Analysis Of As I Lay Dying By William Faulkner

William Faulkner appears to be one of the most controversial, contradictory, and sharply interesting modernist writers. His outstanding novel As I Lay Dying and intriguing short story A Rose for Emily disclose numerous important social and moral issues. Specifically these literal works demonstrate the whole selfishness and dark side of human nature. It occurs that despite numerous differences in plot details and general thematic aspects, both works have similar meaningful background. In fact, both stories describe a death of a woman, who remains misunderstood and unappreciated by her surroundings. Reading A Rose for Emily prior to As I Lay Dying will make the latter clearer, since it will give the reader a more in depth insight concerning Faulkner’s

A Rose for Emily begins with Emily’s death and people from her neighbored visiting her home to attend the funeral. Gradually the author begins to describe Emily’s life as it was seen by her surroundings. Psychological insight appears to be especially important in this story. The townspeople in A Rose for Emily recollected the behavior, way of life, and major events, connected with Emily Grierson. In fact, being a well known “fallen monument” (Faulkner 794), Emily was absolutely underestimated by the neighbors. Due to her arrogant behavior, people did not notice her severe emotional sufferings or her highly vulnerable

Multiple narration of the novel makes it hard to perceive from the first time. Due to slightly similar meaning, it is better to read the short story before the novel. A Rose for Emily demonstrates the whole brightness and sharp contradictions of Faulkner’s writing style. After reading this short story, a reader will find that the novel As I Lay Dying becomes easier to comprehend. The great insight of the novel lies in the horrible selfishness of people, who should in theory be the closest to one another, coincides with the short story’s sudden conclusion. Particularly the notion of social ignorance towards human nature along with the fact that they are unable to express their true identity are the most characteristic features of these two modernist