My point of view on the main characters.

The main character of the story, its central is Ms. Emily Grierson.  To my mind, she is quite a controversial figure. Though the author blatantly strived to underline her high level of self-dignity and honor, I still feel rather a pity to her. She was an insane lunatic and in the contemporary society, a psychiatrist could have helped her. Emily 1) desperately refused to let go of her past; 2) she was a control –freak; 3) she was unable and unwilling to adjust to the society, to fit into its rules and follow its directions.

1)Emily couldn’t except that the Colonel Sartoris is not alive (when the new authorities come to ask her to pay taxes) and also refused to give the dead body of her father to burial.

       2)  Her father didn’t allow any of the man to marry her , i.e. he controlled her private life severely and thoroughly. When her father died, Emily tried to take controlled over the Homer Barron. She, obviously, wanted finally to marry somebody, and she liked the man – but he wasn’t really inclined to marriage. Moreover, I suppose that her company didn’t make him much delight, for Barron was cheerful and lively. I also suppose that their “time perception schemes” didn’t coincide. He was “a diminishing road” living in the moment, and she was a “huge meadow” immersed in the bygone days.

       3) To my opinion, she did her best to circumscribe herself from society – and that was her huge mistake. Everybody and women in particularly need socialization and communication.

Now about a few things I find attractive in the heroine. She had her own rules in life and had never violated them – Emily cared but little of what others said or thought. She was assertive to refuse to pay taxes, to refuse to state the reason for buying poison and to have numbers attached to her house. That is why the society cared for her – not in the traditional meaning of the word, but she just attracted their attention, she was out-of-the-cast, eccentric and grotesque. They never understood her, claimed to feel pity for her destiny, but, actually, never it was nothing more than curiosity and fear. The Baptist minister who had called upon her never ever divulged what happened in her house, but he would never ever visit her house again. And drug-man didn’t come out with the poison himself – he asked the negro to deliver it.

“Just as if a man - any man – could keep a kitchen properly”, the ladies said. – this quote from the text exemplifies that women condemned her, her way of life.

"Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less."  – People wanted Emily to be like them, to feel what they do, as they couldn’t understand her motives.

So the next day we all said “ She will kill herself” and we said it would be the best thing. – can we talk about any sympathetic attitude considering that people thought it OK for her to kill herself?

"Then some of the ladies began to say it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people." – Another example of condemnation and slander. She was just a theme to talk about in a little town, where inhabitants had no interests of their own not to intrude in other people’s lives.

She had dignity and did not show off her weaknesses, her steel hair reminds me of the idiom “the iron lady” – that is whom she was.

To sum it up, my verdict would severely contradict critics on the Internet and opinions of the colleges of mine. Emily is hardly a positive character and I failed to detect anything that could have served the reader as an example or an inspiration for his/her own life. Let’s face it – she was weak and feeble. Emily had all the opportunities to be happy, but didn’t endeavor to make them work out. OK, her father was strict and severe, but could you show me somebody who doesn’t encounter obstacles and face hardships in life? Shouldn’t they stiffen one’s will and temper one’s character? Positive attitude, optimism, work and a good deal of efforts make everything possible, isn’t it? 

Homer Barron is a foreman from the North, paving sidewalks and renovating the town. Contrary to Emily, he is “change”, “movement”, “facility”. Emily can be described as “stableness”, “weight”, “standing still”. Homer Barron possesses charm, good sense of humor and is always a center of attention. Nevertheless, people consider him not a good match for Emily, as he is socially of lover status.

Their Sunday drives become scandalous. The author tells us, that Homer is “not a marrying man”, i.e. he is hardly going to marry Emily – he is an eternal bachelor, fond of carouses with other men.  Anyway, he arouses in me more affection, than Ms. Emily does. She is rather apt to arouse sympathy and pity.