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The story is set in Jefferson, a fictional town based on Oxford, Mississippi, where Faulkner grew up. “A Rose for Emily,” which spans many years, takes place post-Civil War, between the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first couple decades of the twentieth century. As a result, Jefferson is characterized as a town at a crossroads, caught between the outdated traditions of an abhorrent past plenty of its residents continue to revere and the promise of forward progress, which many, particularly those from older generations, resist. This tension is best exemplified by Emily’s ongoing conflict with various town leaders on the subject of her taxes. New leaders wish to persuade Emily to pay her taxes, but they are forced to abide an agreement made by Colonel Sartoris, a mayor who also introduced an edict forcing Black women to always wear aprons in public and whose character is emblematic of antiquated institutions.
Jefferson is a close-knit community that operates on gossip and rumor, as evidenced by the fact that Emily’s Sunday jaunts with Homer Barron are the talk of the town and that everyone seems to know instantly when she purchases arsenic, or the monogrammed toilet set. The town’s small size and its residents’ preoccupation with Emily’s affairs generate a distinct suffocating feeling, as if the walls are closing in. Combined with the sense of decay that pervades the story, from the description of Emily’s ruined, once-grand home to the ominous smell that emanates from within, the story is distinctly unsettling in tone. The looming feeling of dread, the disturbing implications of Emily’s unique fixation on death, the sense of being watched, and the morbid imagery utilized throughout position “A Rose for Emily” firmly within the realm of Southern Gothic literature.
