In this short story, the narrator tells the tale of a small Alabama town after the end of the civil war. In this town, there is a lady that lives on an old street that “had once been our most select street” (Faulkner,2017,p.628). The story is written from the perspective of the narrator and the reader nor the narrator knows much about Emily’s personal life. Much of the storyline is written based on the gossip that ripples through the town. The reader never knows the true thoughts or motivations of Emily. The main characters of the story are Miss Emily, Tobe, Homer Barron and the Narrator. The story begins with the narrator telling the audience about Emily Grierson’s funeral. The whole town shows up for Miss Emily’s funeral. They show up for reasons that are segregated by gender. The author states that the men …show more content…
The third article I read, was written by Sniderman in 2007. This article represents most accurately my thoughts while reading this story. Sniderman writes, "A Rose for Emily" is as much about a way of communicating as it is about what is being communicated, as much about our desire to snoop into others' lives as it is about those lives that we are being invited to observe and interpret.” (2007). He focused on the evidence and presented his theory as a lawyer would in court. He began with townsfolk gossip and ended with necrophilia. He stated that some circles argue that it should be assumed that Emily had sex with the corpse of Homer. He argued that there was no evidence for that. This reflect my feelings while reading this story. The townspeople filled in the blanks with gossip and supposition when Emily closed herself off. She did not invite people in and she kept to herself. The readily accepted notion that Emily killed Homer because she bought arsenic and had his body in her bedroom wouldn’t stand in court. It is completely
5. Roberts, Edgar V., and Henry E. Jacobs. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Prentice Hall, 2008. 76-81. Print.
Several points throughout the story indicate foreshadowing of the ending. The first main point was the rotten odor coming from Emily’s house. Several of her neighbors complained to the Board of Aldermen concerning the foul stench that hails from the old lady’s household. This point helps readers contemplate and theorize what the smell that the neighbors were talking about. The second main point that indicated foreshadowing was the event that occurred after Emily’s father passes away. The readers are told that she became very isolated in her home and became distant from the world outside. The narrator also recounts that it took three whole days and several people to persuade her to let them help her “dispose of the body” (1000). This was a big indicator of what was going to happen because this was what she essentially did: kept a body dead body in her home. The third main point was when Emily successfully bought poison or arsenic from the local pharmacy. This event showed many clues of the ending. When she was buying the arsenic, she did not explain to the druggist her intention of buying and using the poison. This interaction between the two raises some eyebrows for it was truly mysterious for an old lady to purchase poison randomly. The final main point is the story of Homer Barron’s mysterious disappearance. Before he eventually
The protagonist of this story is Miss Emily Grierson, an old maid spinster without family who becomes a “tradition” and a “sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 299). The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, so I will rearrange my analysis of the character to begin with what we first know about Miss Emily.
Emily’s father rose her with lots of authority, he might had ruined her life by not giving her the opportunity to live a normal lady/woman life; but he build a personality, character and a psycho woman. Mister Grierson was the responsible for Emily’s behavior, he thought her to always make others respect her. Homer’s actions of using her as a cover to his sexuality was not respectful at all, Emily did not know any better and poison him to death.
I believe it was with the help of her butler and how conservative society was at this time. People were nosy, but never pester the person about the subject. People just came up with their own conclusions when it came to rumors with not all the facts shown to them. When Emily bought the arsenic they all just believed she was going to kill herself. They never thought for a second she would kill someone else (725). People are funny that way. They will just think up something when they don’t know the real reason. The negro man helped a lot in her not getting caught. After the death of Homer he stopped speaking to everyone who even tried to get information on Miss Emily. He only went to grab her groceries and came back to the house until the day she got sick and died. The townsfolk didn’t even know she was sick (727). She was a very fortunate women to not have been caught in the murder. If it wasn’t for the Negro man keeping quiet or how society acted she would've been tried for murder no matter the
Emily meets Homer and she soon becomes very attached to him. The town’s people instantly began to notice this, “Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable” (Faulkner 301). As the town’s people began to see them together, they all started to wonder if they would get married. Soon they realized that Homer was not interested in marriage and that he was interested in men. Emily is obviously very distraught by this and eventually leads her to commit acts reflecting her character as someone with very little morals.
When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173).
Throughout “A Rose for Emily” the reader is collecting evidence of a murderous death, the isolation
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily tells a story of a young woman who is violated by her father’s strict mentality. After being the only man in her life Emily’s father dies and she finds it hard to let go. Like her father Emily possesses a stubborn outlook towards life, and she refused to change. While having this attitude about life Emily practically secluded herself from society for the remainder of her life. She was alone for the very first time and her reaction to this situation was solitude.
Miss Emily’s isolation is able to benefit her as well. She has the entire town believing she is a frail and weak woman, but she is very strong indeed. Everyone is convinced that she could not even hurt a fly, but instead she is capable a horrible crime, murder. Miss Emily’s actions range from eccentric to absurd. After the death of her father, and the estrangement from the Yankee, Homer Barron, she becomes reclusive and introverted. The reader can find that Miss Emily did what was necessary to keep her secret from the town. “Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years” (247).
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
The main character Emily Grierson, is odd. Over the course of the story, her unpredictable behavior becomes weird. The townspeople as well as the reader is left trying to explain how Emily was able to sleep next to the corpse of Homer Barron. It is reasonable to think that Emily developed a mental illness as a response to the demanding conditions as a Southern Woman from a dignified family. While growing up, she obviously did not develop normal coping and defensive mechanisms.
It is said that the townspeople “learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver; with the letters H.B on each piece . . . she had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing” (Faulkner 718). They incorrectly deduced that Homer and Emily were married, although that is probably what Emily wanted to happen so he could not abandon her. However, at this point, he is probably already dead because he is found in bed and she bought him a nightshirt. Emily’s breaking point probably came because Homer would not marry her as he he admitted that “he was not a marrying man” (Faulkner).
“Miss Emily constantly for fifty or sixty years; they are anonymous townspeople, for neither names nor sexes nor occupations are given or hinted at; and they seem to be naïve watchers, for they speak as though they did not understand the meaning of events at the time they occurred. Further, they are of undetermined age. By details given the story there neither older nor younger nor of the same age as Miss Em...
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.