing in its ambiguity, but it clearly indicates his level control. This unwillingness to let Miss Emily form natural attachements is what lead her to revert to a childlike nature and to live the life of a recluse for so long after her father died. Another antagonist to Miss Emily would be Homer Baron. He was her rather questionable beau, and while he indicated he was not a marrying type of man, he certainly did not make that clear to Miss Emily. He continued to engage in activities that most people of the time would consider courting, and this he should not have done if his intentions were not sincere. This lead to the talk and gossip in town, and with that talk, the only thing Miss Emily had left, her reputation, was destroyed. She could not allow the town’s people to think she had been rejected, and this is what lead her to become a murderess.

How does "A Rose for Emily" depict the human heart in conflict with itself?

There is certainly plenty of conflict in this excellent short story, both internal and external. However, the conflict that I think your question alludes to is the internal conflict that goes on in Miss Emily herself, a character that we only get to see through the eyes of other people and never from her own perspective. We are but given tantalising glimpses of her background, that mostly focuses on gossip and hearsay, however, one distinct memory that we are given is the strict and authoritarian way in which her father raised her, scaring away any suitors with his whip:

We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in teh forground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.

It is clear from this "tableau" that Miss Emily had a very difficult childhood in a sense, and was kept isolated from forming human attachments with others thanks to her father. However, as the story progresses, we continue to see how Miss Emily becomes ever more stranded from the rest of humanity, and how, in a sense, she is already living a life that is dead, as her description as a "bloated" corpse, "like a body long submerged in motionless water," indicates. As we discover the grisly murder that she committed we realise the conflict that Miss Emily has undergone. Having had love denied to her for so long, she finally receives it, only to face losing it. Her desire for companionship of any kind, whatever the price, is evident in the strands of grey hair that adorn the pillow next to the corpse of Homer Barron. Through killing him, she gains him, but also marks her own exit from the world through her corpse-like appearance. Love is so strong sometimes that it expresses itself in acts of violence, and even of murder.

What contrasts and oppositions are developed in "A Rose for Emily"?

There are several thematic oppositions present in Faulkner's Gothic narrative, "A Rose for Emily":

The New South vs. the Old South

• Emily Grierson is raised under the patriarchal values of the Old South, sheltered from the contemporary world while her father lives, a time in which other men such as Colonel Sartoris cover afford them exception from paying taxes and other political favors. Lost in this era, she is described by the townspeople as "a fallen monument,"

a tradition, a duty, and a care:  a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town

• Emily later teaches china painting, an art taught to the daughters of the South; however, once the parents who remember this era are gone, there are no longer any students for Miss Emily and she closes her doors, only "the Negro man went in and out with the market basket" and Emily is not seen.
• When there is a strange and terrible odor emanating from Miss Emily's house, the town leader, Judge Stevens replies in words from the Old Southern culture,

"Dammit...will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"

• At Emily's funeral, there is the portraiture of her father yet looming over her, exerting its old influence, and 

the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men--some in their brushed confederate uniforms--...talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs....

The North vs. the South

• The appearance of Homer Barron, a Yankee, escorting Miss Emily after she has been sick for a long time subsequent to her father's death causes various reactions from the townspeople:

At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer." 

But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige....

• Miss Emily's Alabama relatives arrive to dissuade her from consorting with a Yankee, and Homer Barron "was gone."

Emily vs. the Community

• Perceived as from another era, Emily is an anomaly in her own town. For, the townspeople view her askance as she has lived a reclusive and repressive life under the patriarchy of her father; furthermore, after his death, when Emily contends that he is not dead for three days, then breaks down, the townspeople believe that Emily has felt compelled 

...to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.

• When Emily is seen with Homer Barron, many in the town disapprove.  Then, after she orders arsenic, they believe she will kill herself.
• Emily secludes herself from society except for a short time that she gives lessons in china painting. After that

...she passed from generation to generation--dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.

Emily vs. Patriarchy

• Repressed by her father, who has dismissed all her suitors when she was young, Emily seeks love with Homer Barron, but when he departs for a time, she acts in the same pattern as her behavior after her father's death: she "cling[s] to that which had robbed her, as people will" and revolts against losing another beau. In tragic action, Emily holds onto this last beau, if only in death.

In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," what is the main conflict?

The main conflict in this story may not be the most obvious one, but it is past versus the present.

Miss Emily is part of the antebellum South. Her home "had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies" but now it was "an eyesore among eyesores."

In the old days, people looked out for one another. When Miss Emily must accept charity, a story is concocted to keep her from being taxed. But, "(w)hen the next gerneration, with its more modern ideas became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatification."

Faulkner carefully let's us see that the past isn't all good, the present not all bad. The slavery issue is of course, wrong, and Miss Emily's family complicit in its continuation. It is a good thing for it to have ended.

The conflict in the present, now, is that people have comes so distanced from one another. Faulkner makes the whole town complicit in their ignoring of human need and kindness. For example, in Part IV: So the next day we all said, She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing."

There are other conflicts in the story: Miss Emily vs. Homer, Miss Emily vs. her own past, loneliness and human need. But the past and the present, for me, is most compelling.

What is the central conflict in "A Rose for Emily"?

If you are asking about the turning point of the plot, the climax, then the death of Emily is that moment.  Everything is revelaed then, and the townspeople are finally able to piece together the truth of Emily's life and person based  upon the remains left in the house.

What is the central conflict in "A Rose for Emily"?

The major conflict on which the plot turns is the struggle of the individual versus community.  The narrator of this work is a cooperate narrator representing the townspeople.  They look on with curiosity as Miss Emily lives her life, but they choose to avoid any direct contact.  When they see problems such as her relationship with Homer, her dead father, or the odor coming from her house, they 'draw straws' to see who will have to deal with her, and they always choose the path of least resistance.  Miss Emily continues to live in her proud and independent way making herself a mystery.  She refuses any interaction as well.  The refusal to interact on both sides hides the truth of the horrible conclusion until Miss Emily's demise.

In "A Rose for Emily," how do the character’s traits lead to conflict?

One good way to look at this is to think about the main conflicts that occur in the story.  There is the conflict of Emily not giving up her father's body, the conflict of the alluded to fact that Homer was "not the marrying kind," and so probably was going to leave Emily, and the conflict with the aldermen about the taxes and the smell.  So, if you look at each one of these conflicts you can tie them to a character's personality traits that led that conflict.

Emily's reliance upon her father's care and love, and her father's over-sheltering of her, led to her refusing to give up her father's body.  Emily was naive, sheltered, and overly-reliant on her father's presence.  This trait led to that conflict.  Her father being a bit of a southern snob, and sheltering Emily too much tied into it also.

Homer Barron probably not sticking around to be Emily's beau can be tied to his lack of desire to marry, and to the fact that it was hinted that "he liked men."  His not wanting to be with her probably led to the conflict of her old abandonment issues flaring up.  Because Emily had the traits of abandonment issues in the first place, and possibly the family genetics of some crazy genes, Homer died.

The clashing between her and the alderment over the taxes and the smell can be linked to her trait of having southern pride, haughtiness, and ignorance.

If you look at the conflicts in the story closely, each one can be tied to the traits of Miss Emily, and other key players in the storyline.  I hope that those thoughts help a bit; good luck!