A Rose For Emily Old South

Her unwillingness to change after the civil war was one of the reasons she was so isolated. The narrator tells us twice that Miss Emily is similar to an idol, probably because she was raised to think she was above others, and others were raised to look up to her as well.  She was stuck with the mindset that she was better than others, even when the community was changing she believed that she didn’t have to obey the law. She also kept to herself and no one knew anything about her. According to Faulkner, the quote “…A note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin flowing calligraphy in faded ink…” shows me in a symbolic way, that Emily is stuck in time. The story of Emily is old and dated itself. The author uses the words archaic, calligraphy, and faded. It took me back in time while reading these words, which is exactly what Emily is.

Culture is also important to the setting in the story being told. Miss Emily was a Grierson. The high and might Grierson’s as they were known in Jefferson. Faulkner talks about how “Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of the august names where they lay in a cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of the union and confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.” By describing this culture setting Faulkner is setting the tone for what kind of character Emily is, and what kind of family she had. The Grierson’s were a powerful family in Jefferson, royalty if you will, and Emily was the last of this great family.

The term "death" refers to someone who is dying or had been killed, basically someone who is at the end of their life. But, to Miss Emily, "death" has a different meaning. "Death" to Miss Emily is when someone is still living their life, even though they are skeletons. Miss Emily keeps dead bodies because she does not ever see death for what it is. She does not think they are dead. In "A Rose for Emily", the theme of control is shown through Emily's interaction with her father in her youth, as well as in Emily's controlling of death.

In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.

“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 1). Emily, a member of the town’s elite class, relied upon her father when growing up and after his death, she refused to pay her taxes, stating that her father contributed much to society. But it was evident that she didn’t pay them because of a lack of maturity - financially and socially. When she was younger she pushes herself onto Homer Barron, a Northerner with no interest in marriage. Throughout the story, Emily is conflicted over societal change, and clings to her privileged manner even after finding herself in poverty. Yet, she becomes involved with a man from a lower social class, and a Northerner as well - hinting that he has different beliefs and values. The townspeople, however, believe the relationship it too modern when there is a possibility they are having physical relations despite not being serious about marriage. The community’s inability to commit to progress, contribute to the confused Emily’s decision. In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner uses the symbolism of Emily’s house and her hair to demonstrate her emotional instability and physical deterioration, illustrating the outcome of his story.

William Faulkner wrote, "A Rose for Emily." In the gothic, short story he contrasted the lives of the people of a small Southern town during the late 1800's, and he compared their ability and inability to change with the time. The old or "Antebellum South" was represented by the characters Miss Emily, Colonel Sartoris, the Board of Aldermen, and the Negro servant. The new or "Modern South" was expressed through the words of the unnamed narrator, the new Board of Aldermen, Homer Barron, and the townspeople. In the shocking story, "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner used symbolism and a unique narrative perspective to describe Miss Emily's inner struggles to accept time and change

Faulkner used a setting and time to show Emily had a hard time accepting change and moving on with her life. They story took place right after the Civil War. Most African Americans were loathed and discriminated but Emily was relived from her father. Money showed a social statement back then and Emily’s father had money. Since her father loaned the town money she had become a well appreciated woman even after his passing. In stated in the story, “she had chosen not to come out of the house and when the townspeople had saw her they seen a different Emily.” As stated in the book

There are many instances where Emily resists change, unable to let go of the Southern, antebellum lifestyle she grew up with. This creates a contrast between Emily and the rest of the town, which is progressing and modernizing as time goes by. Emily’s traditional nature puts an emphasis on her representation of the past. She actively resists modernization, choosing to reply to the mayor’s offer to call with a letter “on paper of an archaic shape, [written with] thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink” (Faulkner 1). Emily’s actions represent the past and an inability to let go of it. She is stuck in the past, unwilling to accept the change that the future brings. Emily and her house are the last glimpses of the past in her town; as the town progresses, her house stood unmoving, “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons” (Faulkner 1). The house continues to display the style of the past, despite the decay and progression of style. Emily and her house represent the past, when her house was new and in style. Emily’s resistance to change and longing for the past is appropriate, considering her age and upbringing. She is an older woman, who grew up during the Civil War era in the South. The reason the South fought in the Civil War was to protect their lifestyle at all costs. The South was unwilling to change, stubbornly clinging to the antebellum way of life. This philosophy shaped the

Faulkner develops the character of Emily and events in her life not only to tell a shocking story but also to portray his view on the Antebellum South. Emily is a figure of the world that struggles with a change. Both Faulkner and Williams by creating those two female characters shared with readers and the audience their reflection on the after-Civil War South — the place where they were born and

The Reconstruction Era pushes away the refinement of Emily’s time and leaves her obsolete in a culture where she feels foreign and ostracized. Because of the Civil War and the following Reconstruction Era, the transformation of society challenges Emily’s strength of character, but she stays true to herself and her upbringing. Out of desperation to preserve her way of life and yet acquire a husband, she attaches her affections basically to the first man who comes along and even murders him rather than risk losing him. Only after her death do the townspeople discover how truly impervious and perverse she has been in her total dedication to forever remain a genteel antebellum Southern belle even though it makes her an anachronism. William Faulkner utilizes his own understanding of the Old South from his Mississippi roots and the stories of the strong southern women in his family to create believable, memorable characters who could not exist in any other place or

Through Miss Emily, Faulkner conveys his perspective on the drastic changes the south went through post Civil War. Miss Emily is displayed in many forms that include her attitude, behavior, and physical image. She is depicted as a crazed, lonely woman who never came out of her house. Such descriptions gives us reasoning to believe that Miss Emily represented the South’s loss of power. Miss Emily gives us a personal aspect of the conflicts the South encountered.

Post Civil war era Mississippi, a racially divided confederate state. The south is known for hospitality, and that special charm. Yet in “A Rose for Emily” the townspeople tend to gossip about Emily and are very nosey. The author of the short story created an environment in where the values of the town contrast the typical stereotypes of a southern state. William Faulkner's, “A Rose for Emily” exposes the hypocrisy of the Post Civil War south.

In conclusion, Miss Grierson is able to maintain her ways of the Old South, she refused to abide to the new laws from the new generation. Emily Grierson is a symbol of the Old South. William Faulkner sympathizes Miss Grierson by showing us that she was an elderly woman who refused to change her ways, and in the end she is recognized as a fallen

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson is the main character who represents the old values and traditions of pre-Civil War who is faced with the new values and traditions that challenge everything she has ever known. The very first description we get of Emily is the reason people attend her funeral: “the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument” (Faulkner 168) which immediately gives the reader an idea of her being from a past time. Her family’s home is the last remaining building from the town Emily grew up in because “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood” (Faulkner 168). The first major example of Emily’s inability to conform with the new traditions is the revoking of Colonel Sartoris’s tax deal. The old tradition pitied her after her father’s death, but the new tradition didn’t value this and sent her a tax notice every year to which she always sent back. When the sheriff visits to collect the taxes, Emily insists that he needs to talk to Colonel Sartoris who has been dead for 10 years. This delusion shows that Emily is unable to come to terms with the end of the old values. In section II of the story, Emily is trapped as being the last of the Griersons due to her father’s death before he chose a suitor for her. The town “believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner 170) and this combined with the old tradition of the

Faulkner uses Emily’s character to represent the Old South in health and death. Her stubborn attitude and her decorum both reflect the characteristics of the Old South. When the men go to her home and confront her about her unpaid taxes and she asks them to leave, she represents that women in the Old South were not argued with and not questioned as not to insult them. The way that the people of the town treat her reflects this even further. The people of the town treat Emily as a monument just as they had seen the Old South. “It was another link between the gross, teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons.” They see her as something to observe and only interfere when she does something they do not like, such as dating a Northerner. Even in death The Old South follows her. “And now Miss Emily had 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.”