Starting in the 19th century southern woman met the expectations that was given to them without any resistance. A proper lady new the chores of the house and did whatever her parents asked of her. When old enough to wed a southern woman was supposed to find a gentleman in her class to have children with. Along with these expectations, the society wanted these woman to act and dress a certain way. In the story "A Rose for Emily" it is told in a gothic horror but the true meaning behind is not to scare but to understand the burdens a southern woman went through to meet the expectations of the society and her family. 

Southern women are expected to uphold traditions and not to question or change the southern ways (Smith 142). Southern women were told by society to grow into perfect "ladies".  Meaning that "ladies" were supposed to be well dressed, well mannered, and possess all the qualities of a house wife. In such a small community it was unspeakable for a woman to be mentally ill or possess craziness of any kind. Ignoring Miss Emily's own symptoms of mentally ill the townspeople keep allowing her to have misbeliefs, completely unaware of how these deaths could be affecting her.  Never once brought to a mental health professional to even try to deal with the death of her father since for three days after his death, "She told them that her father was not dead" (Faulkner 175). Throughout the story it can be concluded of symptoms of Miss Emily's illness but is denied because southern ladies do not have those sort of incidents and will always act proper and do what is expected of her. Because of her high class family and all the demands that came along with living as a Southern woman, the mental illness could of stem from all the pressure. Many southerners can put up with the kinds of demands Miss Emily faced, those who can't handle it go what is known as "crazy". It can be noted that Miss Emily was "sick for a long time," though no one offers more specific details as to the type of illness that she is going through (Faulkner 175). After the death of Emily's father, the ladies of the town come to Miss Emily's home to offer their comforts, and they had seen that she had "no trace of grief on her face" (Faulkner 175), she showed no reasonable responses to her death which lead to the assumption that something is wrong with her but the people ignore it. 

Another tradition of southern belles was the expectation for a woman to marry and have a family. Emily is the daughter of a controlling southern man who never thought any man was good enough for her and because of him she never marries or bears any children. The townspeople felt sorry for the girl who couldn't start a family because of the insanity in her family. The 'society's' view of women is major influence on women's actions, which provokes Emily's murder of Barron. By Emily's mindset of murder it kept Barron from leaving her without out hurting her public image. "As a corpse, this Yankee outsider will be less offensive to the sensibilities of the closed southern community" (Schwab, 1991, p. 216).  In the story it states that Barron Homer said "that he was not a marrying man" (Faulkner 177), knowing this Emily prevents Barron from leaving her because in her mind keeping up the tradition is better than people knowing the truth. "If you could just keep from them all the things that must never be mentioned, all would be well!" (Smith 142). From a high standing family, Emily has always felt the burdens of great expectations from her small town. Generations way before her established certain traditions that her community where she is placed, viewed her as having a "hereditary obligation" (Faulkner 173) to uphold those traditions. The society in which women's status was most important, a southern belle always looked and acted her best. With putting a women's best foot forward she would also fulfilled her expectations as a woman in the 1930's.

Southern pride was a big deal in the south that came from the ranking position and the superiority of a family's ancestors. Depending on one's social status, a family was considered higher or lower to other families around them. In the book "A Rose for Emily" all the people in town knew her every move outside of the house from what she bought to what she was wearing that day before her passing. The women of the town waited until after Emily's death to look inside the old grand house out of curiosity. "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies" (Faulkner 172), describes the outside of the house but the inside is not revealed until the end of the story because in the story it says no person in the last ten years has seen the inside of her house. Faulkner also points out the story that once Miss Emily buys a silver toilet seat and some men's clothing, it was assumed that she was married without second thought or going up to Miss Emily and asking because that sort of behavior was unusual for Emily. Southerners made it their business to know everyone else's business and everyone was judged upon their social standing, but everyone in town went to Emily Grierson's funeral as a sign of respect. The awful smell that Emily ranked of everyday, the townspeople avoided to acknowledge it except behind her back.  In the book, Judge Stevens pushes to address the matter and basically says that a gentleman must not be rude to a lady, "Dammit, sir...will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"(Faulkner 175). It was expected to show respect to everyone and that is why pride and status's are so important because the higher in the ranking someone is or the older the legacy the more respect someone receives.

Emily goes through tragic losses throughout the story. Coping with them in what people now know today as mental illness. Back in the 1930's a southern belle was the image that every southern woman sought out to be. If a woman was from a higher class a lot of demands were expected of her including getting married and having kids. Miss Emily suffers through the hardships of all the expectations from the society and her family because she lives in a mindset of old fashion southern ways. 
