Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.
She did that for three days” (Faulkner 559). Through Emily’s actions, the reader gains insight into her mechanism for coping. It is evident that her responses are emotional and caused by the death of her father and are not just the reactions of one who lacks empathy such as a sociopath or psychopath; her inability to cope with his death causes her to deny its mere
Emily is all alone and all the townspeople nearby assume the worst of her. However, in the short story “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner writes about how Emily does not receive any type of affection by anyone she loves. The outcome of not receiving any love, Emily does the unexpected. Furthermore, in “A Rose for Emily”
In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” he utilizes first person plural as the narrator type to create a sense of closeness and connection between readers and the story. The narrator of this story seemingly speaks for the entire town of Jefferson but simultaneously draws back from it. The narrator also makes judgements both for and against Miss Emily. This mysterious narrator covers his or her identity behind the collective pronoun “we”, thus voicing his or her own thoughts and opinions on the behalf of all the townspeople.
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,
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.
Meeting Homer Barron was her biggest change from her old self, because her father did not allow her be in any relationships, but she went out in public with Homer “driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable” (454). Consequently, this was only because she was living in her own reality and believed that Homer would be the one to marry her. Homer was “not a marrying man” (454) and would not marry Emily, but she refused to accept the denial of marriage from him, so she killed him to keep him with her forever. She stayed within her house to keep herself in the Old South. When she told the men to see Colonel Sartoris, she was not aware that “Colonel Sartoris had been dead for almost ten years” (452) at that point.
Many scholars have already analyzed and scrutinized over Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, but there is always something new to learn. In a quote by Michael Ovitz, he says, “ The generality of situations that humans face in 'getting along with each other and the world'”. He talking about the human condition. William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, almost the turn of the century. He was born in New Albany Mississippi, and where he grew up influenced much of his work.
I love William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” It contains literary devices that Faulkner uses to make the short story perfect. The three literary devices that Faulkner uses are symbolism, setting and point of view. These three literary devices are what makes it an enjoyable story to read.
This paper intends to show that William Faulkner in "A Rose for Emily" freely incorporates elements of dark romanticism, naturalism, and realism into his “own air of reality,” that effectively piques the interest and curiosity of the reader throughout the story. By maximizing this privilege of execution, it manages to meet the standards of Henry James in “The Art of Fiction,” in return of being able to reveal the most deep-seated temperaments of man in the broadest sense of reality. “A Rose for Emily” highly exhibits elements of dark romanticism, with its use of repetitive images and symbols throughout (e.g. the expression of decay and disuse to parallel the setting with the psyche of Emily). Along with it, Emily Grierson also evidently spends her life in detachment from others, thus, she is often misinterpreted by the townspeople, who only regarded her as the woman who lead such tragic and pitiful life, whereas she is actually quite drawn to death in her own conscious will, given that she had associated on how death itself could capture the essence of her departed father. Afraid to lose the subject of her dependency again, Emily slowly alters herself in the form of death – mainly signified by living in decay and disuse, in hopes that, like as death could consume one’s spirit in the end, she will also be able to preserve the essence of someone that is dear to her.
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”
Humans are an emotionally driven species, all of us have experienced emotions to some degree and each of us feels them at higher (lower) levels than others. One of the strongest emotions is love and this emotion can be as simple as “I Love chocolate!” or it can be so intense that other emotions, even our thought process, can be so suppressed that any rational thought is drowned out. In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner Ms. Emily’s love for a man was so strong she killed him and kept him in a bed in her house until she died herself. In the poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe that when Annabel died he went to where she was tomb and spent his time lying beside her.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is an exceptional, if not unprecedented tale that stems from the Deep South and shows just how isolated one woman can truly become. Miss Emily Grierson was a monument to the town that she resided in. The whole town was intensely yet often indirectly involved in her life, putting up many barriers for her to abide by. Emily’s father, the town of Jefferson, and Emily herself were the three reoccurring conflicts that provoked her downfall and isolation (man v. man, man v. society, and man v. himself).
William Faulkner is a complex writer who knows how to set a great pace in his stories. He is also a very flexible writer which allows the openness of many topics to write on because of his unconventional style. In his short story, "A Rose for Emily", you can interpret how times are so different from today. Although it was not during slavery times, things were not much more advance than that. The dominance of gender or social roles shown on women, particularly Miss Emily, may be seen as harsh or unfair.
William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” chronicles the life of a southern woman. Without looking much into the story, one might just assume that Miss Emily is a mad woman, killing her lover that plans to leave her. However, if one looks farther into the story, the reader can see that Miss Emily is a very troubled woman. Throughout the story, Mrs. Emily refuses to acknowledge or deal with any kind of change, even that as simple as getting a mail box; her refusal to change is due impart to her overbearing father who sheltered her throughout her life and can also be seen as a symbolic representation of the South and its refusal to change following the Civil War. Right off the bat, the reader can see that Miss Emily does not deal well
