Miss Emily Grierson as a Symbol of the Old South.

        Keenly developed as the main character, Miss Emily is brilliantly described as being a woman of snobbish magnificence and long-established prestige.  To grasp fully the scope of her social influence, the reader must deduce from her post-mortem status as “a fallen monument” (74) that she represents a past era of Southern aristocracy and dignity.  Of her own opinion, Miss Emily represents the last of “the high and mighty Griersons” (74) who were once an influential and affluent family in the town’s society.  Faulkner further details Miss Emily’s pretentious opulence as he describes her demeanor: “She demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson” (77).  Contrastingly, the people of the town believed that Miss Emily holds herself “a little too high” (76) for what she really is.  In spite of the villagers’ belittling opinions and contrasting views, Miss Emily “carried her head high enough” (77) even when the townspeople believed her reputation to be worthless.  Though the townspeople view her as high-faluting, they depressingly refer to her as “poor Emily” (77) because they understand and regret that she is still unwed and a recluse.  After her death, Faulkner states outright Miss Emily’s connection to the Old South as he tells that she lies in the ground with “the representatives of those august names” (74) and with the Confederate and Union dead lost in the Civil War.  Even posthumously, she continues to represent the quintessential Southern belle who becomes riddled with social disgrace and pity, paralleling the downfall of the patrician Old South.

        In addition to describing her foul attitude and snobbish sense of self, Faulkner employs descriptive images of Miss Emily’s physical and mental state of being to represent further the downfall of the Old South.  At its height of popularity, the Old South was associated with widespread beauty and contemporary elegance.  But, with the end of the Civil War, those defining traits unfortunately began to change as the balance of power and influence switched to the victors of the Civil War, the Union society.  This is exactly the case with Miss Emily.  At one point in her youth, she represents beauty and elegance, but with perpetual victor of time, her beauty and elegance fall victim to ugliness and awkwardness which begin to dominate her existence.  Faulkner describes Miss Emily as being a small, fat woman with a cane who appears to be in extremely poor health with the quote: “Her skeleton was small and spare...(S)he looked bloated...and...of pallid hue” (75).  This provides the antithesis of her former appearance, which was one of beauty and delicacy.  Faulkner continues with her eyes, which were once full of color and life, now as being “cold, haughty black eyes” (77) and showing years of unhappiness and despair.  As time and loneliness take their respective tolls on Miss Emily, she grows fat, and her hair slowly turns shades to an “iron-gray” (80).  In addition to her now unpleasant appearance, Faulkner hints at Miss Emily becoming senile in her old age.  Exclaiming her tax exemption to the collection men early in the story, she proclaims to them, “See Colonel Sartoris!” (75).  What is peculiar about this statement is that Colonel Sartoris had died nearly ten years earlier, but it appears that Miss Emily fails to remember this.  Faulkner further suggests her insanity as Miss Emily repeatedly tells the townspeople that her father had indeed not died when he truly passed away.  Three days and several visits offering condolences later, she breaks down and finally agrees to bury her father’s body.  Faulkner also asserts that insanity runs in Miss Emily’s family, as her old-maid great-aunt had gone mad years earlier from loneliness, which may explain Miss Emily’s decreased mental state.  So, Faulkner develops Miss Emily as being a lady of former beauty and sanity, but age and loneliness riddle her life and ravish her attractiveness and drive her mad.  This downward spiral of the attractiveness and health of Miss Emily is intended to represent the defeat and downfall of the Old South.

        Faulkner uses Miss Emily and her house, which once both represented pride, beauty, and opulence, to symbolize the downfall of the Old South.  At its height, the Old South meant beauty and power, but with the defeat in the Civil War, all that was once the Old South came to an abrupt end.  This is mirrored in Miss Emily’s life, as both she and her house were once beautiful and outstanding representation of Southern society.  But, with time and misery, she experienced a tragic downfall into the depths of madness and loneliness.  Faulkner’s tremendous fascination with the Old South influenced this story greatly.  Within this story, he wonderfully succeeds at using imagery to symbolize the decay and destruction of the aristocratic Old South with the aristocratic, Southern belle of old, Miss Emily.