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Character Analysis of Miss Emily in A Rose for Emily
Character Analysis of Miss Emily in A Rose for Emily
Character Analysis of Miss Emily in A Rose for Emily
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Originally when the community found out Emily was interested in Homer, they were happy that she had found someone because she seemed hopeless. However, the happiness did not last long. The townspeople began to feel
Paloma Cerda Mrs. Koehler ENGL-1301-566 September 20, 2017 In A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner, the story of Miss Emily is told through a very loose format. Through this narration, there is a long and drawn out suspense built up through little hints left by the reader without fully giving away the dark truth behind Emily and her house. Until the end of the story, the narrators ambiguity cleverly points the reader towards the climax of the story where Emily is discovered to be Homer Barron’s killer. This ambiguous element is important to the quality of this short story as it drives it forward and keeps the reader interested.
Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.
Comparison of the “Psycho” and “A Rose for Emily” The Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner are works with different plots and endings. The movie is focused on a maniac, who recreated an image of his mother to kill visitors. Norman Bates killed own mother because he thought she “betrayed” him, and used her personality in his further crimes. The man was caught and his actions were revealed long before his death.
Homer Barron, another main character in the text, is a foreman from the North. In the story, Homer is first introduced when there was construction going on the same pavement of Emily’s house. Emily Grierson seemed to have fallen deeply for him, but things seemed to go from better to worse quickly. For example, the following line states that the people of the town had suspicions about his sexual orientation. As Faulkner stated, “…because Homer himself had remarked – he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' Club – that he was not a marrying man.”
After reading A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, many people initially wonder why Miss Emily would murder Homer Barron. When reviewing the events of the story, it becomes apparent that she displayed symptoms, manifestations of her mental state in her behavior, of being socially inept and thus capable of this heinous crime. These symptoms are unsurprising, as her father represses her, withholding her from the public. Emily accordingly displays symptoms of this repression by evading authorities and the townspeople. Faulkner is trying to get the reader to go back and review this problem-the cause of Homer’s murder- by identifying the signs that this crime occurred and Emily’s symptoms of mental instability.
As soon as Emily felt as if Homer didn’t feel the same because he hasn’t proposed to her she jumps into an unpredictable state of mind. Emily poisons Homer because she refuses to let him abandon her. Miss Brill I basically living a lie. She tries to avoid the fact that she is isolated. Miss Brill involves herself in many other lives that she is around, but she doesn’t converse with anyone.
An epiphany is a moment of insight or sudden realization of something. In the story, "A rose for Emily" by William Faulkner I experienced what I would consider an epiphany at the end of the story when the narrator says, " Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head" and then a few lines later, " we saw a strand of iron gray hair" (316). Throughout the story the narrator used small symbols such as the condition of the house saying, " it was a big squarish frame house that had once been white" and went on to speak of how elaborate and gorgeous it was and got to the point of its current condition as being " left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps – an eyesore among
Several times it is mentioned that he drove all her suitors away because no one was good enough for her in his mind. This showing of love from Emily's father has proven to be more harmful than it is helpful. After her father's death, Emily somewhat begins to panic. She no longer had that leader or figure of total control and dominance in her life. This leads us to Homer Barron which Emily hopes will fulfill her feeling of isolation.
A literary analysis on who is the narrator: The Narrator in A Rose for Emily is First Person Plural There is a mystery that seems to be unsolved throughout the years. Many important and influential literature critics have tried to discover who is the narrator in A Rose for Emily. After an extensive period of research, the mystery of who the narrator is has been solved. There are different points of view and information collected by the main narrator.
Her secret remains a scret until the day of the funeral when her two female cousins and two other gentlemen discover Homer's corpse in a room in her house, and next to the corpse was "a long strand of grey hair," suggesting that Emily was till sleeping next to him in that bed. He had been poisoned forty years prior to them finding his corpse. The awful smell around her house is introduced at the beginning of the story, but its not until the end of the story that the reader learns that smell was actually homer's rotting
Faulkner says, Emily buys Arsenic from the druggist and the next day Homer is seen entering her home and that was the last time anyone ever saw him or Emily for some time. No one but the negro servant left the house. (Faulkner 455) Emily kills Homer because she doesn’t want him to leave her. If he’s dead, he can’t run
Secondly, the first man to come along and show interest in Emily was Homer Barron who did not intend to stay around… forever. Homer shows up to town for construction work on the sidewalks outside her house. The town notices that they are spending a lot of time together, but feel she has downgraded since Emily is an old-fashioned Southern. Homer is the first man to ever show interest in her since her father’s death. After some time, Mr. Homer finishes the construction work and leaves town, but eventually comes back after Emily’s cousins leave.
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior. At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.
If there was a missing person now, the people in the town would have been more suspicious and notified the police. The authorities would have questioned Miss Emily about Homer’s disappearance and searched her house since that is where he was last seen. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, it is important to have knowledge of the background history. In order to understand whats happening in the story and why Miss Emily acts the way she does someone must understand why she thinks she is above everyone in the first place.
