Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”

William Faulkner is the author of the interesting short story, “A Rose for Emily.” According to Bruce Kawin, “Faulkner [is] one of the great American novelists of the twentieth century, was also a screenwriter. The first of four brother, he was born in New Albany, Mississippi, the son of Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Falkner” (Kawin 3). Kawin also suggests that he began his education “in 1919 he published his first poem and entered the University of Mississippi as a special student” (Kawin 3).  One of Faulkner’s short story is about Miss Emily Grierson.  David Madden reports, “the story of the aristocratic Miss Emily Grierson in a complicated manner, shifting back and forth in time without trying to make clear transitions, the story line itself is quite simple” (Madden 2). William Faulkner’s writing is very clever since he manages to engage the reader’s attention by creating mystery about Miss Emily, by illustrating what she is allowed to get away with, and by showing the horrific ending when the town realizes what Emily accomplishes to do without anyone’s noticing.

In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, the reader observes the life of Emily Grierson. The reader learns about Emily’s life from the townsfolk from her teenage years all the way to Emily’s death from various points in her life. Emily is a person with a possible mental disorder, who struggles with letting go and how it affects Emily’s grasp on past and present. Emily’s life is one that fascinates and captures the reader’s attention and leads to decade’s worth of arguments amongst generations of readers.

Through the majority of Southern Gothic works of literature, there are always intense and rebellious behaviors that are the root of societal problems and they always result in an emotional uproar done so by the majority as the unwanted behaviors go against the code of conduct. In the grotesque short story "A Rose for Emily," author William Faulkner begins his story with the death of the protagonist, Miss Emily Grierson and how the townspeople had gone to her house to pay their respects. With the use of flashbacks and flash forwards, the narrator, whom can only be a mere townsperson, takes the reader through the bumpy ride that was Emily Grierson's life. We learn that she lived (and died) alone after her father died, although she did have a mysterious lover who disappeared after sometime but she spent most of her life in solitude and did not really associate with the townspeople. The entire story has a small Southern setting and the overarching theme of changing times and death mesh well with the setting. Even though the short story is multidimensional in most of its literary aspects, the theme, plot, setting, and character development are the strongest and more unique facets, as they develop the story and are the most vital in interpreting the story accurately.

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," we see how past events affect the life of the main character Miss Emily, especially her inability to accept change. Throughout the story Miss Emily goes to extreme measures to protect her social status. Miss Emily lives in the past to shield herself from a future that holds no promises and no guarantees. William Faulkner illustrates Miss Emily's inability to accept change through the physical, social and historical settings, all of which are intimately related to the Grierson house.

The story "A Rose for Emily" is one of first William Faulkner’s publications. The action of this story takes place in a time filled with social and political turmoil, when Southern came into a historical lethargy, and when its glow start faded. The elements presented in "A Rose for Emily" make reference to that time and are a tribute to Mss. Emily Graiser. A dominant tone is shown by a footprint of the past and loneliness to which was added symbolism and melancholia. The author showed us through his words issue of life, love and death, a sensitivity which gets us closer of characters' life and struggles.

William Faulkner’s Southern background plays a constituent part of the creation of his story “A Rose for Emily”. With his creative mind Faulkner created a county in Mississippi called Yoknapatawpha. Like the southern town he was born and raised in, Faulkner peopled this story with both African American and Caucasian people of the late 1800’s. Faulkner’s idea of writing this story was to focus on the events causing destruction and suffering in one’s inner and outer situations.

Not only does William Faulkner, the praised wordsmith, lure the reader into his beautiful short story with entrancing sentence and wordplay, but also with expert use of foreshadowing, non-linear plots, historical parallels, and most importantly; deep, potent symbolism which is abundant in every nook and cranny of this story. Even without deeper meanings, this short piece of literature deserves to be a classic, and with them, it’s pushed to an even higher level. “A Rose for Emily” is the classic in the Southern Gothic genre, and to this day no work has come close to its brilliance or perfection.

“A Rose for Emily” takes place in Jefferson, Mississippi. The time span of the story of this troubled young woman’s life stretched over forty years, from 1875-1920. “A Rose for Emily” is a fictional story, like most of William Faulkner’s works. In A Rose for Emily, Emily represents the old south. Emily had many traditional beliefs. In my paper I will be writing about how the town reacted to her keeping her father’s body after he passed away, how the town reacted to Emily killing Homer, and if they thought she was guilty of murder or insane. William Faulkner uses “A Rose for Emily” to show how the south reacted to modern times.

\Miss Emily Grierson, the main character in Williams Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” removes herself from society and becomes a total recluse, refuses to progress with the passing of time, murders her lover, but continues to sleep with his corpse until her dying day. The behavior presented in Emily is a sign of mental illness. Throughout the story, Emily’s mental instability becomes apparent through her character. The house that she was raised in and died in, and the love she had for dead bodies lead to her mental illness eventually causing her death.

William Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily" is perhaps his most famous and most anthologized short story. From the moment it was first published in 1930, this story has been analyzed and criticized by both published critics and the causal reader. The well known Literary critic and author Harold Bloom suggest that the story is so captivating because of Faulkner’s use of literary techniques such as "sophisticated structure, with compelling characterization, and plot" (14). Through his creative ability to use such techniques he is able to weave an intriguing story full of symbolism, contrasts, and moral worth. The story is brief, yet it covers almost seventy five years in the life of a spinster named Emily Grierson. Faulkner develops the character Miss Emily and the events in her life to not only tell a rich and shocking story, but to also portray his view on the South’s plight after the Civil War. Miss Emily becomes the canvas in which he paints the customs and traditions of the Old South or antebellum era. The story “A Rose For Emily” becomes symbolic of the plight of the South as it struggles to face change with Miss Emily becoming the tragic heroin of the Old South.