Acceptance of Circumstances in “A Rose for Emily” 

Finding the strength and power to come to acceptance with situations life throws at you can put you in an overall healthier lifestyle. William Faulkner, author of “A Rose for Emily,” portrays a story in which the main character, Emily Grierson, does a poor job at accepting some of life's circumstances. Miss Grierson finds herself in a downward spiral after choosing to take the route of denial throughout multiple instances of her later life. By not coming to acceptance with the different situations life gave Emily, she put herself in an overall unhealthy lifestyle. Unacceptance can affect someone on a mental level which proceeds to affect physical aspects and thus being an unhealthy situation overall. Emily Grierson's unfortunate failure to have the mental strength and power to overcome some of life's different circumstances represents William Faulkner’s theme: acceptance of circumstance.

First, Miss Emily Grierson denies the death of her father and refuses to accept the fact that the only person close to her in life is now gone forever. Throughout most of her life, Emily only had her father. Losing him could not have been easy for Emily, however denying his death, showing no signs of grief, and hanging onto his dead body is the wrong way to go about his death. In part two of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the townspeople hear of the death of Emily's father and the women from the town go to Miss Emily’s house to “offer condolence and aid”. To their surprise “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days…”. After three days of ministers and doctors trying to persuade Emily to allow the burial of her father, “she broke down, and they buried her father quickly”. Faulkner's theme, acceptance of circumstance, plays into this scene from his short story and is illustrated in the way that Emily refuses to come into acceptance of a life situation that is very much normal and also inevitable. Death is something guaranteed in life, however, Emily does not see this and denies the death of her father. From a health standpoint, Emily is better off coming to grips with her father’s death, mourning the loss, celebrating his life, and knowing he is in a better place without pain, worries, stress, or any problems. However, Miss Emily Grierson, for three days, holds onto her father's deceased body and rejects any claims that he is dead. This only builds Emily up for a harder emotional breakdown when she has to finally at some point accept that her father is gone. Unacceptance affects her mind because she wants her father to still be around since he was all she had left, but in reality, he is gone and mentally this can be heartbreaking and even more devastating the longer she pushes it to the side. This mental issue can lead to physical effects if Miss Emily lets herself go and lets her father's death take too much of a toll on her that she starts to not put care or effort into her own health and well-being. For example, if she begins substance abuse or anything else that can affect her on a physical level. Moreover, after the loss of her father Emily lets herself get into a downward spiral. Emily was hit hard by her father's death and the biggest part of it was being unable to accept and come to grips with the inevitable situation. In part two of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator explains that “they”, as in the townspeople as a group, “remembered all the young men her father had driven away”. With the absence of a male in Emily’s life, she did not prosper. Emily Grierson growing up was unable to find a lover because of her father, and with him gone she still made no effort to find a lover for quite some time. Emily was so caught up in the death of her father that she did not see the opportunity to find someone to fill in the male absence she had. The way this situation ties into the theme of the short story is by how Miss Emily spent so much time to come to grips with her father's death that she spent more of her life not just without a lover but without a male figure in her life. When Emily’s father was alive he was the male figure, now that he was gone she could use someone to help her where a male would be of use. Whether that be around the house or in a relationship. No longer was anyone holding Emily back from a relationship with a lover, however, it was she who was now the issue. Furthermore, in part three of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator explains that after her father's death, Miss Emily “was sick for a long time. When we saw her again her hair was cut short”. Here, Miss Emily is shown to be struggling without another person in her life. Miss Emily could use a man in her life but will not be able to get one for as long as she decides to be unaccepting of her father's death and as long as she continues to let it affect her on such a drastic level. All in all, Emily is portrayed by William Faulkner to do a poor job at accepting the inevitable death of her father as she lets it take too much of a toll on her, affecting her mentally and physically, thus sending her into a downward spiral.

Next, Emily does not feel a sense of obligation to adapt with the time she is in as she refuses to pay taxes. After the death of her father, Miss Emily is “remitted” of her taxes as explained in part one of the short stories. It was Colonel Sartoris who in 1894 “remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity”. However, when the following generation of mayors and aldermen came, they decided to send Miss Emily Grierson a tax notice. “When the next generation… became mayors and alderman…. They mailed her a tax notice”. Miss Emily does not acknowledge the letters and a month later, a group of town representatives go to speak with Miss Emily at her house. Emily is in complete rejection of the idea of her paying taxes. “I have no taxes in Jefferson…See Colonel Sartois. I have no taxes in Jefferson”. Miss Grierson is refusing to comply and is not showing any signs that she is coming to accept the shift towards a modern style of living her town is going through. Miss Emily is not only not accepting the situation she is in but she is also not adapting with her environment. “Colonel Sartoris has been dead for almost ten years”. Miss Emily Grierson was remitted of her tax payments by Colonel Sartoris, now that there are new representatives and leaders in the town, Emily needs to accept this and do as the other townspeople do and comply in tax paying. In this situation, Miss Emily is a representation of the old south in the way she was not open to change and did not evolve towards modern society with the rest of the town. The way this situation relates to the story's theme of acceptance of circumstance is through how Emily did not accept the situation she was in. New boss, new rules, and Emily did not comply. Moreover, Miss Emily is portrayed to be in a downward spiral after her father's death. Miss Emily is left to tend to a house all by herself. Before his death, Emily’s father would take care of the labor around the house, any taxes, and other tasks done by the male in the family. However, with him gone and Emily not having any knowledge on how to complete different tasks, she continues her downward spiral because she digs herself in a deeper whole the longer she does not attend to different tasks. A male figure in Emily’s life is at this point needed. Someone who could help Emily with tasks she does not know how to complete. For example, in part two of the short story, Miss Emily’s house has begun to stink and the townspeople are complaining about it. On one night, four men sneak onto Miss Emily’s property to find the root of the smell and get rid of it. Within two weeks of the four men treating the house with lime, the smell is gone. Without a male figure in her life, Miss Emily puts herself in an unhealthy situation because she is unable to tend to different tasks that her father did when he was around or that a male could do if she had one around. Had Miss Emily accepted the fact that she needs a male figure in her life, her property would be better-taken care of. Mentally, a relationship could be good for Emily. She has been without someone she loves for so long that it could be good for her. Mental health leads to physical health because being mentally healthy makes you want to be as healthy overall as possible, that includes physically. So with a relationship, Emily could see herself living a more overall healthy lifestyle. Overall, William Faulkner portrays the theme of acceptance of circumstance by expressing Emily’s failure to accept the new times she is in, which call for her to pay taxes, and her failure to accept the fact that she needs a male figure in her life to help her tend to different tasks and for overall health.

Finally, Miss Grierson does a poor job at accepting the fact that her once the lover is going to leave her, thus she takes action and poisons the man, keeping his deceased body in her bed. Emily Grierson shows her mental issues when she decides to poison and kill Homer Barron. Emily had been in love with Mr. Barron and was planning on marrying him. However, Mr. Barron was, as explained in part four, “not a marrying man.” Emily’s poor mental health is due to the downward spiral she started experiencing once she lost her father and let it take a huge toll on her. Miss Emily decides to go out and retrieve some strong poison with the intent to murder Homer Barron so he could not leave her. By this point, Emily’s life is “wrecked,” as William Faulkner explains in an interview from 1959 regarding his story “A Rose for Emily.” In this situation, the murder represents how bad of a downward spiral Emily was in. One poorly handled situation after another led Emily to this point. Murder is against Emily’s morals and she knew that, but it did not matter. In an interview, William Faulkner explains how Emily had not only “broken all the laws of her tradition” but “she had finally broken the law of God too, which says not to take a human life”. Emily is at the lowest point of her life and it can be traced back to how she was unable to accept several circumstances in her life. Furthermore, Miss Emily Grierson displays her bad habit of being unaccepting towards different situations and circumstances when she rejects the idea of Homer Barron not marrying her, by murdering him. Miss Emily was getting older and she felt as if Homer Barron was her last chance to find love, get married, and settle down for the rest of her life. So when she comes to find out that he is “not a marrying man” and that she will lose him and what she thinks to be her last chance at love, she is to say the least, not open to the idea. Emily, instead of accepting the fact that Homer has the right to leave her, kills him so he can not. In part four of Falkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily buys a very strong and dangerous poison from the town's druggist. The foreshadowing we get in this scene is when Emily has no explanation for what she is going to use the poison for. When the druggist explains to Miss Emily that the law requires her to state her intended use for the substance, “Miss Emily just stared at him… until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up”. For months, Homer Barron had gone missing, and on the day that the townspeople went to Miss Emily Grierson's house following her death, they discovered Homer Barron's deceased body in Emily’s upstairs bedroom. He had been poisoned and killed by Miss Emily Grierson because she could not come to grips with the idea of losing another lover. Miss Emily for the last time displays her inability to come to acceptance with different situations and circumstances. In brief, Miss Emily Grierson displays not just how bad of a downward spiral she is in but also for a final time, her inability to come to acceptance with situations and circumstances, as she goes against all her morals and traditions and murders a once lover, Homer Barron.

In the final analysis, first-class author, William Faulkner, depicts a story in which his main character experiences a downward spiral after poorly reacting to several situations she encountered. Her name is Miss Emily Grierson, and Miss Emily displays her inability to accept some of life’s situations and circumstances causing her to destroy her life as she finds herself living an unhealthy lifestyle full of denial and unacceptance. Altogether, expressing William Faulkner’s theme for his short story titled “A Rose for Emily,”: acceptance of circumstance. Mr. Faulkner takes the reader through a story in which the main character, Miss Emily Grierson, does a poor job at coming to acceptance with different circumstances and situations and suffers because of it. First, Emily lets the death of her father take a huge toll on her and she handles it in a way that only built her up for a harder breakdown. Next, Miss Emily does not come to accept the fact that her town is modernizing and she being in a rough time in her life does not decide to find a partner to have a relationship with who can help her live a better lifestyle, because Emily on her own is not cutting it. Finally, Miss Emily Grierson displays how bad of a downward spiral she is in as she goes against all of her traditions and morals by murdering her once lover Homer Barron so that he could not leave her, thus expressing for one last time, Emily’s inability to come to acceptance with life's situations and circumstances.