In “A Rose for Emily”, the rose is a symbol that acts as a replacement for all the tragedies and negative things that have happened in her life. Her father died and the one person she loved left her to rot. Emily didn’t have anyone to help her and eventually became very depressed. Faulkner states,” That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart–the one we believed would marry her –had deserted her. After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” As the story progresses, Emily’s situation gradually becomes more difficult to climb out of. She has even been seen buying heavy drugs from the drug store and the people are assuming that she is going to kill herself. Faulkner states,”SO THE NEXT day we all said, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing.”This is where Faulkner introduces the rose because Emily has gotten her heart broken and has gone through so many things the rose would give her a sense of hope(sadly this did not happen in reality).
