The Use Of Irony In 'A Rose For Emily'

While reading “A Rose for Emily” there are various literary devices throughout the short story that reveals the ending irony. The overall short story takes you through a cycle of events leading up to the death of Homer Barron. Miss Emily being one of the many important figures in town, allowed herself to adventure into an emotional roller coaster. From her father dying, to her meeting the love of her life, to her killing him because he was planning on leaving. Ultimately literary devices such as foreshadowing, repetition, and irony are used to understand the irony at the end of the short story. Foreshadowing is continuously used in “A Rose for Emily” to show what is to come ahead in the story. The very first sentence is an example of foreshadowing when Faulkner wrote: “WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral…” (pg.1) this really gets the audience thinking of what is to come.

Although that never took place, the murdering of Homer Barron did. The whole town kept repeating “Poor Emily” (pg.4). This repetition allows the readers to see how the town really felt. With the whole town feeling sorry for her and talking about her drove her to take actions into her own hands. They held her to a higher standard so for her to be dating a “northerner, a day laborer” (pg.4) was really unfitting for her. While repetition and foreshadowing were some main literary devices, there was also some irony. The irony is shown when Miss Emily goes to pick up the arsenic, which is used for the killing of homer. Her father has recently passed, Homer is trying to leave her, yet she goes out to buy arsenic. There are no rats are bugs to kill so what would be expected of her is suicide, until the body of Homer Barron is found in miss Emily’s house. Then the ultimate irony is revealed and the true intentions are