A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner is one of those stories with an unpredictable ending that leaves the reader with an eerie feeling. In this story Emily is a young woman who lives with her father. They are a high society family because of their money and this makes for a difficult life for Emily. Being high society means that she looks down on most people and that her father sees no man as good enough for her, so she leads a very lonely life. Her father dies suddenly one day, but Emily refuses to acknowledge it for three days, after which she is forced to let men take her father out of the house. A little while after this she meets a man and they being to talk a lot. Many people in the town have no idea what really goes on in her life, but they love to speculate. After awhile Emily orders a men’s bathroom set and clothes. This leads people to believe that she is going to marry Homer Barron . Strangely, she also goes to the store and purchases arsenic, which is poison. Everyone believes that they must have gotten married because no one ever sees Homer Barron again. Emily is a hermit because after this she is never really seen leaving her house. The only person that every goes in or out is her slave and even then it is only to go to the store. One day Emily dies and people who have been curious for all these years want to take a tour of her house. When they go upstairs into an old bedroom they find the body of Homer Barron laying in a bad as if he is holding something, they also find a gray hair on the pillow. Faulkner is a great writer and he even won the Noble Prize. In his acceptance speech he talks about how he believes that it is the writers duty to fulfill and uplift the mind of his reader. This is surprising because after... ... middle of paper ... ...n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. . Magilo, Domenick. "Fear: The Great Motivator." Dr. Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D. Dr. Domenick J. Maglio, n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. . Marty, Myron. "Twentieth Century: Society in the United States." Scholastic. Scholastic Inc., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. . Smith, Karla. "A Vast and Enduring Monument: William Faulkner’s Literary lesson plan." Mississippi History Now. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Feb. 2014. . Soong, Jennifer. "6 Common Depression Traps to Avoid." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. .
In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.
Set in the Reconstruction Era, when the South was forced to give up control of their power to the North after the Civil War, William Faulkner’s famous short story, A Rose for Emily, focuses on the human struggle for control, through the life of a southern aristocrat, Miss Emily Grierson. The town watches Miss Emily as she matures from a young girl to a mysterious old recluse. Miss Emily’s struggle can be described in a three part process where Miss Emily has no control of her world, then gains control, and is then finally faced with losing that control. The reader follows Miss Emily’s story from the town’s perspective and later discovers what length Miss Emily is willing to go to in order to maintain her control.
In William Faulkner’s story, “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner uses symbolism as a literary element to keep the reader interested in his writing. There are many characters and materials that Faulkner placed throughout the story with hidden meaning. When he describes dust being in a scene, the reader may scan over it, not giving the element much thought. The dust, however, does hold a significant message. Dust was present in Ms. Emily’s home all throughout the story. Ms. Emily spent most of her time in her home. She used her house to recluse herself from society and is also where she died. With this being said, dust is a reoccurring object throughout the story that symbolizes aging, the state of being a recluse, and death.
In the short stories "The Story of an Hour," by Chopin and "A Rose for
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a southern gothic story first published in 1930. The story of Emily Grierson’s life parallels the struggle the South faced when breaking away from its antebellum past into modernity. The story is narrated collectively by the citizens of Jefferson—a seemingly average small southern town. The narrator tells the story of Emily Grierson—the town reclusive eccentric who died before accepting the changes brought forth from the post-civil war south. Emily Grierson is seen as a hereditary obligation by the town’s citizens. She is the object of discussion to the point of fanaticism. She is a relic of the old south who lives in a once grand manor that is now the eyesore of town. Like the house, Emily has gone from a young pretty maiden of the south with numerous suitors, to being a spinster—last seen ten years before. Emily has lost her domineering father, her last suitor and her old way of life. Her failure to change has caused isolation which has evolved into a macabre grasp at normalcy. This has left Emily’s life to succumb to decay—both literally and figuratively. The theme of the story is the fear of change can cause the human spirit to decay.
William Faulkner (1897-1962) was a southern writer; he spent most of his time in Oxford, Mississippi. "A Rose For Emily" was a vehicle for him to write about the South and the old ways of the South. He was a well respected writer. In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. faulkner uses symbolism to make his message stronger. Faulkner uses symbolism as a way to repersent the qualities of the character, places and events in his work.
“Then we knew that this was to be expected too; as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.”( Faulkner1002). “A Rose for Emily” is perhaps one of William Faulkner’s most famous works. Through his creative abilities he is able to knit together a story full of symbolism, contrast, and moral worth. Faulkner develops a character by the name of Miss Emily Grierson; to not only tell a story of complete scandal, but to illustrate his own views on the south post-Civil War. Faulkner describes the true views of the old south in “A Rose For Emily”, through Miss Emily’s influence of her father and the town, her confused views of love, and the decay of her way of living.
In the story “ A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner the narrator introduces the reader to Emily Grierson, a sheltered southern woman who while alive struggled immensely with her sanity and the evolving world around her. Emily's father, a very prestigious man is the cause of Emily's senseless behavior. He kept her secluded from the rest of the town “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away...” (Page 3.) If Emily had been allowed to date and socialize with people her own age would she had turned out differently.
Within Faulkner’s acceptance speech, he states that courage and honor are the first two things a writer has a responsibility to remind the reader of within a text. The Nobel Prize acceptance speech provides a vast list of things that Faulkner believes every great writer should include within his texts, and the first of these things states, “He must teach him...
William Faulkner, the author of A Rose for Emily, uses language, symbols, setting, and time to elaborate Emily's resistance to change and the conflict between the past and the present. In addition, Faulkner uses these elements to illustrate the power of death, which prevailes even when Emily refuses to acknowledge it. Even though the events do not appear chronologically in the story, the author's use of words helps the reader organize the scenes in order to make sense. Furthermore, the author's description of Emily, her house, and the people who lived around her makes it easy for the reader to understand secrets that are hidden in the story. The use of imagery and figurative language also help the reader to understand the extended meaning that is conveyed by the author, and create visual images in the mind.
William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” is an example of gothic literature. Faulkner shows sadness for the love that is not returned and a drive that Emily uses to get what she wishes for. He has a gloomy and mysterious tone. One of the themes of the story is that people should let go of their past, move on with the present so that they can focus on welcoming their future. Emily was the evidence of a person who always lived in the shadow of her past, because she was afraid of changing for the future. She would not let go of the past throughout all her life, keeping everything she loved in the past with her.
In his short story, “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner gives us a picture of female identity from a male point of view, showing compassion and forgiveness for his central character. Intriguingly, the writer uses the word “rose” in the title even though a rose does not exist in any part of his story; it has highly symbolic implications. Usually, the rose symbolizes love but in this case, it expresses a sympathetic attitude of society towards Emily. In reference to this story, Faulkner, in his interviews never admitted that the roses symbolized love. The story also focuses on the psychological exploration of the interior female world. Faulkner depicts the alienation of one repressed and isolated female in the South of the United States after the Civil War. Many themes might be explored in this short story, but a special interest is the focus on struggling to find love and the social interaction of a repressed female. The repression and isolation in the old Southern society causes degradation and dehumanization of Emily’s personality.
In Faulkner’s tale “A Rose for Emily” there are many historical elements throughout the story; Faulkner uses them to give an authentic feel to the story and to add to the setting. A recurring theme that I found was reference to the reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. The setting of the South after their demise in the Civil War adds character to the story and to the characters. The attitudes people had and the way people treated Emily with respect was a tradition of the “Old South” that is presented throughout this tale.
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 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.