A Rose For Emily Flashback And Foreshadowing Essay

The societies existing in Southern Gothic works are often highly influential to the plot of its story. It sets the scene and foundation of the story. Through the use of flashback and foreshadowing in “A Rose For Emily,” William Faulkner creates a southern community which has instilled in Miss Emily a great fear of being alone; this fear has horrible consequences. Miss Emily’s community, set in the late 1800’s, holds family name and social status in high regard. Because Miss Emily belonged to “the high and mighty Griersons,” her family was the subject of much talk around the town. The Griersons were watched and expected to act as any other high class family would. They have a social obligation to maintain their status and act accordingly in the public eye of their society. This obligation certainly had an effect on young Miss Emily’s life. She grew up thinking that her role in their society was to grow up a daughter, spend her early womanhood a wife to a suitable husband, and finally end up

Mr. Grierson shot down countless suitors for Miss Emily. Miss Emily was still entirely alone by the time she was thirty. This, combined with the thoughts of her neighbors on how a young lady’s life should go, created a dire situation. After Miss Emily’s father died, she was the last remaining Grierson. Not yet married, the members of the community pitied Miss Emily’s misfortune. Even after Miss Emily reacted to her father’s death in a peculiar way, the community still did not recognize and anything unusual in Miss Emily that could not be attributed to her loneliness. Refusing to give up your father’s dead body is certainly a warning sign that you are not in your right mind. The community’s lack of motivation to investigate Miss Emily’s mental state because of her prominence in the town can be imputed as one of the reasons for Miss Emily goes to extensive and murderous lengths to not be