ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Inside, among the gifts that Emily had bought for Homer, lies the decomposed corpse of Homer Barron on the bed. On the pillow beside him is the indentation of a head and a single strand of gray hair, indicating that Emily had slept with Homer’s corpse.

Detailed explanation-2: -After the funeral, the townspeople break down a door in Emily’s house that, it turns out, had been locked for forty years. They find a skeleton on a bed, along with the remains of men’s clothes, a tarnished silver toiletry set, and a pillow with an indentation and one long iron-gray hair.

Detailed explanation-3: -Her hair grows more and more grizzled until it becomes a “vigorous iron-gray.” The strand of hair ultimately stands as the last vestige of a life left to languish and decay, much like the body of Emily’s former lover.

Detailed explanation-4: -When her father dies, Miss Emily cannot face the reality of his death and her loneliness. Because she has no one to turn to-“We remembered all the young men her father had driven away . . .”-for three days she insists that her father is not dead.