Importance of Setting in A Rose for Emily

Importance of Setting in A Rose for Emily

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner's details about

setting and atmosphere give the reader background as to the values and

beliefs of the characters, helping the reader to understand the motivations,

actions and reactions of Miss Emily and the rest of the town, and changing

the mood or tone in the story.

The setting in "A Rose for Emily" is Faulkner's fictitious post-

civil war Jefferson, a small town in the deep south of the United States.

Faulkner's use of this particular time-period or genre, is successful in

giving the reader an understanding or background to the values and beliefs

of the characters in the story. The town of Jefferson is a fallen legacy.

The hierarchical regime of the Griersons and the class system of the time

where by ordinance of the mayor- Colonel Sartoris, a Negro women could not

even walk the street without an apron, had changed into a place where even

the street on which Miss Emily lived, that had once been the most select,

had now been encroached and obliterated, her house an eyesore among

eyesores. Both the town and Miss Emily herself, now looked upon Miss Emily

as the only remnant of that greater time. This fact gives the reader an

understanding of the mindset of the "town," who is narrating Miss Emily's

story to us in a form resembling a gossip circle, where stories of various

townspeople are pieced together and of Miss Emily, the protagonist who

lived alone except for her lone servant.

The actions of Miss Emily range from eccentric to absurd but it is

the readers understanding of the setting that keep the story believable.

Miss Emily becomes reclusive and introverted after the death of her father

and the estrangement from the Yankee- Homer Barron. It is also revealed at

the end of the story that she went as far as poisoning Homer, keeping his

dead body in his house, and sleeping next to him as well. She is doing what

she feels necessary in response to the pressure placed on her by the town.