A Rose For Emily and Other Short Stories Lesson Plan

In both "A Rose for Emily" and "Dry September," there is a moment when the townspeople pity an aging female character, saying "Poor Emily" and "Poor Minnie." Why are these characters pitied? What does this show about social expectations for women in their time and place?

Emily Grierson and Minnie Cooper are similar in many ways. Without being married, they are considered irrelevant and pathetic, and the lack of privacy in small-town life magnifies their problems. Both are socially accepted when they are younger, but as the years pass and they do not marry, they become an object of pity. This pity and social judgment causes them to latch onto a last-ditch relationship...