A Rose for Emily William Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for Emily" is a comparison of the past to the present. Emily is a picture of the past, a monument that had "fallen" in death. The town itself is the symbol of "the next generation, with its more modern ideas." The story begins at the end of Emily's life, her funeral. The narrator, a townsperson, tells the story by connections, where one thought triggers another …
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…father and we are left to assume that she could not handle being left again. When she was threatened with abandonment and shame, she retreated behind closed doors and kept Homer with her via poison. A psychological approach to this story signifies the repressiveness one falls into when faced with the expectation of being alone. Emily did not deal well with change but instead embraced the past, became trapped in it, then died in it.