during the night and sprinkle lime. After the lime had been spread around Miss Emilys house, the smell goes away. When Miss Emily finally passes away, the whole town attends her funeral. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson. Alive Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town (469). When the ladies come in the front door for the funeral, the Negro admits them. Shortly after, the Negro left the house and is never seen or heard from again. A few of the older men of Jefferson dress in their Confederate uniforms for Emilys funeral, and talk of the older times. They speak of how they courted and danced with Miss Emily when they were younger, although that is not the truth. Once Miss Emily is properly buried, the towns members decided to open the room in the top of the house, which no one has seen in over forty years. A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the mans toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed, which, lifted, left upon the surface of a pale crescent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and discarded socks. The man himself lay in bed (475). At once, everyone knows that it is Homer Barron. He looks like he had died in an embrace, however the long time he had been there had made his body deteriorated to the point where he was inextricable in the bed. Then we noticed that in the second...
