ipl-logo

A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis Essay

1065 Words5 Pages

“A Rose for Emily” Literary Analysis In the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, the main character, Emily Grierson, lost her father at a young age. She was so depressed, she rarely ever went out and kept her father’s body in the house for three whole days. The townspeople forced her to get rid of the body, due to the horrific stench. Emily was once a wealthy, beautiful lady, although most men were feared by her, all except Homer Barron. Ever since her father died, she has gone downhill since. Miss Emily was very much an outsider ever since her father died. She was practically the talk of the town for years. In the short story, it talks about how the townspeople always talked about her and worried about her well being. …show more content…

When her father died, she hardly ever went out. Miss Emily kept the body in the house, just lying there rotting for three days. She was convinced that he was not dead. All the townspeople complained of the smell, but never did anything about it right away. “So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the callar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings” (Faulkner 806). The men were afraid to confront her themselves, so they snuck around the house and took care of the smell themselves. The townspeople and mayor forced her to bury the body and to let go. This shows how she was an outsider and nobody came around her because they were afraid. If she did have visitors, she would shut them out and rarely let anyone in the house. Miss Emily didn’t let Homer Barron ever leave her. She had bought him a nightgown, jewelry, and wedding clothes. Miss Emily figured he was going to leave her and she didn’t want that to happen. OnceMiss Emily realized this, she took charge. “I want some poison” “Yes, Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such?” said the druggist. “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind” “They’ll kill anything up to elephants. But …show more content…

Once Miss Emily was put six feet under, “The negro, servant, met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and their quick, curious glances, and then he disappeared. He walked right through the house and out the back door and was not seen again” (Faulkner 811). The negro servant practically ran out of the house once Miss Emily died. This shows that Miss Emily’s house was like a jail. Once you’re in, you cannot get out. The ladies went to a room above the stairs that was has not been seen in 40 years. The people found a man's body, at least what was left of it, in the bed he layed in. The dead man was wearing a nightgown, and the pillow that laid beside him had a long strand of iron-gray hair and an indentation of a head. It’s as if Miss Emily killed Homer Barron with the rat poison and then laid beside his dead corpse all those years just so he wouldn’t leave her. You can’t leave if you’re already dead, right? I believe this shows how strong of a strange love she had for Homer. The Grierson’s house was a

Show More
Related
1145 Words | 5 Pages

Emily was growing old. Her hair was shortening and turning gray. Soon after realizing that “Homer was not the marrying man” and that he would much rather spend his time with young male mates, Emily decided to retaliate. In order to not lose what she thought was the love of her life, Emily went down to the nearest drug store and bought some rat poison and gave it to Homer. Homer died and Emily kept his body in the upstairs room where no one would dare to go.

Read More
557 Words | 3 Pages

The fire department and the United States Government used fear to help control the citizens' perspective, minds, and lives to help them create peace of mind and happiness in society. In the first example, Montag had just had a serious conversation with Captain Beatty about books, and how firemen naturally had the curiosity to try to open and read a book. This conversation led to Captain Beatty asking Montag if he was going to work the night shift, but Montag was not sure he wanted to go. Montag started walking and was thinking about a conversation he had with Clarisse in which she mentioned something about her uncle telling her a story of why houses now don’t have porches. In the novel it says, “the real reason, hidden underneath, might be

Read More
624 Words | 3 Pages

She lived in an isolated world after her father’s death. Finally, she meets Homer; Homer was a man who knew what he wanted in life, and Miss Emily was not part of it. This drove Miss Emily to do the unthinkable, and she bought rat poison and killed Homer. Years passed, and no one knew that Miss Emily killed Homer and had him lying in the upstairs bed dead. It was intel her death that the towns people realized that miss Emily had become mentally ill with the death of her father and

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

Miss Emily’s father dies, she finds a suitor, and buys poison, then shuts herself and her

Read More
1669 Words | 7 Pages

In Emily’s purchase of clothes and a toilet set for Homer, the author hopes to mix confusion within the plot of the story, while also foreshadowing how these clothes will dress Homer’s dead body. He writes, “We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver, with the letters H. B. on each piece. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt, and we said, ‘They are married.’ We were really glad” (Faulkner 5). When initially reviewing this segment, readers are inclined to believe that possibly Emily’s story would not be of calamity and death, as Faulkner shapes what appears to be a loving marriage between Miss Emily and Mr. Barron.

Read More
1852 Words | 8 Pages

In many situations, the people within the town notice Miss Emily’s odd behavior, but they choose to maintain peace with her instead of helping her when she clearly needs it the most. However, this need to preserve the respectful image of Miss Emily ultimately leads to her emotional breakdown of isolation and

Read More
761 Words | 4 Pages

She has almost no human contact. Toward the end of the story, Emily stuns the town with the privileged insights she has been keeping in her upstairs room, with her psychological condition apparent by the gray hair on the cushion beside Homer Barron 's rotting body. 2) Symbols Black There are two references to the shading dark, typically illustrative of energy, demise or fiendishness, in the story. The primary addresses the title character herself, Emily, who shows up as a ' 'little, husky woman dressed in dark ... inclining

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

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,

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that--oh, that was thirty years ago.” Moreover, in the story “A Rose for Emily, the first instance when the people of the town witness the unusual behavior of Emily is during the death of her father. Emily refuses to accept that her father his dead and therefore prevents the people from carrying her father’s body for burial.

Read More
769 Words | 4 Pages

In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the life of Emily Grierson was explored from the perspective of her community. She preferred to be alone and not associate with the town. However, the people of the town loved to gossip about Miss Emily, and most of the gossip surrounded her father and her relationship with Homer Barron. The gossip surrounding Emily Grierson’s father began with Colonel Sartoris who was the mayor.

Read More
1015 Words | 5 Pages

This can be seen from her perception and description of the man who shares her “special” seat as a “… fine old man” and the woman as “a big old woman” (101). Her Surname 2 remembrance of the previous Sunday’s patient Englishman and his nagging hard to please wife whom she wanted to shake also shows her envy for women with male companionship. In Faulkner’s story A Rose for Emily, Emily is seen as a person who suffers from isolation from her community, by tradition and by law. Her isolation from the community and love is what seems to perturb her most; she is unable to accept the idea that her father is dead and she remains in denial.

Read More
704 Words | 3 Pages

Instead she buys arsenic poison and Faulkner makes the reader believe that she killed Mr. Barron with it. She then continues to live her isolated life from society behind closed doors and then we learned that she has passed away at age seventy-four. At this point is where the people go into her house and find out that she has kept Mr. Barron’s rotting corpse in bed with her. These three characters performed a very important role in Emily’s life that she still holds on to them in some type of way after their deaths. She is denial her whole life and went to the grave with her dirty little

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

The town's clergy now send people to spray for a horrible smell that is coming threw her home. Months go on after that, and all they see is the old Negro coming through the door. We can make the assumption that Emily no longer has the desire for other human contact and wants to stay in the "old southern times. " After much time has passed, the entire town goes to check on Ms. Emily. When they get the door open, we see the old Negro walk out the door and never turn around.

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

The story revolves around a southern woman named Emily Grierson who is the protagonist of the story. The time period of the story happened roughly around late 19th to early 20th century. The setting took place in a fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. The narrator of the story is the people around Emily, which is full of judgmental and gossipers. In the story the narrator describes how Emily change physically and mentally over the years.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

Emily kept her house the same way it had always been and was letting it decay while she stayed in it. She refused to clean or change the house at all to preserve it in the Old South. She did not want to accept the death of other people. When Emily’s father died, she refused the town from taking his body and burying it. She wanted to keep her father’s body with her and the town was “about to use law and force, but she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (453).

Read More

More about A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis Essay

Related Topics

Open Document