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Deconstruction Analysis: A Rose For Emily

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Deconstruction Analysis: A Rose for Emily Deconstruction, according to Dictionary.com, is a philosophical and critical movement, that questions all traditional assumptions about the ability of language to represent reality. "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner incites its readers to look for the deeper meaning behind every temporal shift, symbol and conflict in order to truly understand the author's view about a certain reality. The story begins with Emily's funeral and from there on, the reader goes back in time to her life until her death. Instead of beginning the story with Emily's birth and developing it until her death, the author begins with her death and lets curiosity guide the reader throughout the passage. Although it is written …show more content…

From that, it is clear that Emily is someone who lived outside of society's laws. When Emily's father died, refusing to cope with the harsh reality, she cuts her hair short, making her look like a little girl (147). Her cutting off her hair symbolizes the amount of pain she's bottling up while she tries to convince herself that she still has a father to protect her just like when she was a little girl. Later on, in Act V, Faulkner mentions a "long strand of iron-gray hair" (151). This is a quite subtle symbol of time, which could mean that not only was Emily a necrophilia, but also, she remained faithful to Homer's dead body until she died. Once again demonstrating how important marriage was to …show more content…

Firstly, there is the conflict between the Self and Traditional view; Emily grew up in a well-known aristocrat family, which was considered as one of the pillars of her community. Growing up, her father had high expectation when it came to men for her, therefore, she could only socialize with a specific group of people. However, not long after her father died, Emily meets Homer, a dark-skinned northerner for whom she openly has feelings for. " Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow –wheeled buggy... (147). Unfortunately, when Homer refuses to marry Emily due to his sexual preference, he stepped into an inescapable fate which result to Emily killing him and keeping his body in her house. Aside from that, there is also the conflict between the Society and Emily. Because she is the heir of a respected family, Colonel Sartoris (the mayor) invents a story saying that Emily's father had loaned money to the town which exempts Emily from having to pay taxes as a citizen. Therefore, when the authorities came to collect taxes, she dismissed them by saying: "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Satoris explained it to me […] See Colonel Satoris"

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594 Words | 3 Pages

Emily was isolated by her father, isolated her from men and let Homer Barron isolated her permanently. Emily was sick for a long time, her hair was cut short and looks like a girl, she had grown fat also and her hair was turning grey. Emily's love story is not a traditional romance because their relationship is shrouded in mystery. And they met but are not destined to be together. The relationship ends abruptly, instead of spending more time with Emily, but what Emily perceives as romantic interest is merely platonic from his

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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624 Words | 3 Pages

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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315 Words | 2 Pages

The author is able to portray Emily’s both internal and external damage that is done to her throughout the story. Emily first starts off with quite an normal mentality for her age and era, but as she gets older you are able to see how her mentality just crumbles. Emily starts off as a hopeful and vibrant girl, but once her father dies she seems to become sullen and her unnatural behavior begins to inhibit within her. Her father being the only male figure in her life that she loved; since her father would cast away any man that came her way, caused an effect in her she no longer knew the difference between love and kindness. Emily’s moral even fades, as she confuses Homer’s kindness for love and doesn’t want him to leave just like the

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716 Words | 3 Pages

Homer Barron is described as “a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face” (Faulkner 4). No woman wants to feel as if they’re unattractive, especially when it comes to someone they like in an intimate way. However, Emily’s problem wasn’t that she was unattractive because according to Faulkner, she was quite beautiful in her youth. The ultimate issue did not lie on Emily, but on Homer Barron because of his odd remark that he liked men. Emily must have been confused and a tad bit sad to find out that the man she liked didn’t like her back.

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454 Words | 2 Pages

The indention and long strand of gray hair shows that Emily was lonely enough to sleep with a skeleton of someone who did not reciprocate her love. Homer may have threatened to leave her which would have left her to be alone again. The feeling of someone leaving her reminded her of her father’s death. When her father died Emily refused to even admit he was dead, “for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” (560)

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1583 Words | 7 Pages

Miss Emily’s opinions can be inferred in what the townspeople were saying about her and Homer Barron. “At first, we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, ‘Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer’” (A Rose for Emily). This demonstrates the thought process of the town as an older, aristocratic woman who is stuck in her antebellum beliefs would not think to even be acquainted with a Northern carpet

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1607 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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950 Words | 4 Pages

In the article, it said she made preparations to marrying Homer. The same time she bought the arsenic, she got a man 's toilet set silver and a nightshirt. When Emily 's cousins left, Homer returned to Emily 's house and remained there for forty years. This was strong parts that she may have killed

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1119 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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872 Words | 4 Pages

The women are portrayed as intrusive and controlling when Emily is going around with Homer Barron. In fact the ladies influence the Baptist minister enough to call Emily out. Their conversation does not bear fruit with the minister refusing to go back to her house, his wife informs Emily’s cousin about her wrongdoings. This theme continues when Emily’s

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932 Words | 4 Pages

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is written about the change from old south to new south. This change takes place after the Civil War ended. Emily refuses to accept the changes by living in her own version of reality. An analysis of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” will explain how Faulkner portrays the change in the social structure of the American South in the early twentieth century as a change from old south to sew south by showing the Griersons no longer hold power, the changes in the town, and Emily’s denial to change.

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649 Words | 3 Pages

Faulkner makes Emily’s flaws abundantly clear from the start of the story. The first sentence, “the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of the house, which no one save an old manservant-a combined gardener and cook--had seen in the last ten years” (Faulkner 517) serves to describe Emily as an outsider and sort of outcast before the story really even starts. Faulkner uses Emily to capture an extreme version of what he saw a little of in all women. One example of Emily’s differentness is her dating of Homer. Faulkner describes Homer as an outsider the first time we meet him, “Homer Barron-a big, dark, ready man” (Faulkner 520).

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

That can conclude why she did what she did with homer baron. Homer Baron was a Yankee and emily was not even allowed to be with a yankee. She was with him and had an affair so at that point in her life where no man would have been willing to marry her. The author made her this way not because she wants to but she is unaware of how to act and behave. She is forced to live a life with rules, and burdens.

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487 Words | 2 Pages

“ Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition a duty,and a care, a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town...” that means that she was a respect person through her family. Emily has issue with society because she never pays her tax, that consider her as a burden of this town. People in town notice that she found interest in Homer. But in history this time period, people from south to go different places for their own benefit.

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