The Victim in Emily Grierson in "A Rose for Emily"

In short stories, victims are usually portrayed as the villain of the story, but in reality, they’re the complete opposite. The media always has a tendency to villainize victims, such as Tamir Rice, who was shown to the public as a gun-slinging 12 year old loose in Cleveland, when in reality, he held a toy rifle and was playing in the park. In works of literature such as “Caught in Albuquerque”, the women of the story are always villainized, when they in fact are the victims. In the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Mrs. Emily Grierson is portrayed as the villain, but when the story is further examined, it’s revealed that she truly isn’t a villain. To some people’s chagrin, she is the victim of the story.

Emily Grierson is portrayed as a villain in the short story, when in reality, she is an old woman, who once loved a man with all of her heart and she wanted to be with him all of her life. When she speaks to people, she comes off as cold and harsh.” She did not ask them to sit, she just stood there in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt… Her voice was dry and cold”. In this example, she feels violated by the people coming to collect the taxes she never had to pay, so she comes across as a cross and stubborn old woman. The only reason why she acts this way is because these people were digging into her personal history, something that did not need to be discussed.

Mrs. Grierson is also considered a villain because she poisoned her one love, Homer Barron. The only reason why Emily chose to do this is because of her upbringing. Her father treated her poorly, as he protected Emily from the “dangers” of the outside world. For example, the community recalls “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”. It’s not her fault that she wants to love someone for the rest of her life, her father tore all chances of love straight out of her hand. After her father dies, she stores the body in her house, not accepting the fact that he was dead. “She told them her father was not dead”. Her father robs her of many of life’s needs for healthy development. She was always indoors, away from the outside world. Griersons were considered better than the rest of the community, and Mr. Grierson wanted to keep that image up and running. Because of her father, Emily decides to kill the man who killed her happiness. She kills Homer Barron because he rejected her wedding proposal. She plans the whole wedding for the two of them, right down to the honeymoon. She purchases a toiletry set, a nightshirt, and a suit, all things needed for a wedding. When Homer declines her proposal, she walks to the drugstore, purchases some arsenic, and poisons the person she considers to be a rat.

Emily Grierson is also villainized by her community of Jefferson, Mississippi. She is not apt to sudden change. This is seen when the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction”. Miss Emily refuses to pay taxes to these modernized officials. A simple inconvenience would not budge the prideful woman’s stance on this matter, and she had demonstrated to Colonel Sartoris, a man who “had been dead for almost ten years”. Before this situation, Emily is too stubborn to believe her father’s death. According to people in her community, “she told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days”. To her town, she was “humanized”. Her father’s death exposed her as a simpler woman than the community was now more comfortable with. One cannot be distinguished and mad at the same time. Emily is handed many thorns by her community, and she produces thorns in return, but not as many as were given to her to deal with.

Emily Grierson is not a villain in her home town of Jefferson, Mississippi. She is a “tradition, a duty, a care”. Her community loves her because she symbolizes the Old South, a great time when Colonel Sartoris was mayor, and everyone was happy. Only a year after Mrs. Emily’s father dies, “the town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks”. This is an indication that Emily Grierson is the victim of the sudden changes she and her community experience.

Emily Grierson is the result of an honored culture struggling with its uncertain future. This woman epitomizes the South’s internal conflict of a changing society. Emily receives a strong-willed backbone through her father, resembling her own home’s determined will to retain its old values. Throughout the story, Emily’s actions simulate that of the South she represents. Emily is a fallen soldier for the land she is commanded by, and when she dies, she rests among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson”. Miss Emily is another fallen soldier, a victim of the developments she and her community face.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” causes the reader to ponder if Mrs. Emily Grierson is truly a villain. There are numerous examples that point fingers straight at Emily, but there are always two sides to the story. In this story, Emily Grierson is not a villain, but a victim. She, like many other people were villainized by people she knew and maybe even loved. The stories about supposed villains aren’t always correct. People perceive others as villains, but they don’t know the true story.

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