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A Rose For Emily Change Analysis

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In the story "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner illustrates the story of an older woman refusing to adjust to new customs of the southern society. Miss Emily's behavior, her appearance, and the house she resides in, all portray her inability to adapt to the modernizing South. All in all, the decaying of Miss Emily and the old South's social codes cannot survive in a new, changing society. Throughout Miss Emily's resistance to change, her behavior is the first indication that she is stuck in the past. Faulkner describes a time when Emily refuses to pay a tax notice when she is requested to by the sheriff's department. But as soon as she receives a personal letter from the mayor himself, she immediately writes back with "the tax notice also …show more content…

Emily once again refuses to realize times have changed and no one is exempt from paying their taxes. The author also informs the reader that Colonel Sartoris had died almost ten years prior, which helps the reader understand how out of touch Emily is to her surroundings. Miss Emily represents, “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 1). The town fathers refused to confront her about the smell emanating from her house. Instead, they decide to put lime to treat the odor. Even the town pharmacist gives arsenic to Miss Emily without a valid explanation as to what her motives are behind it. The community looks after Emily but only out of a sense of duty and not genuine concern for her welfare. This is illustrated by all of the townspeople gossiping about her. Many neighbors disagree with allowing Emily to freely behave as she pleases, but instead they continue to follow the orders given by the town fathers who felt that the community owes it to Miss Emily’s deceased father to watch over her. Faulkner also narrates that Miss Emily refuses to put house numbers on the side of her house. Eventually the town began to receive free postal service, therefore, residents in Jefferson needed to attach mailboxes and postal numbers to

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Miss Emily comes from an upper class family. She shuts herself off from her community and hides the fact that she lived with her dead husband for years. Faulkner characterizes Miss Emily as a “monument” and as “a tradition, a duty, and a care, a sort of hereditary obligation”. Miss Emily comes from an upper class, and because of this people allow her to do things uncommon to the normal man, such as not having to pay taxes. In addition to her social status, Miss Emily isolates herself.

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It is clear that in her era, Miss Emily was seen as traditional American Southern women, who lived to become an inferior women to man but was later a burden to her society. She was a lady who was secluded from society, lived a psychopathic life, which at the end, and was no secret for the town’s people. While Miss Emily was alive, she lived in a secluded home of a single father, thus leading her to be dependent upon him. She did not have much of a socially engaged life, for her father drove men away. When he finally died, Miss Emily told the townspeople that he was not dead, and finally, on the third day, let the town’s people buried him (William Faulkner 1105).

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As he walks in, Josephine screams and falls down dead; the happiness that she had felt was too much for her weak heart. Likewise, “A Rose for Emily,” written by William Faulkner, opens on a woman, Emily Grierson, except this time the woman is already dead. The story is told from the perspective of the townspeople, a collective “we.” They recount when she was exempted from her taxes, and then when she refused to pay them after the death of the person who remitted her. Then, the townspeople go back further to a time when Emily’s house had a stench so foul, a judge was consulted about what to do; it was decided that a few townspeople would stealthily sprinkle lime about her property in order to not confront her and seem discourteous.

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

Emily grapples with her emotions, desires and her mental state. In the small southern town of Jefferson where “Alive, Miss Emily has been a tradition, a duty, and a carer (Falkner (3)). Miss Emily, more of a symbol to the town than an actual person. She embodies the upper-class southern women made of steel, accepting any help would be even worse than admitting that there is a problem in the first place. Miss Emily, struggling within herself to accept the new culture of the town, refuses to pay the taxes nor accept help.

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The town was advancing with new ideas and as the next generation took charge, they required everyone to pay taxes, even Emily. Still rooted in the past, Emily tells them to go see Colonel Sartoris who relieved her from paying taxes. It is stated that Colonel Sartoris died ten years ago but Emily didn’t accept that. She insisted that they go talk to the Colonel. These were new changes in society that Emily was not accustomed to.

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Even though the public and private had a distant relationship, the public tried to interfere with the private. Faulkner describes Miss Emily as “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (803). For instance, when her house gave off a horrendous odor, the town took it upon themselves to get rid of it. Faulkner explains, “Four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn…they broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings” (806). Even when Miss Emily purchased arsenic, Faulkner states, “The druggist looked down at her, ‘…the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for’”

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1174 Words | 5 Pages

After Emily’s father died she refused to pay taxes in her city. The sheriff made several attempts to collect and she just plainly refused. Also, she refused to allow them to put up numbers to her house when federal mail service was requiring it. Then, she went to the store to buy a poison and by law it cannot be sold without a reason; however, she did not give the explanation and gave the cashier a hostile stare which led him to sell it without question. Similarly, Sylvia is a young student, but does not like Miss Moore, who is a volunteer to assist educating kids on the weekends.

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Throughout the story, the main character, Miss Emily Grierson, shows signs of what appears to be some form of mental illness. Although Faulkner never states that Miss Emily has anything wrong with her mental health, he does provide enough evidence to support that she is not psychologically stable. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner portrays the main character as a mysterious icon of the small town of Jefferson, Mississippi. As the story states, Emily’s father is an admirable figure in the city of Jefferson. After his passing, the townspeople show the same respect for Emily, as well.

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Telling the story in an irregular order, Faulkner develops a sense of suspense by adding details to the mysterious Miss Emily. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care: a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (451). The reader learns that Miss Emily had been seen as an eccentric woman that the people of the town had to take care of and overlook, ultimately overlooking her as a suspect in Homer Barron’s disappearance. Miss Emily often disappears into her house for months and years at a time,

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In his short story, “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner intends to convey a message to his audience about the unwillingness in human nature to accept change and more specifically the secretive tendencies of aristocrats in the South during the early 20th century. In order to do this, Faulkner sets up a story in which he isolates and old aristocratic woman, Miss Emily, from her fellow townspeople and proceeds to juxtapose her lifestyle with theirs. In doing this he demonstrates her stubborn refusal to change along with the town, but also Among several literary devices the author employs to achieve this contrast, Faulkner sets up his narrator as a seemingly reliable, impartial and knowledgeable member of the community in which Miss Emily lives by using a first person plural, partially omniscient point of view. The narrator is present for all of the scenes that take place in the story, but does not play any role in the events, and speaks for the town as a whole. Faulkner immediately sets up his narrator as a member of the community in the first line of the story, saying that when Miss Emily died “our whole town went to her funeral.”

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525 Words | 3 Pages

"Colonel Sartoris, the mayor, . . . remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity"(Faulkner 803–4). The citizens of Jefferson are determined to take care of Miss Emily and how she is viewed publicly, but they are demolishing her privacy by doing so. The odd relationship between Miss Emily and Homer Barron also shows how public and private connects. According to Willow D. Crystal, William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" suggests how Miss Emily and the town of Jefferson are not only private and public but also how they connect. I agree, but I would add that the townspeople of Jefferson begin to feel like it is their duty to take care of her.

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191 Words | 1 Pages

In "A Rose for Emily" William Faulkner uses old southern customs, refusal of change, and traditions. Faulkner uses the elements of modernism by telling how Emily is stuck with old southern customs. "She told them that her father was not dead", by not accepting the fact that he was, they felt like she had to leech on of what she had lost (724). "The structure itself of the story underscores the stagnant, repetitive nature of Emily Grierson's existence" (Schwab 217). She is stuck in the past and in her ways by "the house filled with dust and shadows", the same dust was there when her father died, her refusing to change (727).

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378 Words | 2 Pages

There are many themes represented in William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily”, but the most prevalent is the fear of change. In the story, Emily Grierson is raised by an overbearing father that lets her go out very little and has her follow a distinguished traditional lifestyle (Schwab). When Emily’s father dies her desire to keep her life from changing is shown in her reluctance to remove his body (Schwab). She does not accept what is going on until townsfolk come and force her to hand over the body and face reality. Emily is lost at this point, the one controlling her actions is gone and she is stuck in a changing society that she refuses to go along with it to where the townsfolk call her “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary

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