In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", the narrator tells the story of Emily Grierson, a woman who lived an incredibly long life and was known to all Citywide. The story also tells the reader that Emily's mental deterioration as time went on was not known or acknowledged by the townspeople. Mental illness, especially in the South, was masked by eccentricity and a tolerant attitude toward those socially considered high class (Phelan 188). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first part of this short story describes Mrs. Emily Grierson as a popular woman in town, especially because she had been around for so long. “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men felt a kind of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women especially out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one had seen except an old man-servant-had seen within the last ten years” (Faulkner 299). In the story, she was exempted from taxes by Colonel Sartoris after her father's death in 1894. However there was no written record of this and the new generation of elected officials tried to send her a notification that her taxes were due. The first sign of her mental illness comes when the city authorities arrive to collect her taxes, and she repeatedly states that they need to see Colonel Sartoris, who by that time had been dead for nearly a decade. For Emily, the passage of time doesn't seem to matter as she spent many years of her life hidden away at home. The second part takes place about two years after the death of Emily's father, and a short time after his death. abandoned by her he would be a husband. At this point in the story we see a further deterioration in Emily's mental state as she is rarely seen outside of the house. “After his father's death he went out very little; after her lover left, people hardly saw her” (Faulkner 301). As time goes by, Emily's house begins to emit a horrible odor. Many citizens complained about it. Ultimately Judge Stevens says he refuses to accuse a lady of smelling bad, so four men sneaked onto Emily's property at night and sprinkled lime around the house to prevent the bad smell. The reader later discovers that Emily had been pretending that everything was normal, as if her father hadn't died for three days before she finally allowed the body to be disposed of. The reader then realizes that if the smell wasn't coming from his father where could it have come from? No one in town thought he had serious mental health problems; They thought her father had pushed many men away from her and seemed to be overprotective. “We remembered all the men her father had driven away, and we knew that, with nothing left, she would cling to what had robbed her, as people do” (Faulkner 302). During the third part of the story, Emily was sick for a long time and reappears with short hair making her tragic and serene (Faulkner 302). The city had hired contractors to repair the sidewalks. Homer Barron, the foreman of the workers' company, soon became a well-liked man in town, as he seemed to make everyone laugh. Shortly after arriving in town, he was seen riding around with Miss Emily in a buggy. Everyone in town seemed thrilled that she had finally found someone who made her happy. Many of the older people in town remembered that no one came to her father's funeral and felt sorry for Emily, for what had happened and for.