“She would not listen to them (795),” but they listened to her. They listened and watched throughout all of Miss Emily’s life – scowling, sympathizing, and, sometimes, they even smiled for her. These ever-watchful beings, the curious citizens of Jefferson, share and provide a backbone to this twisted tale in William Faulkner’s gothic short story, A Rose For Emily; though the views cast about Miss Emily differ significantly by generation and gender, their opinion conveyed as a whole expresses that they view Miss Emily as a shocking, unacceptable and “fallen (792)” being.
Faulkner’s emphasis on narration drives the mystery farther. Along with the disturbing secret Emily hides, Faulkner conceals the identity of the narrator or narrators. The townsfolk, as a whole, are the narrator, yet throughout the piece it is suggested that the spokesperson for the town changes. For example, in part I, the narration appears to be from a member of the older generation as he or she observes the “next generation, with its more modern ideas (788)” come to a dissatisfactory conclusion about a resolution for the odor coming from Miss Emily’s estate. However, in part IV it is suggested that the narrator for the townspeople is a woman worrying keening about Emily’s relationship, her material purchases, and the details of her decaying looks. The pronoun “we” is used instead of “I” proposing that the opinions stated are the general consensus of the entire town – such as “we believed that she was fallen” – the entire town sees her as a failure of what she could have been. When the pronoun “I” is utilized, this typically expresses that the speaker using “I” is against the wants of the townsperson speaking or possibly the entirety of the town. “I” is primarily used by Miss Emily, proving her to be an outcast in the eyes of her society. Judge Stevens also speaks in the first person singular when he fight to defend Miss Emily’s respect – feeling the actions suggested are not “necessary (790).” The different citizens mold the reader’s thoughts and emotions towards Emily - being as the townsfolk are the reason the story exists. They are an essential part of Emily’s story and thusly their views, whether fully believable or not, must be taken into account on the mystery case that is Miss Emily’s life.
The people of Jefferson have always held a certain curiosity for the events in Emily’s life and despite the years the curiosity continued.
The first indication Faulkner gives the reader as to Miss Emily?s instability is towards the end of the first section which describes how several members of the Board of Alderman call upon Miss Emily in an effort to collect her taxes. Faulkner points out earlier in the same section that ten years ago in 1894, Colonel Sartoris, the Mayor of Jefferson at the time, remitted Miss Emily?s taxes following the death of her father. The board members are admitted to the Grierson home where, after listening to the reason for their visit, Miss Emily first suggests that they ?. . .gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves? (89). It is only moments later, after a brief exchange with these city authorities, that Miss Emily further advises them to ?See Colonel Sartoris? (Faulkner 89). The narrator then adds that the colonel has been dead almost ten years, which is Faulkner?s first clue to readers that Miss Emily is perhaps a bit delusional or confused.
In the story "A Rose for Emily," the author, William Faulkner, recounts the life of a woman from an elite family in the Deep South. Emily Grierson is an eccentric spinster who goes through her life searching for love and security. Due to her relationship with her father, and the intrusiveness of the townspeople in her life, she is unable to get away from her past. Arising from a young woman's search for love, the use of symbolism profoundly develops the theme, therefore, bringing to light the issues of morality.
Back in the day when I was very little, I remember that my dad used to take care of me. He would never let me run around the house when glass could off break and hurt me. As I kept growing up my father started to give more freedom but also gave me more responsibilities; like he wanted me to do the chores of the house, not all of them but some. I knew they were not mine to do but I still help. When I went off to college and I had to do all by myself, I realize that my father did good on making me do my laundry, chores and etc., when I was young. Besides I knew that I had to do my chores for me to go out with friends. Although I had this kind of responsibilities at a young age I can say that it helped in life. But because some parents overprotective their children and they are not exposing to real life, children might not know how to function in society when their parents die.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily" was originally published April 30, 1930 in an issue of Forum. It was his first short story to be published in a major magazine. "A Rose for Emily" is the story of an abnormal older woman, Emily Grierson. The unnamed narrator who of which sounds like the town speaking (certainly does not sound like any certain individual)really details the bizarre circumstances of Emily's life and her unusual relationships between her father, lover, and the whole town of Jefferson, and the horrible secrets she is hiding. Most readers have found this story to be the most understandable by Faulkner, and it is favored for its gruesome ending. Faulkner uses Flashback, Foreshadowing and suspense to symbolize and show the story's Tragedy, Pride, and loneliness.
In “ A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the complex tale of a woman who is battered by time and unable to move through life after the loss of each significant male figure in her life. Unlike Disney Stories, there is no prince charming to rescue fallen princess, and her assumed misery becomes the subject of everyone in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. As the townspeople gossip about her and develop various scenarios to account for her behaviors and the unknown details of her life, Emily Grierson serves as a scapegoat for the lower classes to validate their lives. In telling this story, Faulkner decides to take an unusual approach; he utilizes a narrator to convey the details of a first-person tale, by examining chronology, the role of the narrator and the interpretations of “A Rose for Emily”, it can be seen that this story is impossible to tell without a narrator.
The story is clearly an illustration of the passing of the old to the new, and of the real character of human nature - decadence. The townspeople had an equal share in the crime that Miss Emily committed, and they were instrumental in its cover-up. She is described as "dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse." (85) This description sums up the people's outlook of both her, and themselves in their willingness to embrace her. Even today the fetters of certain types of ignorance and other forms of evil acts are on view anywhere in the country if one looks. A Rose for Emily illustrates it in its purest form in its own time.
William Faulkner begins his short story, “A Rose for Emily” with the funeral of the main character, Emily Grierson (30). Emily is a quiet woman. It is said that nobody has been in her house for ten years, excluding her servant (30). Supposedly, her house used to be the best one around. The town also has a different connection with Miss Grierson. She is the only person in the town who is not forced to pay taxes. For years the town neither makes her pay, nor harasses her with tax notification letters to pay her taxes, until now. The younger generations who work hard and remain loyal taxpayers are not thrilled by this and decide to visit Emily in an attempt to get her to pay her debt. They try to get her to believe the old plan will not work anymore, yet she blatantly refuses this idea and does not pay (30). Apparently, thirty years prior to this attempt, the tax collectors of the town have a strange encounter with the Grierson residence. Two years after her dad’s passing and the mysterious disappearance of her lover, a tax collector notices a pungent odor emanating from her home that becomes a stronger and stronger scent. This leads to many complaints from the townspeople. However, the authorities of the town do not want to have a confrontation with Emily, so, instead, “they broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings” (31). The smell eventually subsides “after a week or two” (32). People do not think anything of the smell anymore. They do not think about the cause of it either; they continue with their lives.
William Faulker’s "A Rose for Emily", is a story told from the viewpoint of a
The protagonist of this story is Miss Emily Grierson, an old maid spinster without family who becomes a “tradition” and a “sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 299). The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, so I will rearrange my analysis of the character to begin with what we first know about Miss Emily.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a short story told from the point of view of an unnamed narrator and opens with the death of Miss Emily Grierson, an elderly woman that the reader quickly learns that the town views more as a character than an actual human being. Through flashbacks, the mysterious and haunting tale of Emily is revealed. As a child, Emily was the member of an aristocratic family, but has now long been living in relative poverty in the former grand home of her family after her father left her with no money. The product of the Civil War South, Emily never moved past the social customs of her youth, and refused to live according to modern standards. This becomes evident when she accepts the mayor’s hidden charity under the guise of her never owing taxes due to a lie that her father had loaned the town money and this was how the town would re...
In the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, Emily, the protagonist, is shown as someone who’s life is falling apart and brought down by society. Emily in this story could be described as a victim to society and her father. Emily Grierson’s confinement, loss of her father and Homer, and constant criticism caused her, her insanity.
After all the tragic events in her life, Emily became extremely introverted. After killing Homer, Emily locked herself in and blocked everyone else out. It was mentioned, “…that was the last time we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time” (628). In fact, no one in town really got to know Miss Emily personally as she always kept her doors closed, which reflects on how she kept herself closed for all those years. Many of the town’s women came to her funeral with curiosity about how she lived, as no one had ever known her well enough to know. This was revealed at the beginning of the story when the narrator mentioned, “the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant… had seen in the last ten years”(623). Everyone in town knew of her but did not know her because she kept to herself for all those years.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” he uses many literary elements to portray the life of Emily and the town of Jefferson. The theme of the past versus the present is in a sense the story of Miss Emily’s life. Miss Emily is the representation of the Old South versus the New South, mainly because of her inability to interact with the present or come to terms with reality. Holding onto the past and rejecting change into the present led Miss Emily into a life of isolation and mental issues.
The theme of "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is that people should let go of the past, moving on with the present so that they can prepare to welcome their future. Emily was the proof of a person who always lived on the shadow of the past; she clung into it and was afraid of changing. The first evident that shows to the readers right on the description of Grierson's house "it was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street." The society was changing every minutes but still, Emily's house was still remained like a symbol of seventieth century. The second evident show in the first flashback of the story, the event that Miss Emily declined to pay taxes. In her mind, her family was a powerful family and they didn't have to pay any taxes in the town of Jefferson. She even didn't believe the sheriff in front of her is the "real" sheriff, so that she talked to him as talk to the Colonel who has died for almost ten years "See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson." Third evident was the fact that Miss Emily had kept her father's death body inside the house and didn't allow burying him. She has lived under his control for so long, now all of sudden he left her, she was left all by herself, she felt lost and alone, so that she wants to keep him with her in order to think he's still living with her and continued controlling her life. The fourth evident and also the most interesting of this story, the discovery of Homer Barron's skeleton in the secret room. The arrangement inside the room showing obviously that Miss Emily has slept with the death body day by day, until all remained later was just a skeleton, she's still sleeping with it, clutching on it every night. The action of killing Homer Barron can be understood that Miss Emily was afraid that he would leave her, afraid of letting him go, so she decided to kill him, so that she doesn't have to afraid of losing him, of changing, Homer Barron would still stay with her forever.
In William Faulkner’s pervasive story, the character in A Rose for Emily represents the idea of a woman’s place in society which questions the roles that were susceptible for woman. Due to a patriarchal power held over her for the majority of her life, she is unable to take control and spirals into a distortion of the way life and death is carried out. She represents the tension and struggle between the past and modernity taking the belief that people who have lived for years in a town and didn’t expect it to change instantly. This paper will analyze the literary theme of female empowerment and Emily’s struggle with societal pressure. Emily holds a high influence from the town due to her precedence over the several decades. She