In section one, the narrator is at Emily Grieson’s funeral. He tells us the Grierson family’s presence and role in the town, saying that Emily’s father loaned money to the town and was exempted from paying taxes by Colonel Sartoris. After her fathers death, the town tried readmitting the tax on Emily, but Emily refused to pay, saying they should see Colonel Sartoris, not knowing he has died almost a decade ago. I started questioning Emily’s sanity at this point, solely because of the state of her home after her death, smelly and seemingly unkempt even though she had a helper, and her not knowing the death of the man who allowed her family to go without paying taxes for so long for nearly ten years.
The narrator tells us how Emily never went outside of her home after the death of her father. The Grierson’s held themselves higher than everyone else and the town notice that, so when Emily lost her father, people thought Emily were finally at their “level”.
“Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized”.
The women at the funeral noticed how smelly the house was but brushed it off, saying it was typical of a man to not know how to clean properly. The narrator recalled that members of the community went to Emily’s house after dark and sprayed lime juice in her cellar, because of the stench. Even though she had a crazy aunt, the community didn’t call Emily crazy at the time. Emily’s father was overbearing on her and never allowed her to interact with men. Being Emily’s only interactions with a man, the town understood why she wasn’t acting ordinary.
Emily is seen buying poison for no specific reason. I assumed when the drug store assistant gives her the poison without any explanations, even though by law you need to say what you’ll be using it for, he might of thought she wanted to commit suicide and felt sorry for her, just like the majority of the community.
A reoccurring phrase that has been used ever since her father’s death is “Poor Emily”. It was said in the beginning of section 4 when everyone thought Emily would end her own life, even though she was seen with Homer Barron. When word got around that she was buying certain items, such as a men’s suit and nightgown, they assumed Emily reconsidered and settled down with Homer. They didn’t see much of Emily or Homer afterwards, but no flags were risen because this was the first man besides her father Emily has ever been with to this degree and assumed they wanted to be left alone together.
Everyone discovers the dead body of Homer on Emily’s bed and a lock of Emily’s hair, implying that she has been sleeping with Homers body after he passed. I assume she killed him with the rat poison she purchased early in the story. The author kind of foreshadowed this by stating earlier that Emily refused to accept the death of her father and had him in her house for three days before she was forced to bury him.
