Decay In A Rose For Emily

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses imagery and symbolism to both illustrate and strengthen the most prevalent theme; Emily’s resistance to change. William Faulkner seems to reveal this theme through multiple descriptions of Miss Grierson’s actions, appearance, and her home. Throughout the short story it is obvious that Emily has a hard time letting go of her past, she seems to be holding onto every bit of her past. Readers see this shown in several ways, some more obvious than others.

In “A Rose for Emily” Miss Emily Grierson live a life of quiet turmoil. Her entire life has revolved around an inexplicable loneliness mostly characterized by the harsh abandonment of death. The most vital imagery utilized by Faulkner demonstrates Miss Emily’s mental condition. She, being self-improsened within the confines of her home, is the human embodiment of her house; Faulkner describes it as “... stubborn an coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps--an eyesore among eyesores.” (Faulkner 308).

The symbolism between the past and the present was also shown in the beginning of the story when Faulkner wrote, "…only now Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps – an eyesore among eyesores." It was ironic that the same description "stubborn and coquettish decay" could be a description for Emily as well (71). As the house fell into decay, so did Miss Emily, "She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water and of that pallid hue." Miss Emily was described as "a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head" (72). Traditionally, in the Old South people wore black while they were grieving the death of a loved one. The cane she used

Miss Emily’s life was one of deep isolation and possible mental illness. The town’s people seemed to put her up on some sort of pedestal. Everyone in town was curious about her life, she hardly ever ventured out giving her a mysterious persona. The idea that Emily was some type of monument is perplexing since she didn’t interact with anyone other than her manservant.” People in our town, remembering how Old Lady Wyatt, her great-aunt, had gone completely crazy at last, believed the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.” (Norton, 806) Emily going to the drug store asking for poison, specifying arsenic and not furnishing a reason for it’s use was an example where she thought she was above everyone. Emily didn’t care about laws she just wanted what she wanted and people gave in because they pitied her. Eventually, you learn that her lover Homer Barron wouldn’t be one that the coroner would get out of the house like he was able to do with her father, which took three

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.

“A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, is a story of Miss Emily Grierson, a woman who was born into a wealthy family in the town of Jefferson. She grew up and lived in a huge Victorian home with servants. After the Civil War, it seems that her family’s wealth started to diminish but the Grierson’s were still trapped in the past of their family’s wealth. Emily Grierson’s past and present life is being recalled by a narrator who expresses the attitudes and ideas of the community. The narrator uses phrases like “We knew”, “We said”, and “We believed” to show the towns involvement. The townspeople pity Miss Emily and look at her as “fallen monument.

Miss Emily was strange and mysterious woman because she didn’t want to see anyone and she didn’t leave her house so many years passed nobody had been able to visit her,she didn’t want to adjust to the new generation and she wouldn’t communication with them.She is the classic outsider,controlling and limiting the town’s access to her true identify by remaining hidden.the house that shields Emily from the word suggest the mind of the woman who inhabits it.

In fact, the townspeople unrealistically view Emily as a “fallen monument” when she passes away. Additionally, they are even pleased to hear her father dies because they hope it makes her “become humanized”. Judging every aspect of Emily’s life, the townspeople try to make sure Emily follows their rules. In particular, they try to force Emily to pay taxes, even though she has not paid taxes in years. And they also sneak into her lawn to sprinkle lime because they did not enjoy the way her house smell.

Emily Grierson grows up in a shielded world due to her father. Her world would revolve around him which caused her life to be unknown to others. This brings a small amount of foreshadowing in that it hints the reader that due to Emily’s sheltered life, her affairs would remain unknown to the town’s people. When her father died, she became so emotionally unstable in which she was afraid of being left alone and refused to dispose of her father’s dead body. Emily is faced with confusion due to the fact that she had never experienced what life without her father’s constant control was.

Towards the beginning it is beautiful but deteriorates soon after. “It was a big squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterates even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson” (Faulkner 1). This shows that once, Emily was beautiful and lively.

The House was basically a sanctuary for Miss Emily to escape the pressures of change and live in her own wicked reality. The home was a reminder to the community of the past, no matter how much time had passed it still remained standing representing stagnation and antiqueness. As time passes on although the house is decaying it still stands tall as a reminder to all who live there. This home provided nothing more but Isolation for Emily. The house allowed her to remain isolated from people and therefore she never interacted with the rest of society. This is why the house cannot be called a home because it was filled with nothing but mystery and quietness. Another important symbol is Emily’s gray hair that is found next to Homers dead body. Hair typically represents a girl’s freedom or prison. If a women in litterateur is wearing her hair up all the time it’s because she is being held back and as soon as she lets it loose it represents new change and freedom. In the context of Emily’s hair its decayed, old, and gray state represents her perverse yet everlasting love for homer and so she pays homage to his dead body by leaving her hair behind. Another important symbol is the Lime. It represents the towns refusal to take action about the creepy things that were going on in her home in order for them to keep reliving this obsessive ideas about Emily. So they just sprinkle lime juice all around her house like a symbolic ritual in order to mask the smell. The final symbol is the pocket watch. This represents Emily’s inability to fulfill her need for love as time quickly

It is the only house on the street, and it is referred to as the “eyesore among eyesores” (pg. 121). After Emily’s father dies, she is left alone in the house with no one to talk to but a servant. However, Emily stays in the house for many years without letting anyone in or out of it. She keeps herself completely withdrawn from the public eye, and when it comes time for the postal service to attach the equipment to her door “Miss Emily alone refused to let them…She would not listen” (pg. 125). In doing this, Emily succeeds in isolating her home even further by not allowing the new technology into her environment. At the end of the story, when Emily passes, it’s “in one of the downstairs bedrooms…with her head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight” (pg. 125). Emily dies without ever knowing what it’s really like to live a full life.

Emily has always been protected by the house, and the house was Emily’s safe haven that no one could enter and that she could control. Emily had spent her entire life inside, isolated from society and never truly learning how to be a woman or how to love. The house was a place Emily had felt loved and she wanted to share that love with other people, but Emily’s murdering Homer turned the house from a home to a prison. “It was a big squarish frame house that had once been white…set on what had once been our most select street…only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores” (437). The house used to be beautiful and full of love, but once Emily’s father died the house slowly began to die and disintegrate, reflecting Emily’s mind.

This relates back to when Emily was young, she was full of youth and beautiful. As time passed “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left.”, but when her father died, Miss Emily’s life took a turn for the worse. After her father’s death, Emily became more of shut in, which was reflected in the house, “ The house itself was secluded from the town, much like she was. When she became old and ill, so did the house, “fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows.” The house became dilapidated and faded, the inside covered in dust by the passage of time. He uses the house to show her fall from grace; an aristocrat, to a peculiar solidarity. The aristocrats

First, we see that Miss Emily is mysterious even from the very beginning because the narrator talks about how her house used to be, “white, decorated with cupolas, and spires, and scrolled balconies”. By the way the narrator describes her house it seems that it used to be very beautiful and full of life, but now the, “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated”. The narrator mentions in the story is that Miss Emily had a manservant; we start to ask ourselves the question that if she has a servant to wait on her hand and foot than how could she let her house get in such a bad shape like that when she could have asked her servant to keep the house tidy since she is too old to do it herself. Another thing that is mysterious is that the narrator mentions that she hardly ever leaves her house