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.
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
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.
Emily is higher class and she kills Homer, her lower-class lover. The speaker of “Porphyria’s Lover” is lower class and kills Porphyria, his higher class lover. Because of the different social statuses there is conflict in each relationship, so they could never truly be equal. Due to the time these stories were set in their relationships would always be seen as disgraceful, as a high-class woman marrying a low-class man was considered very shameful. Social class conflict is not a significant motivation to Emily, but it is to the speaker.
Many modernists were inspired by the Civil War, WWI, and the Great Depression to introduce a new theme into literature. This theme consisted of the stream of conscious, and hopelessness. A short piece that has both of these themes is “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” by Katherine Ann Porter. Porter’s short story compared to many other modernistic pieces during the modernist time period. A terrific comparison to this story is the story “Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, which also has both the stream of conscious and hopelessness as themes.
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.
“We remembered all the young men her father had driven away” (453). Miss Emily’s father drove away young men interested in her, not allowing her to have a love life and therefore a life outside of him. This controlling treatment of Miss Emily by Mr. Grierson coincides with Emily’s fight to control her love life with Homer. “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” (454). If it weren’t for the fact that Miss Emily murdered Homer, he would have left her, therefore she used the murder as a way to keep him close to
In William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson, a prominent member of her small town, dies alone in her home. Upon her death, curious townsfolk entered her home trying to learn her secrets. It was thought she was crazy. Emily Grierson was not crazy; she was isolated by her father, which led to her odd social tendencies and unique interactions with others. A Rose for Emily is a short story based in a small town.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” critiques the American South Describing Emily’s vibrant life full of hope and buoyancy, later shrouded into the profound mystery, Faulkner emphasizes her denial to accept the concept of death. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the South during the transitional time period from the racial discrimination to the core political change of racial equality. Starting from the description of her death, “A Rose for Emily” tells the story about the lady who is the last in her generation (Emily Grierson). Being strong, proud and a traditional lady of southern aristocracy, Emily turns into an evil, unpredictable and mysterious old lady after the death of her father. Even though “A Rose for Emily”
When Emily’s father dies and shortly after Homer’s disappearance follows, we see a depressed and a lonely Emily who never leaves the
Analysis of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is the best short story because its plot, setting, and symbols are well formulated and incorporated into the story to effectively convey the themes of death and change, race and gender. A Rose for Emily is a short story regarding the life of Emily Grierson as told through the perspectives of the townspeople in a tiny old town in the South. The story begins with the awkward relationship between Emily and her dad, pre and posts his death, and further explores how Emily gets secluded after poisoning her “Yankee” partner Homer Barron and concealing his remains for more than a decade in her bed. William Faulkner exploits various literary devices to create various themes.
One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, William Faulkner, in his short story "A Rose for Emily", the theme of class discrimination dominates the whole story. The story takes place in Jefferson, a small southern town where social hierarchy is strictly enforced. This short story about the experiences of Emily, the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, shows the conflict between the lower and upper classes. The main protagonist Emily fell into depression after the death of her strict father. Another subject of the story is that Emily is closed to the innovations of the changing world and is always despised by his surroundings.
Kierrah Edwards ENGL 201 9/20/15 Character Analysis: Emily Grierson The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner depicts how seclusion can certainly impact one’s life. Throughout the story, Emily gives off this “insane” impression. However, after fully reading the story, the reader can fully understand why Emily was the way she was. Emily Grierson was a very dependent person.
One of William Faulkner’s best short story of all time is “A Rose for Emily.” The story is a suspense and horror, that will leave readers in shock. Additionally, the story is in chronological order and cleverly broken down into five parts. The first part of the story is the current event that shows Emily’s funeral and the town people mourning. The other four part are pieces of puzzle that shows flash backs of Emily Grierson on how the everyone in town viewed her.
