ipl-logo

Miss Emily Symbolism

764 Words4 Pages

The house of Miss Emily is an important symbol in history. Most of the story, the people of that village, only see the house of Miss Emily from the outside in. Like most humans, Emily wanted a house where love someone and where you feel free. He thought maybe Homer Barron would be the one, but something terrible happened, turning the home into a virtual prison. Emily did not have anywhere else to go but home, and this, with the body of Homer Barron in the room above, could never be shared with anyone. The house is a huge symbol of the isolation of Miss Emily.
The fact that the house was built by 1870, tells us that the father of Miss Emily was pretty well. We can also speculate that the house is a symbol of money, probably gained largely through …show more content…

Also, that arsenic is given its reputation for having no odor or color and because it is virtually undetectable by the victim.
Taxes are seen as a symbol of death. Initial reference to taxes Miss Emily is a symbol of the death of his father. It is also a symbol of financial decline that the proud man must have experienced, but kept it hidden from the people and Emily until his death. As history is unclear on why Emily only inherits the house in her will, taxes could also be a symbol of their continuous monitoring (of his father) on Emily from the grave. If I had money when he died, but he left some mysterious entity (history is unclear on this), then it could be denying Emily independence.
The village probably knew there was a decomposed corpse in the room above. Maybe taxes were just an excuse to finally know what was going on in that house. The next phase of the plan may have been mortgaging the house. They could have used the situation with Emily taxes to condemn out of the neighborhood and the house. Maybe they wanted to eliminate that obvious pain, and cover all the things that Miss Emily represented the past and the present in the south. The fact that they did not perhaps make taxes a symbol of compassion. Or maybe, the "younger generation" decides to continue the tradition also shows that some of the old ways still have

Show More
Related
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.

Read More
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).

Read More
1009 Words | 5 Pages

To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,

Read More
716 Words | 3 Pages

Because her family was prominent in the town of Jefferson, Emily Grierson was watched her entire life and wondered about by everyone. The townspeople had a lot to do with Emily’s changing mental condition because they constantly gossiped about everything that happened in her life. It generally

Read More
1141 Words | 5 Pages

The narrator speaks on how when Emily was alive, she “…had been a tradition, a duty, and an obligation upon the town…” (Mays 629). The reason why she was seen as a monument was because Emily’s father had been a very honorable man in town and she was the last descendant of the Griersons aristocracy. Colonel Startoris, a city

Read More
960 Words | 4 Pages

After Emily’s father passes away, she begins to live life on her own terms. It is evident that she seeks power because her father limited her from having any. Emily disregards the law by not paying taxes, she does not allow numbers

Read More
1107 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the reading of "A Rose for Emily "there is many expressions of symbolism. Understanding and able to point out the objects or people and the meaning behind them is very important. Knowing the explanation of each expression will help you understand the author and his or her message towards the audience. In the selection, "A Rose for Emily" some examples of symbolism is a character name Homer Barron, the house, and the rose that is stated in the title. These all have significant meanings behind them that are important to fully understand why Emily acted, felt and explain the reasoning behind each of her actions.

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

Even the narrator’s often disjointed accounts of the past all push towards a fond remembrance and need without a want in today’s society. “an eyesore among eyesores” Miss Emily’s house was called, that was to show that even with its cobwebs and peeling paint this building stood as a testament to an age long gone, a

Read More
862 Words | 4 Pages

In this short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the authors represent the sense of horror in their stories. They are very similar in expressing their terrifying point of view. However, there are also differences. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is told in the first person perspective which creates compulsory picture of a mad murdered, whereas the third person perspective of “A Rose for Emily” shows Miss Emily through the eyes of others, which changes the narrative radically. In Addition, Miss Emily committed the crime because the fear of being alone.

Read More
1607 Words | 7 Pages

Also, Faulkner uses the house to represent Emily metaphorically as decomposing and change-resistant. Faulkner also uses a rose to symbolize irony. Whereas roses represent love, Miss Emily never actually comprehend the actual meaning of love. Furthermore, he uses the strand of hair to symbolize the sometimes-perverse acts that individuals undertake in their quest for contentment. The discovery of the strand of hair is also predicted when the narrator explains the bodily decline of Miss Emily.

Read More
1214 Words | 5 Pages

Many critics have seen in Faulkner “a credible authority on the South, a writer of fiction who had something important to offer about the regions and the meanings of its past”. The story of “A Rose for Emily” is told by one of the townspeople. The protagonist is seen from the outside and described by a first-person narrator, who tells the readers his point of view and others’ from the town. The narrator and these people had always regarded the character from the outside.

Read More
594 Words | 3 Pages

Today, 41 states around the United States no longer teach students to write in cursive. Some schools have gotten to the point where printed handwriting is no longer taught and technology is the primary source. In my opinion, cursive writing should still be instructed in schools today. Being able to write in cursive is a practical life skill that provides people with an abundance of opportunities. In addition, numerous documents from our World’s history are written in cursive and a copious amount of students are not able to read documents because of this.

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil War took place in 1861-1865. Since Emily was raised in the South, her family had the same values and morals of the confederate side. Emily’s family was very wealthy and owned a beautiful home. Unfortunately, after the South lost the Civil War they

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
910 Words | 4 Pages

Symbolism is one literary device Faulkner uses and has major importance to the story. One big symbol in the story is Emily’s house. For most of the townspeople they only saw the house from the outside in never the inside out. Faulkner gives a good description of the house by saying, “it was a big squarish frame house that once had been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on

Read More

More about Miss Emily Symbolism

Related Topics

Open Document