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A Rose For Emily Analysis

Decent Essays

Appearances
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” starts out in a very different way than most stories. “A Rose for Emily” is a short story about a spinster woman. The story is told from the point of view of many people in her town almost like gossip. It is continuously shifting from one perspective to the other painting a full picture and time progression for the reader. Faulkner’s story has a twist though, his writing and language suggests that appearances can be deceiving.
Immediately you can tell that something about the story is different. It starts off with the end of the story. Not a usual beginning, starting with the end. Faulkner uses a non-linear time progression which makes the tone of the story intriguing. The narrative of the story is done through many perspectives of different townspeople. The story is divided into acts which helps the reader understand the progression from the shifts made flip-flopping between end, beginning, middle, and end. The use of the acts also changes the way that Emily is viewed by the town. Emily is considered a fallen monument in the beginning (Faulkner 299), then a young woman with a broken heart following in Act II, and Act III she is a spinster referred to with pity (Faulkner 303). Moving to Act IV she is talked about as though she is a disgrace to the town (Faulkner 304), and finishing in Act V Emily is an unexpected murderess.
What is most interesting about the progression and the relation of Emily and her status within the

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