Emily Grierson is the complicated, dynamic figure at the center of this story. The narrative begins with her funeral but describes her at all points of life. Emily is portrayed as a reclusive and eccentric figure, a local curiosity maintained by the town. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that her isolation is the result of her father’s overbearing nature and her own personal traumas. Her character arc is one of decline, as she becomes increasingly isolated and detached from reality as the story unfolds. As a young woman, Emily is “a slender figure in white” (51) dominated by her overbearing father and powerful family history. The lack of details about Emily in this period reflects her enforced isolation. The narrative voice of Jefferson sees her only as a slim, virginal accessory to her father’s power.

By the end of the story, however, Emily has undergone a dramatic transformation. The last time the townspeople see Emily before her death, she is “a small, fat woman in black” who looks “bloated, like a body submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue” (49). This description emphasizes Emily’s age and the decay of her body, which mirrors the decline of her family’s prestige and the dying town of Jefferson.