The Changing Verbal Portraits of Emily in A Rose for Emily Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" provides not only innumerable details but also a complex structure. Long after the reader has learned to identify and discuss the function of significant details, he or she often continues to struggle with the influence of structure on a story. The imagery of shifting portraits in “A Rose for Emily” allows the reader to explore both to find meaning. In addition to the literal portrait of Emily's father, Faulkner creates numerous figurative portraits of Emily herself by framing her on doors or windows. The chronological organization of Emily's portraits visually imprints the changes that occurred throughout her life. Like an impressionist painting that changes as the viewer moves to different positions, however, the structural organization provides clues to the "full picture" or motivations behind its transformations. Chronologically, the "flipped back" front door creates the first picture of a young Miss Emily, assiduously guarded by her father. Miss Emily, a "slender figure in white,"1 symbolizes the vulnerable virgin, hovering in the background, subordinate and passive. The father, "a silhouette lying in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a whip" (CS 123), is a menacing, dark image who assumes the dominant frontal position. His turning away suggests a disregard for her emotional well-being as he wards off potential danger – or violation of her virginity – with his riding crop. The door opened backwards invites suitors to enter, but only those who meet Grierson standards. Unfortunately, these standards are unattainable - "The Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were" (CS 123) - and Miss Emily remains... at the center of the card... confidently her funeral coffin with a simple image of love and loss, a lock of iron-gray hair resting on the yellowed pillow of a helpless wedding bed. This haunting image is the final pen stroke that whispers the praise of his wasted life. Boorstin, The American: The Colonial Experience [Random House, 1958]). In doing so, he developed a code of conduct that reflected the romanticism of the medieval age. A feudal mentality – full of courtly love, code of honor and romantic pursuit – is evident in many of Faulkner's male characters, for example Sutpen in Abaslom, Absalom! and Hightower in Light in August.3 The Sound and the Fury (New York: Random House, 1992), 78.