In "A Rose For Emily," was the ending surprising or were you expecting it? Why?

I was surprised because as a reader I was unprepared for this ending. 

In Part IV of the story, the narrators mention having seen Miss Emily "purchase a man's toilet set in silver with the letter H. B. on each piece, and she bought a complete outfit of men's clothing, including a nightshirt and we said, 'They are married."  These narrators, then, are "not surprised" when Homer Barron is gone the first time because the streets have been finished and the assumption is made that he has returned to the North to prepare for Emily's arrival.  Three days later, Barron does return to town.  So, when Homer again is not seen and Emily appears alone in the windows  and does not leave her house for months, again the townspeople "are not surprised."

With the narrators' explanations of events and their saying "we were not surprised," the reader tends to accept this assessment of events.  And, when the "Negro" continues "going in and out with the market basket" and the old routine of Emily's life is apparently restored, the reader is not prepared for the horrific ending.  Even though Faulkner hints at Emily's abnormalities--"perverse"-- he distracts the reader with other words such as "impervious, dear, and tranquil" in describing her. 

Having been raised as a lady in the tradition of the Old South, Emily's having committed murder seems out of character, as well--much like the shock the viewer has when learning that the genteel, "dear and tranquil" aunts have been giving their guests poison in "Arsenic and Old Lace."

In "A Rose For Emily," was the ending surprising or were you expecting it? Why?

I have read this story several times over the years, and of course I am no longer surprised by the ending. However, I believe I was surprised and that every reader must be surprised by Faulkner's skillful plotting. He makes it quite clear to the reader that Emily Grierson intends to murder Homer Barron by creating a scene in which she goes into a drugstore to buy arsenic. The perceptive reader naturally suspects that she intends to use it on her lover, but a really perceptive reader might suspect that Faulkner has a hidden purpose for planting such a conspicuous clue.

The druggist sells Emily arsenic while her two female cousins from Alabama are visiting her. Emily just stares at him when he tells her that the law requires her to tell him why she is buying it. He backs down without an answer and writes ‘‘for rats’’ on the box. (eNotes Study Guide)

Then the anonymous narrator describes a strange smell coming from the house. It is so offensive that people complain to the authorities, but nothing is done and eventually the smell goes away. Here again the perceptive reader assumes the smell was caused by a decaying corpse, which it was.

But what the reader is not prepared for, because Faulkner has been planting misleading clues, is the discovery that this dignified, aristocratic old lady has been sleeping with the rotting corpse of Homer Barron ever sincce she murdered him years earlier. That is the real surprise ending. It is created mainly by the discovery of one of Emily Grierson's gray hairs on the other pillow. The reader realizes that she was completely insane and can imagine her sleeping beside the corpse and finally beside the skeleton every night.

And on the bed was “the man himself,” with a “profound and fleshless grin.” Although never mentioned by name, the fleshless skeleton, in the position of an endless embrace, is that of Homer Barron. Next to his head is a second pillow, with the “indentation of another head,” and on it is a “long strand of iron-gray hair.” (eNotes Study Guide)

What is the surprise ending in "A Rose for Emily"?

The surprise ending stems from the fact that Miss Emily has not been sleeping alone.
We get clues throughout the work - probably the most important the smell that comes from Miss Emily's house after Homer disappears. The use of chloride of lime (applied by the helpful villagers) to cover the smell was commonly used in slave ship vessels to help mask the odor of decaying people.
After Miss Emily's death the body of someone else - doubtlessly Homer- is found on a bed. The indentation on the pillow next to the body as well as the strand of grey hair, tell us that Homer has not been resting there alone. The gruesome conclusion can only be that Miss Emily has been keeping the dead Homer company all thee years.

What is the surprise ending in "A Rose for Emily"?

After Miss Emily was placed buried, a room above the stairs at Miss Emily's, which has not been opened for years, is forced open.

An "acrid pall as of the tomb" seemed to lie on everything in the room, including "upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured," as well as upon a man's suit of clothes.

And on the bed was "the man himself," with a "profound and fleshless grin." Although never mentioned by name, the fleshless skeleton, in the position of an endless embrace, is that of Homer Barron. Next to his head is a second pillow, with the "indentation of another head," and on it is a "long strand of iron-gray hair."

Also, with the ending, Faulkner also forces the reader to reexamine the narration from the very beginning for the continual hints of Barron's fate that he offers.

How is the conflict resolved at the end of "A Rose for Emily"?

The conflict that contributes to the tension in William Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" is the enigma surrounding the life of Miss Emily as an eccentric and antiquated character within a place which is changing towards the future.

This enigma permeates the story, and colors the character of Emily in a diversity of shades: scary, strange, mysterious, sad, melancholic, lonely, haughty, and stubborn. Although nobody really knows Emily personally, the townsfolk narrator offers all of these descriptors as the observations that the people from Jefferson have bestowed upon Emily based merely on either hearsay, or on the rare instances when they are able to take a glimpse of this interesting woman.

Along the narrative we realize that Emily's life has not lacked obstacles: her father dominated her, and his death crippled her mentally. She is also limited by the fact that she once belonged to a good, aristocratic background only to have fallen from grace with the passing of time. Moreover, Emily is unable to change. If anything, the biggest obstacle that Emily has in life, is herself.

However, happy tidings did go her way with the entrance of Homer Barron into her life. As the narrator says, the people actually felt shocked but happy to know that Miss Emily has found a companion. A man whom nobody liked, Homer was still seen as company for an otherwise lonely woman.

Yet, the enigma of Emily comes to a boiling point when a strange smell begins to emanate from her home. After the town's aldermen just went and took care of it, it is said that Emily rarely ever left her home again. In the end, the narrator explains, Emily's death resulted in the first time that the people could actually enter her home. There, they saw that in one of the bedrooms the corpse of Homer Barron had been laying dead for years and that Emily had been sharing the bed with such a corpse. Hence, it is this discovery that ends the enigma that constitutes the conflict and point of tension of the story.