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The main themes of A Rose for Emily are isolation and loneliness, tradition versus present, and the gap between generations. The story is about a woman whose life has been filled with apathy and sympathy. In this story, Emily isolates herself from society, due to events from her past. Excessive isolation can cause loneliness in anyone's life. In A Rose for Emily, the author seems to describe that such isolation can cause someone to do appalling acts. Miss Emily has a hard time adjusting to the present time era. She wants everything to stay like the old South and cannot adjust to any change. Also, Miss Emily cannot handle the gap between generations because she believes everyone and everything should stay as is and it should never change because that is all she knows about.
In A Rose for Emily, the gap between the generation of Colonel Sartoris and the new board of alderman is bridged by Miss Emily's life. She remains in the past; however, a remnant of a time is forgotten. Her house which is, "A big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street"(409), seems stuck in the past. When the board of aldermen call upon her to demand her taxes, they wait in the parlor which is “Furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture," where "a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray" (409-410). This theme is established in Miss Emily's unusual interactions with the outside world. When she gives china-painting lessons to "The daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris' contemporaries"(414) and when "The newer generation became the backb...
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... the gap between generations. The rose is often a symbol of love, and portrays an endless beauty. The rose has been used for centuries to illustrate an everlasting type of love and realism. Even when the rose dies it is still held in great reverence. Miss Emily’s “rose” lies only within the story’s title. Miss Emily was deprived of the possibility of falling in love in her youth, so then she isolated herself from the world and denied the reality of change. Miss Emily was denied her rose, first by her father, then by the townspeople, and then by Homer Barron. With Miss Emily, and the use of the “rose” as a symbol, we were able to interpret that Homer Barron was Miss Emily’s only “rose.”
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Story and Its Writer: An Introductory to Short Fiction. Eighth ed. Bedford / St. Martin's: Ann Charters, 2011. 409-15. Print.
Faulkner, William. A Rose For Emily. 10th ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010. 681-687. Print.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Literature and Its Writers. 6th ed. Boston, New York:
“A Rose for Emily” begins with the foreshadowing of Emilys funeral. The story then takes the reader to explain what had occurred over the years leading to Emily’s death. Emily Grierson had become the last member of an aristocratic southern family who had been raisd by her widowed father. Growing up< Emilys
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-8. A Rose for Emily. University of Virginia. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
The main symbolism running throughout A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, is the theme of how important it is to let go of the past. Miss Emily clings to the past and does not want to be independent. The Old South is becoming the new South and she cannot move forward. The residents of the South did not all give in to change just because they lost the Civil War. In A Rose for Emily time marches on leaving Miss Emily behind as she stubbornly refuses to progress into a new era. In the story, symbolism is used to give more details than the author actually gives to the reader. Symbolism helps to indicate how Emily was once innocent but later changes, how her hair, house, and lifestyle, helped to show her resistance to change. The story is not told in chronological order. The events of her life are revealed slowly and create suspense over the telling of the story by the narrator. The narrator represents the town and its residents.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily". An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. Ed. Barnet, Sylvan, et al. 287-294.
A Rose for Emily Life is fickle and most people will be a victim of circumstance and the times. Some people choose not to let circumstance rule them and, as they say, “time waits for no man”. Faulkner’s Emily did not have the individual confidence, or maybe self-esteem and self-worth, to believe that she could stand alone and succeed at life especially in the face of changing times. She had always been ruled by, and depended on, men to protect, defend and act for her. From her Father, through the manservant Tobe, to Homer Barron, all her life was dependent on men.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Shorter 5th ed. Ed. R.V.Cassill. New York: W.W. Norton & Comp., 1995.
William Faulkner, one of the most famed writers of our times, explores in his writing the themes of alienation and isolation. He interweaves these themes with his female characters. In A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily Grierson is a woman who is alienated and lives in isolation from the people in her town. The theme of isolation is the focal point of the story, since it is what drove her to her madness.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose For Emily." The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 91-99. Print.
With every turn of the page, the dark and twisted storyline of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner leaves the reader in a stronger state of shock and inevitably speechless. Faulkner cleverly uses symbols, characters, and theme to illustrate the inner thoughts of Emily Grierson and the community’s ongoing struggle between tradition and modernism. .
William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” displays themes of alienation and isolation. Emily Grierson’s own father is found to be the root of many of her problems. Faulkner writes Emily’s character as one who is isolated from the people of her town. Her isolation from society and alienation from love is what ultimately drives her to madness.
Through the use of setting, characterization and theme Faulkner was able to create quite a mysterious and memorable story. "A Rose for Emily" is more than just a story though; her death represents the passing of a more genteel way of life. That is much more saddening than the unforgettable scene of Homer's decaying body. The loss of respect and politeness is has a much greater impact on society than a construction worker who by trade is always trying to change things. Generation after generation Miss Emily happily escaped modernism by locking herself in her house the past.
William Faulkner is the author of many famous titles. Interestingly enough, Faulkner never finished high school. He gained his skilled writing from reading many books and an interest in writing early in his life. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Faulkner noted that it is the writer 's duty, “To help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. One of his most famous texts that he wrote was A Rose for Emily. This story takes place from around 1875 to 1920, chronicling the life and death of Emily Grierson. In the short story, Emily’s father dies. The death seems to have a grave effect on her. Later, she then becomes acquainted with Homer Barron. All of the townspeople believe that Emily will marry Homer, but one day Homer walked into Emily’s house, and was never seen again. Emily, who has refused to pay her taxes since her father 's death, secludes herself from society and is later found dead in her house at age 74. William Faulkner, in his story, A Rose for Emily, Faulkner fulfills his own criteria for writing.
The plot of “A Rose for Emily” shows the later years of the main character, Emily Grierson, with flashbacks to her life interspersed between. It begins with the reader learning of her passing, developing into a story that provides insight in to her reclusive nature and past dealings with family as well as the town of Jefferson. Due to her reclusive nature and high standing in society she is often gossiped about by her fellow townsfolk. Throughout the story, the reader is told about her overbearing father, her reluctance to change her ways for the town of Jefferson, and her new love interest Homer Barron. With hints of foreshadowing and learning about Miss Emily’s past problems with letting her deceased father go, the reader finds the story ending at her funeral with the discovery of the body of Homer Barron kept in her house. Miss Emily did not want to lose her new love, so she poisons him and keeps his body around, letting her maintain a relationship with him even though he has passed on.