In "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, what is the smell that Miss Emily's neighbors complain about in section II?

William Faulkner's writing often features the Southern Gothic literary tradition. Derived from the Gothic tradition, which became popular in late eighteenth-century Europe, Southern Gothic fosters a grotesque, suspenseful, and mysterious atmosphere for readers. The smell in "A Rose for Emily" works throughout the story to create a Southern Gothic tone, particularly in Section II. While this section does not disclose the source of the smell, it does build suspense and encourage readers to engage critically with the story. 

Section II acts as a flashback in which the reader learns about the curious, offensive smell. The opening line sets the mysterious tone for this section, as the narrator explains that Miss Emily vanquished the men who called on her in Section I "just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell" (n.p.). This line creates a sense of mystery not only about the smell, but about Miss Emily's character as well; it establishes that Miss Emily has been a bit of an outcast, or at least a topic of not-so-elegant conversation, in her community for quite a while. 

The reader's information about the smell's source is limited in Section II, but we can use context clues to get closer to solving the mystery. Because the narrator mentions Emily's father's death and burial, we can ascertain that his death is known publicly and therefore not the source of the smell.

However, the narrator opens the section by mentioning that the smell arrived a short time after Miss Emily's sweetheart, rumored to be the one she would marry, left her. Congruently, the narrator closes the section by mentioning that her father drove away many of Miss Emily's suitors and that "she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will" (n.p.). We later learn that Homer Barron robbed Miss Emily of her opportunity to live a spinster-free lifestyle. This type of subtle hint creates the type of suspense popular among the Southern Gothic tradition.

The men who go to Miss Emily's house to discreetly take care of the smell notice a light come on and a figure sitting in the window as they leave. Very mysterious indeed. Faulkner creates this type of intense mystery and suspense in Section II, leaving the reader to speculate about what will happen next. The following sections unravel the story even further. As the reader learns more about Miss Emily and Homer Barron's relationship, the suspense continues to build. Courtship and rumors and arsenic, oh my! 

It is not until the final section that the reader learns what had happened to Homer Barron and that he was the source of the offensive smell years ago. The smell works to promote Faulkner's Southern Gothic style of writing in "A Rose for Emily," and creates a suspenseful, thrilling, and engaged experience for the reader. 

And as if it was not enough to end on the note of a decayed corpse, in true Southern Gothic tradition, Faulkner leaves the reader with the image of Miss Emily's silver hair right beside her deceased lover.