How do the words "tarnished," "rotted," "discarded," and "cuckolded" connect in A Rose For Emily?

In
order to connect them, it's important to first examine the words in context:

On a tarnished gilt easel before the
fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss 's father.

Upon a chair hung the
suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the
discarded socks.

The body had apparently once
lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers
even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him.

What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the
nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay...

All of these words both help establish the tone of the story
(macabre) and define the relationship betweenand Miss Emily. It is
tarnished from the beginning; there are rumors that he cannot
possibly love her, and she develops a plot to murder him. It seems that Homer tries to
discard Miss Emily, disappearing from the town for a while and then
returning on the night he is murdered. Death cuckolds Homer; Emily
chooses an affair with a dead man over a relationship with a living man. And Homer is left
rotting in Miss Emily's bed for many years.

These words almost summarize the sequence of events in their
relationship.