Symbolism in "A Rose for Emily" in a lot of different ways. For example Emily represents a monument and mental illness. She represents mental illness by killing her husband Homer Barron and sleeping with his dead body. The house represented death and a prison because Miss Emily wouldn't go out just the mate would go out for the groceries and just come back. It also represented death because of what she did to her husband. The rose represented love and Emily’s secret. It represented Emily’s secret because Homer Barron her husband was death on the house. It represented love because Homer Barron show love for miss Emily. Homer Barron represented death because her wife killed him with some potion that she bought (Arsenic). Strand of gray hair also symbolized love lost meaning she lost both of her loves of her life. It also represented wisdom. Wisdom is a sight of getting old meaning she lived her life already. There’s another object that symbolizes cover up (Lime). They use Lime to cover up the smell of the house because of the dead body that was in there. Arsenic symbolized death this was the potion that Miss Emily use to kill her husband. In " A Rose for Emily", symbols are used ubiquitously throughout the novel. The character Miss Emily , herself, symbolized monument. In the article Symbols " A Rose for Emily" she said " the house, Emily seems out of place in a changing secrecy. The house also symbolized alienation. Emily alienated herself inside her house to avoid people and change." Emily is a monument because she was what every guy wanted, she was locked up in her house so she wouldn't become changed and so that everyone would look up to her. Miss Emily also symbolized stubbornness in the article Symbols " A Rose for Emily" sh... ... middle of paper ... ...ft in her decaying house." The townspeople got respect for miss Emily< they viewed her as a " Gierson." The strand of gray hair tells how time goes by. " the town tells time first by Emily’s gray hair, when she disappears into her house after her hair turned iron gray." the town knows how much time has passed because of Emily’s gray hair. In conclusion in " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner characters and objects are more than persons. The character an objects symbolized a lot of things. They meant something way deeper than what they meant. Works Cited StudyModeEditors. ”Symbols in A Rose for Emily. ”StudyMode, Inc., 1 Nov 2012 Lamboard,Eather.”A Rose for Emily”-What’s important about the grey hair. ”About.N.p. N.d. Web. 17 March 2014. Sparknoteseditors. ”A Rose for Emily’ Themes, Motifs, and Symbol.” Sprarknotes.sparknotes, Inc., Web. 17 Mar 2014
A Rose for Emily Life is fickle and most people will be a victim of circumstance and the times. Some people choose not to let circumstance rule them and, as they say, “time waits for no man”. Faulkner’s Emily did not have the individual confidence, or maybe self-esteem and self-worth, to believe that she could stand alone and succeed at life especially in the face of changing times. She had always been ruled by, and depended on, men to protect, defend and act for her. From her Father, through the manservant Tobe, to Homer Barron, all her life was dependent on men.
Throughout the life of Emily Grierson, she remains locked up, never experiencing love from anyone but her father. She lives a life of loneliness, left only to dream of the love missing from her life. The rose from the title symbolizes this absent love. It symbolizes the roses and flowers that Emily never received, the lovers that overlooked her.
Emily was always isolated in her home which was once a very beautiful piece of land that was well taken care of. Although as the years went on her home and Emily herself began to fall apart, turned rusty, old and dusty. Faulkner tells us, “when we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray” (83). As Emily grew older so did the house symbolizing the changes occurring simultaneously. Another very important symbol in the story is the use of the rose. The word rise is used about four times in the story and it is also in the title. The rose symbolizes a women who had a tragedy and nothing could be done about it. Faulkner uses the rose as a way to honor
The “A Rose for Emily”. Literature: Prentice Hall Pocket Reader. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005. 1-9.
Soon after the introduction of “A Rose for Emily”, a major uproar occurred in the literary community. From that uproar, the public formed two symbolic ideals. Some believed that the story symbolically represented the North and the South while others believed the focus was shifted toward a God and Satan point of view. The characters throughout “A Rose for Emily” can be put in either perspective but in my interpretation, the God and Satan point of view makes the most sense.
Kurtz, Elizabeth Carney. "Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'". Explicator. Heldref Publications. 44.2 (1986): 40. Academic Search Complete. Blinn College, Bryan, Lib. 18 Oct. 2007
Amidst the discourse, the history and tragedy, upon life and death, of tradition and change, of the struggle to find love in an otherwise hopeless place, we immortalize Emily by giving her the rose she so deserves. To a young woman, you give a rose to signify love and
William Faulkner paints a tragic tale about the inevitability of change and the futility of attempting to stop it in "A Rose for Emily". This story is about a lonely upper-class woman struggling with life and traditions in the Old South. Besides effective uses of literary techniques, such as symbolism and a first plural-person narrative style, Faulkner succeeds in creating a suspenseful and mysterious story by the use of foreshadowing, which gives a powerful description about death and the tragic struggle of the main character, Miss Emily. In general the use of foreshadowing often relates to events in a story, and few are attempted to describe character. Faulkner has effectively succeeded in both. The foreshadowing used in A Rose for Emily are referred to death, which is the more apparent than the second type of foreshadowing which describes the portrait of Miss Emily.
In “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, Emily Geierson is a woman that faces many difficulties throughout her lifetime. Emily Geierson was once a cheerful and bright lady who turned mysterious and dark through a serious of tragic events. The lost of the two men, whom she loved, left Emily devastated and in denial. Faulkner used these difficulties to define Emily’s fascinating character that is revealed throughout the short story. William Faulkner uses characterization in “A Rose for Emily”, to illustrate Miss Emily as a stubborn, overly attached, and introverted woman.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, we never hear the mention of a rose. The rose is a symbol of sympathy and pity that we feel towards her. Emily reflected the rose. She wanted to blossom and bloom but she was held down and lock up from the real world. Emily was the daughter of a rich man, a town hero. Her father, although he was looked up to by the town, was demanding and controlling. He turned down every man that he didn’t feel was worthy of his daughter. He set her up for a life that she could not escape. She became used to this lifestyle and it became who she was. When her father passed,
The most common technique that is used throughout the story of “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner would be symbolism. Emily Grierson, an interesting character who shows to be stubborn when she is requested to do such task that she feels are beyond her capabilities. “When the gentlemen came to her door to collect her taxes Emily said, ‘See Colonel Sartoris, I have no taxes in Jefferson’.” By Miss Emily not lonely being rude but also cold hearted towards others she has made herself separated from the townspeople, “I have no taxes in Jefferson…Tobe! Show these gentlemen out.”(Faulkner 1215) Although Miss Emily is an isolated character from most of the townspeople an exception for her butler Tobe, she is still treated as a high class citizen, you could even say that she was looked upon as a stained glass angel that the people would think that “Emily, is a monument,” others would think of her as “Tableau, Miss Emily, a slender figure in white,” (Faulkner 1216) Time has changed people would no longer get away with crimes such as refusing to pay taxes.Afields5 would suggest that Ms. Grierson is a Representation of the “decline of the ‘Old South’.” Meaning she cannot let go of what she holds so dearly to her life, and is unable to change her environment. Until she met Homer Barron, Emily has never socialize or been accompanied with any other character in the story. From the information I have received from “Symbols in ‘A Rose for Emily’” “Homer is her ‘rose’ that she loved and kept to herself even after his body was decaying.” Mr. Barron was the only man that Emily had not only become so dearly to her but has would also do anything to keep him, “’She will marry him’ then we said, ‘She will persuade him yet,’”(Faulkner1218) Homer had...
Shrader, Laura. "Symbolism of the Rose in "A Rose for Emily"" Suite. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Alice, Petry. A Rose for Emily.’” Explicator Spring 86. Vol. 44 Issue 3. p. 52. 3 p.. Ebook
Faulkner uses symbolism to help bring out the main points in the story itself and also uses this symbolism to show how Emily is an allegory for the changes in the South during the time of the Civil War. By using the symbols of the rose meaning love or silence, or the hair meaning that over time things change, or even the house, being set back in the old times of the Civil War, symbolism is shown many ways throughout this short story. William Faulkner wrote "A Rose for Emily," in a way where the reader is able to comprehend and interpret the main points in the story in a different way as to where they will be able to look deeper within the meaning of each part of the story rather than having a dull meaning behind everything.
Through the use of setting, characterization and theme Faulkner was able to create quite a mysterious and memorable story. "A Rose for Emily" is more than just a story though; her death represents the passing of a more genteel way of life. That is much more saddening than the unforgettable scene of Homer's decaying body. The loss of respect and politeness is has a much greater impact on society than a construction worker who by trade is always trying to change things. Generation after generation Miss Emily happily escaped modernism by locking herself in her house the past.