A Rose for Emily is a first person narrative which is split into five different sections.The first section opens with a description of the Grierson house in Jefferson.The narrator mentions that over the years,Miss Emily Grierson's home has fallen into disrepair and become "an eyesore among eyesores." The first sentence of the story sets the tone of how the citizens of Jefferson felt about Emily:"When Miss Emily Grierson died,our whole town went to the funeral:the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house,which no one save an old manservant – a combined gardener and cook – had seen in at least ten years."
The narrator notes that on the date an engineer is seen in Jefferson with a crew of men to build sidewalks.After Emily and Homer are seen driving through town several times,Emily visits a druggist.There,she asks to purchase arsenic.The druggist asks what the arsenic is for since it was required of him to ask by law.Emily does not respond and coldly stares him down until he looks away and gives her the arsenic.When Emily opens the package,underneath the skull and bones sign is written,"For Rats." Citizens of Jefferson believe that Miss Emily is going to commit suicide since Homer has not yet proposed in the beginning of section four.The townspeople contact and invite Emily's two cousins to comfort her.Shortly after their arrival,Homer leaves and then returns after the cousins leave Jefferson.Upon his return,Homer is last seen entering Emily's home and then never seen again.After Homer’s disappearance,Emily begins to age,gain weight,and is rarely seen outside of her home.Eventually,Miss Emily passes away.
The fifth and final section begins with Jefferson women entering the Grierson home.After they arrive,Emily's black servant leaves through the back door without saying a word.After Emily's funeral,the townspeople immediately go through her house.They come across a room on the second floor which no one had seen in 40 years,and break the door down.They discover a dusty room strangely decorated as a bridal room.The room contains a man's tie,suit and shoes,and a silver toilet set which Miss Emily had purchased for Homer before his disappearance.Homer's remains lay on the bed,dressed in a nightshirt.Next to him is an impression of a head on a pillow where the townspeople find a single “l(fā)ong strand of iron-gray hair.” It is thus implied that Emily had killed Homer and had lain in the bed with his corpse up to her own death.