The story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, takes place during the ‘Old South.’ In the ‘Old South’ there were many social standards, especially for women. All of those standards are shown and challenged throughout this story. Faulkner puts a great deal of emphasis on gender expectations for women in this work, which was unusual during his time. Most readers do not realize, but by doing this he creates a feministic theme. This theme is important because Faulkner creates Emily, a social deviant, in order to effectively challenge the inequality of women during his time.

Emily was from an aristocratic family in the ‘Old South.’ Faulkner puts emphasis on her social status by making sure the reader has a clear image of who she was. The first paragraph states, “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…(Faulkner, William 1).”He makes sure to mention that she lives in a large white house that has been in her family for ages, she has a negro house slave, and her family was well known throughout her town. All of those characteristics are the epitome of a stereotypical southern belle. Faulkner puts emphasis on all of those because he wants there to be a clear contradiction with the way Emily acts versus how she is expected to act. By making the clear difference between the expectations and her lifestyle, it sets the stage to show that Emily is taking a feministic stand.

Throughout the entire story, Faulkner makes references to what is expected of a southern belle through the judgements of the other people in town. Every time Emily did something that was not a social normality Faulkner would have it brought up by people in the town in the story. For example, when Emily’s house had a strange smell, the story shifts to people complaining to the mayor about the smell or them discussing it amongst friends. Like when a younger member of the town said to the major, “”It's simple enough,” he said. “Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don't...”(Faulkner, William 3).”  Faulkner does this to point out how society, during his time, judges anyone that goes against what is considered normal. Emily, throughout the entire story, is attempting to take a stand. All along she is judged for her differences, just as society would do in the real world.

In the ‘Old South’ women were expected to act in a respectable and polite manner, and Emily refused to do so. Emily never quite acted how the other people in town thought that she should. When she was asked to pay her taxes in Jefferson she denied even having taxes to pay in that town. Later in her life Emily was never seen leaving the house. “A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the place was the Negro man…(Faulkner, 3).” Some of the ladies around town attempted to call her and contact her, but she never responded. In the South it is extremely rude to not answer someone’s call, even if they are just calling to gossip or to get information for themselves. Emily did not care that she was being rude though because she did not want all the women around town in her business. The fact that she refused to be polite to everyone shows that Emily was completely against the obvious social standards she was held to.

A southern lady, especially one from a high social ranking, is expected to find a suitable man of equal or higher social ranking to marry. Emily, however, does quite the contrary. She does not seek out a man that would be thought of as suitable, she instead finds Homer Barron. Homer Barron was a day laborer from the north. The people around town obviously did not think highly of the man by the way they talked about them, “because the ladies all said, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer."(Faulkner, William 5).” There are also assumptions of Homer being a homosexual, this also does not bide well on Emily’s reputation. Hal Blythe stated, “Simply put, Faulkner hints that Miss Emily’s “beau” ideal is homosexual and that she poisons him to save face…”(Blythe, Hal 49). Most readers assume that Emily kills him to prevent him from being able to reject her and damage her reputation even more. However, that is not the case.

Emily does not kill Homer in order to protect her reputation, she uses him to make an intense feministic stand. The fact that she kills a man makes the reader assume she is crazy, which may in fact be true. Faulkner actually wants the reader to assume she is crazy because he wants them to see that being held to such strict social standards would make anyone crazy. She was held to various social standards and she managed to not follow everyone else. All the while she was being so harshly judged by her entire community for trying to be herself. Many women during that time would have given up and decided to conform to how females were supposed to act back then, but Faulkner wanted the reader to see that Emily was not just any other woman. Instead of getting fed up with all of the judgements and deciding that it was not worth it Emily decided to take her stand one step further. Her killing Homer shows that she had had enough of the social standards she was held to just because she was a woman in the south.

Faulkner uses the murder of Homer Barron as a representation of society during that time. Emily represents a feminist fighting for her rights, while Homer represents societies standards. Faulkner shows Emily standing up against the multiple judgements and standards all around the town throughout the story. The narrator states, “She carried her head high enough--even when we believed that she was fallen” to show that she did not allow the judgements to get to her (Faulkner, William 5). In the end though, Faulkner makes it clear that feminism would eventually beat out the social standards.

The concept of feminism did not exist around the time of the civil war. Women were only known to clean house, find a suitable husband, and have children. It was what was expected and not many women were willing to question it because of the harsh judgements they would receive. Faulkner uses the main character, Emily, in “A Rose for Emily” to show feminism in one of its earliest forms. Gregory Jay stated, “Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily,” which despite its popularity as a reading lesson may still have something to teach us about desire and the social text.”  Faulkner makes Emily go to extreme lengths in order to deviate from social standards, but that way it is clear that she was trying to take a stand and get societies attention.
