A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis

William Faulkner writes “A Rose for Emily”, which is a tale about the peculiar events in a small town in Mississippi. The protagonist, Emily Grierson, is an eccentric lady that encounters tragedies throughout her life. Unexpectedly, she meets Homer Barron whom she considers the love of her life. In this tragic love story, Faulkner reveals the true identities of these individuals. The main character, Emily Grierson, in the story “A Rose for Emily”, is portrayed as a dynamic character, an anti-hero in the story, and a mysterious citizen in the small town of Jefferson.

7) What is the significance of Miss Emily’s actions after the death of her father?

A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner - 91-96, point of view is the narrative point of view the first person. We realize in this story that we the audience don’t know if it is a men or a women. We are able to tell the character when the narrator says “we” in certain points of the text. For example in the text it states,” When we saw her again, her name was cut short , making her look like a girl (pg93).” The text never let’s us know the characters name. The character speaks for the community and it can consider to be the main character. The character shows sympathy for Emily. He as well shows humor when telling the story. Another sympathy the character shows it towards the town of Jefferson and feels the people of the town are unable to control their reactions. The stylistic element the narrator uses is talking about the climax throughout the whole story.

The first character to consider is Miss Emily herself, a southern belle perennially existing in the days of plantation houses and family prestige. Emily remains the same throughout the story refusing to accept a changing world. Emily refuses to pay taxes solely upon the basis of an old agreement with a dead man exemplifying a lack of social evolution, “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves” (Faulkner 83). Another example of Emily’s mind perpetually

Faulkner’s work in the “Rose for Emily” uses sensational elements to highlight an individual’s struggle with time, attachment and an oppressive society. The literately style of “A Rose for Emily” is that of Southern Gothic (Flora, 2002). According to Morledge, southern gothic literature is defined by an important aspect in which the use of grotesque events in writing is extensively used in most stories. Such events are easily identified in “A Rose for Emily”. Faulkner is able to take us through time. He has the ability to manipulate time by expanding the story out over several years. Another fascinating element Faulkner used in the short story “A Rose for Emily” was foreshadowing. He has a talent in building suspense throughout the story by dropping hints everywhere, making the reader predict a different ending every time.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” concentrates on Emily Grierson, an old southern woman who is set in her ways as the town Jefferson progresses around her. The story continues by comparing Emily when she was a young lady to the woman she became. Faulkner explores the secret life of Emily, who is the center of the town’s gossip and unearths Emily’s past, and her hidden secrets. Through Faulkner’s Southern Gothic style of writing he illustrates a time, which would be otherwise unimaginable for the reader, the author uses these Gothic elements to create an atmosphere that gives the reader a sense of doom throughout the story, while also using these elements to further the plot through strong foreshadowing.

Miss Emily, the main character in his short story, is a representation of the Old South. She cannot change, nor can she move forward with new ideas. Faulkner knew women just like Emily and the story was a tribute to those women who hopelessly wanted to hold onto the old southern ways. More broadly, Emily is meant to represent people who did not accept the new South. Emily held onto the traditions of the south, denied the death of two important men in her life, and was honoured by the townsfolk of Jefferson as a monument. Additionally, her house can be thought to symbolize the dying ways of the Old South. Finally, she attempts a relationship with a man who is all wrong for her, because they embody two different souths: the old and the new. Emily is a symbol of the Old South, which is hopeless and flawed. Faulkner knew of the changes sweeping across the South, and he knew that the old southern traditions would die just as Emily

"A Rose for Emily" is a dark short story written by William Faulkner and published in 1930.

In the entire story we are presented with the narrator’s different feelings towards Emily from having a “respectful affection for a fallen monument” to “feel really sorry for her” (Faulkner). The entire story is tell by the town. From the town’s perspective, Emily is “a tradition, a duty, and a care”(Fulkner). It seems that for the town it was exciting knowing what was happening to Emily, but it wasn’t only gossip they would judge her from the things she should do or shouldn’t do and wihtout knowing the exact truth. In consequence of the constantt judge, invasion and gossip of her life it may have pressured her to be isolated from the community. The narrator mentions how “ she passed from generation to generation--dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.” (Faulkner) meaning that it was inevitable for the town to talk about her, even when she was getting older and lonely. The gossip keeps on going even after she dies, when the town is curious to see her house which leads them to find the truth and the reason of her isolation with the

1) The point of view of "A Rose for Emily" is given by the townspeople. It changes from the perspective of the ladies, to the men of Jefferson, and both of them. Everyone in the town is always curious to how Emily is and her relationships day-to-day. The story states, "When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said, "She will marry him" (Faulkner), which shows how the people of Jefferson watch Ms. Emily with a hawks eye. This perspective of different groups rather than just one person shows that many people in the town thought the same of Ms. Emily. The amount of truth could be changed though with this perspective, it could be biased based off of general belief but without the thoughts of Homer Barron, the negro servant,

In the story "A Rose for Emily"written by William Faulkner tells a wonderful short story of a lonely lady stuck in her own time frame. Is a story told from the viewpoint of a resident of the town which Emily was, born, raised, and eventually died. The story totally caught my attention because the general tone is one of violence, gloom, and terror. The setting plays an essential role because it allows the reader a better understanding of the different circumstances. The main character of the story, which is Emily, plays the role of a tragic figure that seems to be seen only from the outside. In the story, Emily is constantly judged by the townspeople because of her physical appearance, but they do not understand what she is going through emotionally. There is another important character in the story is “Homer Baron” who becomes Emily’s lover. The story is divided into five sections made up of several

William Faulkner was an American novelist and short storyist who wrote numerous stories and novels throughout the 1920s-1960s. Faulkner was unlike the other authors of his era such as Charles Dickens, as his works commonly provoked a psychological response of the reader. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949, for his major literary works The Sound and the Fury, various screenplays such as Stream of Consciousness and as I Lay Dying. He also is known for his works following the life of the impoverished white population of the south, in which he maintained the gravity of emotion as he highlighted the unglamorous, raw lives of the poor in Oxford, Mississippi. These observations also contributed to the intensity and common setting in the same fictional county of his later novels Sanctuary, A Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom!. Not only did Faulkner compose novels which taxed one’s psyche, but he also wrote technically challenging novels such as The Wild Palms, which can be credited to fathering the modern styles of writing. Of his short stories, he continued using his observations of southern culture in the 1930s, as well as used intrinsic language to compose various works, such as The Unvarnished, yet both, his style and common themes meld together in his 1930 short story A Rose for Emily.

Growing up, Emily Grierson's father kept her away from love. He rejected all men who wanted to love her, but after he passes, Emily begins to attempt to fill the gap in her life. However, when she finds out that her newly found lover is gay, her love takes a dark turn. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the lack of freedom from town expectations, and moods swings erupting upon her father’s death lead her to fall for an emotionally unavailable male. Emily does not know anything about love because her father was very strict about her having relationships. Emily’s mother is not mentioned in the story, thus making it seem she either died when Emily was young or she does not live with the family. This shows that Emily does not have the “mother-daughter” bond that a girl needs. Emily now has a stronger bond with her father. Every male that wanted to be with her, her father ran off. The story quotes, “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily...Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip...” (paragraph 26). This states that Emily’s father was always in the background watching over her like a small child. Even though multiple men had come to date her, they were never good enough. After her father dies, she now has the freedom to do as she pleases. Even though Emily’s father kept her in the shadows, she still loved him very much. After he passes, she

In "A Rose for Emily", William Faulkner recounts the narrative of an old and desolate woman stuck in her own time span. Her controlling father kicked the bucket about thirty years back and she has never fully discovered her own ground. Her home has turned into the most repulsive looking home on the once most select road in the city. Beforehand rich and white with looked over galleries, it was presently infringed with clean and rot. The general population in Miss Emily's city talk about her and pity her lost soul. She soon starts dating a youthful lone wolf by the name of Homer Barron, whom is a piece of the development organization clearing walkways on her road. They start taking surrey rides together, and townspeople talk more, and pity Miss Emily more.

Emily Rose was the town’s nutcase. The town’s people always had some gossip to spread about her, but never knew the real Emily. She was a mysterious woman who only exposed herself to the few who were worthy, but was a hot commodity in the town. In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the characters, plot and setting strengthen the eeriness yet comical short story.