Analysis of “A Rose for Emily”
“A Rose for Emily” reveals several literary dynamics worth analyzing. Faulkner wrote this short story in a nonlinear fashion, with an untraditional plot structure. The author uses unique symbolism, foreshadowing and narration to create suspense and mystery to an otherwise mundane story. Faulkner uses an interesting method to tell a dark and disturbing story, about a woman’s struggle to find love, and her resort to necrophilia when that love is threatened.
“A Rose for Emily” takes place right after the Civil War, and throughout the Industrialization Period. Faulkner uses a fictitious town located somewhere in the South, called Jefferson as the setting for Emily’s story.
The story is about Emily Grierson’s struggle
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Emily’s father kept her from having intimacy experiences with another man. Emily’s relationship problems eventually lead to her killing her prospective husband and holding on to the decaying body until she herself passes away.
William Faulkner’s short story is unique, as in it does not follow traditional story-telling plot structure. “A Rose for Emily” is broken up into five segments, which do not actually coincide with the chronological order the events take place. The first segment of the story plays the role of both exposition and resolution.
Playing the role of exposition, the first segment introduces Emily Grierson, and how the community collectively views her more of an object of interest, than as a person. To Jefferson, Emily was a representation of the community’s traditional values, a monument, untouched by modernization. While introducing Emily through her funeral, the narrator gives the history of Emily and her Family, explaining how the family became idolized, and the center of gossip. The first segment also presents itself as the resolution. It does this by telling the outcome of the story, Emily’s death. Faulkner tells how the story is going to end before the story is told. It was an unusual way to present the resolution within Faulkner’s
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The story is told through one individual’s perceptions of what is happening, by watching Emily for several years. The narrator is always speculating about what is happening, without actually knowing. This narration style adds to the mystery of the story, because of the lack of credibility the narrator possesses. Emily’s story is different if the narrator changed. Despite all the narrator’s speculations of Emily, the narrator never speculates the truth of Emily’s
The beginning of Faulkner's story is the end for Miss Emily. Faulkner presents images of the townspeople dutifully attending the funeral of this fallen fixture. As soon as the reader becomes acclimated to this setting, however, Faulkner subtly takes the reader back in time: "Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Satoris, the mayor, [. . .] remitted her taxes" (Faulkner 75). Faulkner inserts exposition into the middle of what was a section of falling action. Rather than returning the reader to the scene of Miss Emily's funeral, Faulkner trudges forward from 1894, bringing the reader up to date on the issue of Miss Emily's taxes.
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. 275-83.
In the story "A Rose for Emily," the author, William Faulkner, recounts the life of a woman from an elite family in the Deep South. Emily Grierson is an eccentric spinster who goes through her life searching for love and security. Due to her relationship with her father, and the intrusiveness of the townspeople in her life, she is unable to get away from her past. Arising from a young woman's search for love, the use of symbolism profoundly develops the theme, therefore, bringing to light the issues of morality.
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.
"A Rose for Emily" is a wonderful short story written by William Faulkner. It begins with at the end of Miss Emily’s life and told from an unknown person who most probably would be the voice of the town. Emily Grierson is a protagonist in this story and the life of her used as an allegory about the changes of a South town in Jefferson after the civil war, early 1900's. Beginning from the title, William Faulkner uses symbolism such as house, Miss Emily as a “monument “, her hair, Homer Barron, and even Emily’s “rose” to expresses the passing of time and the changes. The central theme of the story is decay in the town, the house, and in Miss Emily herself. It shows the way in which we all grow old and decay and there is nothing permanent except change.
As Faulkner begins “A Rose for Emily” with death of Emily, he both immediately and intentionally obscures the chronology of the short story to create a level of distance between the reader and the story and to capture the reader’s attention. Typically, the reader builds a relationship with each character in the story because the reader goes on a journey with the character. In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner “weaves together the events of Emily’s life” is no particular order disrupting the journey for the reader (Burg, Boyle and Lang 378). Instead, Faulkner creates a mandatory alternate route for the reader. He “sends the reader on a dizzying voyage by referring to specific moments in time that have no central referent, and thus the weaves the past into the present, the present into the past. “Since the reader is denied this connection with the characters, the na...
Emily’s isolation is evident because after the men that cared about her deserted her, either by death or simply leaving her, she hid from society and didn’t allow anyone to get close to her. Miss Emily is afraid to confront reality. She seems to live in a sort of fantasy world where death has no meaning. Emily refuses to accept or recognize the death of her father, and the fact that the world around her is changing.
In “A Rose For Emily”, by William Faulkner, plot plays an important role in how
At the beginning of the story when her father died, it was mentioned that “[Emily] told [the ladies in town] that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (626). Faulkner reveals Emily’s dependency on her father through the death of her father. As shown in this part of the story, Emily was very attached to her father and was not able to accept that fact that he was no longer around. She couldn’t let go of the only man that loved her and had been with her for all those years. While this may seem like a normal reaction for any person who has ever lost a loved one, Faulkner emphasizes Emily’s dependence and attachment even further through Homer Barron. After her father’s death, Emily met a man name Homer, whom she fell in love with. While Homer showed interest in Emily at the beginning he became uninterested later on. “Homer himself had remarked—he liked men” (627) which had caused Emily to become devastated and desperate. In order to keep Homer by her side, Emily decided to poison Homer and keep him in a bedroom in her home. It was clear that she was overly attached to Homer and was not able to lose another man that she
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. .
To liven the story, the author brought up important details regarding the protagonist and the antagonist in the story about, “A rose for Emily.” All the activities of the character are included to give a complete background of the scene. William Faulkner offers sufficient information in order to help the readers understand and visualize the setting surrounding Emily as the main protagonist in the story. The author further gives the misfortunes that surround Emily. This helps the reader to connect the background and the scene in the end.
In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.
Emily’s father’s death was a major tragedy for Emily. It seems as if she was in denial of his death. Faulkner explains, “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead.” So Emily would not admit that her father had died. After she accepted his death, she had to endure life without a father. This must have been terribly hard, but she endured it. Many people also attempted to help Emily
Nebeker, Hellen. E. (1970). Emily's Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily". The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 24(1), 3-13.