<P> The story opens with a brief first - person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson , an elderly Southern woman whose funeral is the obligation of their small town . It then proceeds in a non-linear fashion to the narrator 's recollections of Emily 's archaic and increasingly strange behavior throughout the years . Emily is a member of a family of the antebellum Southern aristocracy . After the Civil War , the family falls into hard times . She and her father , the last two of the clan , continue to live as if in the past ; Emily 's father refuses for her to marry . Her father dies when Emily is about the age of 30 , which takes her by surprise . She refuses to give up his corpse , and the townspeople write it off as her grieving process . The townspeople pity Emily not only after her father 's death , but also during his life when he would n't let Emily marry . </P>
<P> The story opens with a brief first - person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson , an elderly Southern woman whose funeral is the obligation of their small town . It then proceeds in a non-linear fashion to the narrator 's recollections of Emily 's archaic and increasingly strange behavior throughout the years . Emily is a member of a family of the antebellum Southern aristocracy . After the Civil War , the family falls into hard times . She and her father , the last two of the clan , continue to live as if in the past ; Emily 's father refuses for her to marry . Her father dies when Emily is about the age of 30 , which takes her by surprise . She refuses to give up his corpse , and the townspeople write it off as her grieving process . The townspeople pity Emily not only after her father 's death , but also during his life when he would n't let Emily marry . </P>
historical time period of a rose for emily
historical time period of a rose for emily
After the Civil War
After the Civil War