Teacher’s Notes on A Rose for Emily

The 4th adjective, ” tranquil” refers to her post murder life as portrayed in part IV” she gives china-painting lessons for several years, sits passively in one of the downstairs windows ” like the carven torso of an idol in a niche” and having fallen ill ” in the house filled with dust and shadows,”, she quietly dies.

The 5th adjective, ” perverse” , in  a benign sense, could mean stubborn or out of step wi the community. But  if one is sensitive tot he fact that  the four previous adjectives in the catalogue correspond successively to the 1st four parts of the story, then one must fully expect that part V will illustrate Emily’s ” perverse” nature in the most specific sense of the word- moral and sexual perversity; and of course this is confirmed in the shocking final scene of the story.