The Southern Gothic genre of the 20th century influenced many American writers. This style enabled writers to criticize antebellum stereotypes and to question traditional southern morals. Frequently, gothic authors created distressed characters to highlight inimical southern values. For instance, William Faulkner placed great emphasis on this genre to dramatize the loss of traditional values in many of his short stories. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner features Emily Grierson, a notorious townswoman, whose delusional personality reflects traditional southerners denial to accept change and modern views. Through her characterization, Faulkner depicts the idea that change may cause alienation and mental degradation in individuals. Faulkner initially …show more content…
This causes the reader to immediately question Emily’s motive for assassinating him. The reader infers that Emily possibly killed Homer as a result of her mental instability. As Charmaine Mosby comments, “change [was] Miss Emily’s enemy” and Homer constantly created (Mosby, 1). Faulkner mentions that even the townspeople “were not surprised when Homer Barron…was gone” and within “three days [he would be] back in town (Faulkner, 83). Consequently, the reader concludes that Emily was not able to cope having Homer, a Yankee day laborer, in and out her life. Conclusively, he symbolized modern generations; he was a Northern who was capable of adapting to change unlike Emily. The reader senses that Emily’s delusional mentality pressured her to kill Homer in order to finally retain him by her side. Therefore, Laura Getty, another critical analyst, believes that Homer’s corpse represented “a rose pressed between pages of a book” for Emily. Typically, a rose is preserved to remind an individual of a memory. In this case Emily decided the kill Homer and preserve his body to finally feel empowered to manipulate the passing of
"William Faulkner: The Faded Rose of Emily." Mr. Renaissance. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2011 .
“A Rose for Emily” is a story about Emily Grierson who kills her Yankee boyfriend Homer Barron and lives with his body in her bedroom for over forty years.
We eventually find out in the end that Emily kills Homer. She does this not do this out anger or hatred toward this man. It is the belief on her part, that a man has to play a significant role in her life that drives Emily to do this unbelievable act of violence. In her mind this was not a crazy thing to do.
Behind every killer there is a purpose for the killing. So why did Emily kill Homer? Some could say it was by cause of her going crazy with the death of her father. Others could predict it was that he wouldn’t marry her by reason of he “isn’t the marrying type” (page 724). I believe it was by reason of she wanted to keep Homer with her forever. She wanted to make absolutely sure that
Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the southern part of the United States. This writing is seen as a southern gothic tradition. Southern Gothic came into use around the early twentieth century. Faulkner wasn’t the only southern gothic writer, but Flannery
William Faulkner’s classic short story, “A Rose for Emily,” has been noted as an excellent example of Southern literature. Southern literature can be defined as literature about the South, written by authors who were reared in the South. Characteristics of southern literature are the importance of family, sense of community, importance of religion, importance of time, of place, and of the past, and use of Southern voice and dialect. Most of the novels are written as a Southerner actually speaks. Many books also describe the historical importance of the Southern town.
Her necrophilia is realized first when she refused the death of her father as she desperately clings to the father figure who disciplined her into loneliness. It was the only form of love she knew. It is once realized when Homer dies, however, this time it is with her hands that death has come upon it. She almost actually controlled it. She denied the changes, the possibilities of Homer leaving her, of refusing to marry her, by cutting his timeline—preserving him in death, effectively. Emily and Homer’s weird cohabitation divulges Emily’s upsetting effort to marry life and death. However, death ultimately triumphs.
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
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. .
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.
"William Faulkner (1897-1962)." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 97. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. 1-3. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Hempfield High School. 31 March 2010.
William Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi who wrote many gothic stories including the one I will be talking about today called" A Rose for Emily". This story is one of the most popular ones written by him and its gothic nature intrigues his audience. In the story, a thirty-year-old woman named Emily hasn't married and in those times it was very unusual for a woman that old not to have a husband. So, Emily liked this guy named Homer Barron, but he didn't like her back which caused a severe grievance on Emily.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” he uses many literary elements to portray the life of Emily and the town of Jefferson. The theme of the past versus the present is in a sense the story of Miss Emily’s life. Miss Emily is the representation of the Old South versus the New South, mainly because of her inability to interact with the present or come to terms with reality. Holding onto the past and rejecting change into the present led Miss Emily into a life of isolation and mental issues.
A Rose for Emily" was the first of his stories to be published in a national magazine and the first one even translated into French. But it was also the first story in which Faulkner wrote about his immediate surroundings. Faulkner, who grew up in the city of Oxford, Mississippi, renamed his home in Jefferson and placed almost all of his novels and short stories here with his neighbors, in modified form, as protagonists. "A Rose for Emily" comes from his most prolific creative period and belongs with his appearance in 1930 in the literary era of modernity (Faulkner had presented a year earlier with his novel "The Sound and the Fury" one of the three most important novels of this era). The story of Emily Grierson has been discussed several times
...she believed might be the only way to keep the man she loved from leaving her. Out of desperation for human love, when she realized Homer would leave her she murdered him so she could at least cling to his body. In his death, Emily finally found eternal love that no one could every take from her.