Suspicion in "A Rose for Emily"

 “Already, we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced. They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it.” (5 Faulkner)

The final section of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner can be a bit overwhelming. Because of the shock of these last few moments, many readers may miss the two sentences that fit into the middle of the page in a mysterious little paragraph. Whilst rereading this paragraph, I felt an overwhelming suggestion that the townspeople knew Emily was hiding something in that room, however this sensation is overshadowed by the following discovery of the room’s tomb-like contents. Upon second glance, however, there seem to be various oddities within this paragraph. For one, the word choice of already, hinting at the fact that they know Emily was hiding something there. Another peculiarity is the others choice to make these two sentences their own paragraph, which hints at the information being important. The odd nature of this paragraph upon second glance can make readers consider it’s significance. 

 The first sentence poses two interesting avenues, the use of the word already and the marking of the room being closed off for 40 years. The author's use of the word already in the first chosen sentence can easily be missed, but upon closer inspection, it hints at the townspeople knowing that Emily was hiding something. The sentence produces an eager tone surrounding the townspeople’s curiosity, describing how they force themselves through the room as soon as they feel they can, which could possibly be illegal considering the narrator is referring to the townspeople instead of the authorities (or whoever has ownership of the house now). Yes, having a boarded up room may spur some curiosity about the contents, but I wouldn’t assume it to typically cause such interest unless people suspected there was something noteworthy inside.

Later on in the first sentence, the narrator mentions the room having been hidden for 40 years. Most likely, people noticed that this room was boarded off when Emily was teaching painting classes, which happened when she was around 40 years old. Emily, however, died at 74, which means that if she closed off the room 40 years ago, she would have been a few years older than 30. If the house was truly closed off between Homer’s disappearance and Emily’s painting classes, then there would have been no way for the townspeople to know that it had been blocked for 40 years rather than 30. Considering the word choice, that no one had seen the room, this could mean nothing. Possibly, however, the narrator's declaration was based on an assumption due to the aligning disappearance of Homer Barron. 

I also think the second sentence in this paragraph tells you something about the townspeople’s suspiciousness towards the situation. Why would they wait until Emily was in the ground to look in the room? I feel like this sentence highlights the idea that the narrator and townspeople view Emily as otherworldly. Examples of this include when people suspect Emily may be planning to kill herself, but instead of intervening, decide to just let it happen. Or also, when there is a smell around Emily’s house, and instead of asking her about it, they sneak around her house and fix it themselves. The narrator’s indications that Emily is someone the townspeople fear or avoid makes it easy to believe they possibly suspected she would do something alarming. Perhaps, that is why they want to wait to open the room. I think they most definitely have some sort of sense that they will find something important in that room. 

All in all, the hints towards something suspicious having happened between Emily and Homer (poison, embroidered name, etc) are quite obvious. Knowing how the town gossips, I don’t see how the townspeople could be blind to the oddness of the situation. Not only this, but we can see on page 3 her defensiveness towards the authorities taking her fathers body, as well as her refusal to accept his death. The use of the word already in the first sentence supports this idea that they knew something was going on. The suggestion in the second sentence that they fear Emily and want to wait until she is buried to search her house also supports the point that people avoided Emily and knew something about her was off. In conclusion, I feel like these two sentences bring to attention the idea that the town wasn’t truly as oblivious to Emily’s schemes as they at first seem to be.