Resistance to Change: Miss Emily Grierson The main character in the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner is Emily Grierson. She lives in Jefferson Mississippi, in a fictional county called Yoknapatawpha County. The people of Yoknapatawpha saw Miss Emily as "a small, fat woman" who was very cold, distant, and lived in her past. Her home "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...”. She lived in a little community that was changing and becoming more modern unlike her house. Her house, as Faulkner describes, "...smelled of dust and disuse-a close, dank smell"; "it was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture". The look of Emily’s home bothered Emily’s community along with many other things about her. Emily has a "hereditary obligation upon the town". She is from a family of wealth that brought tradition to Yoknapatawpha County. When the town started making modern changes fitting into the next generation Emily became stubborn and showed this by refusing to pay taxes to her county. Emily repeats, "I have no taxes in Jefferson" four times before dismissing the deputation. Thomas Robert Argiro, the author of a critical essay called “Miss Emily After Dark” states that, “[Emily]… struggles with personal grief, a restricted social life, socio-economic decline, and romantic misfortune…” (par.2). Miss Emily is misunderstood by the townspeople and is resistant to the changes around her as well in her life. Emily Grierson is a reserved person and does not associate with anyone in the town. Colonial Sartoris, the mayor in 1894 remitted Emily’s taxes dating from the death of her father till th... ... middle of paper ... ...s obsessive with keeping homer by her side forever. Miss Emily becomes mentally unstable and poisons homer. I do believe that the fatalities and changes she goes through have a greater effect on her emotions and actions than the townspeople and readers see without analyzing the story. Argiro states that, “The story is an allegory of misreading signifying backwardness, mystification and psychopathology…” (par.50). Miss Emily is misunderstood by the townspeople and is resistant to the changes around her as well in her life. Works Cited Argiro, Thomas Robert. "Miss Emily after dark." The Mississippi Quarterly 64.3-4 (2011): 445+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. Faulkner, William. "A Rose For Emily." 1930. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 29-35. Print.
Mosby, Charmaine Allmon. "A Rose For Emily." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily". An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. Ed. Barnet, Sylvan, et al. 287-294.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose For Emily.” An Introduction to Fiction. 10th ed. Eds: X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New Yorkk: Pearson Longman, 2007. 29-34.
Emily is portrayed as a woman who kept to herself throughout her whole life. In her younger years her father had driven all her suitors away. No man was good enough for Emily. Emily’s solitude was especially evident after her father died and when her boyfriend Homer disappeared. Her hair had turned an irony gray after her father died. She had a black manservant throughout her whole life that went to the market, cooked and gardened for her. During the end of her life the manservant’s visits were the only way that the townspeople knew that she was still alive. After her father died Emily kept his body in her house. A few days after Emily’s father’s death a couple of ladies came to give their condolences. But Emily came to the door dressed in casual clothes and showed no signs of grief. The townspeople were about to resort to law enforcement when she finally broke down and told them that her father was dead. The townspeople did not believe she was crazy, even though they knew insanity ran in her family. They thought Emily did this because they remembered how the father drove all the young men away. Now she was a figure that could be pitied by the town, alone and penniless.
When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173).
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.
Section two reveals to us that the Grierson family is a very proud Southern family, which has had its fair share of unusual characters. The audience learns that Mr. Grierson, Emily’s father, being a proud man, never believed any was good enough for his daughter and would chase them away. When he died, Emily would not allow the authorities to remove his dead body for three days, claiming that he is still alive . This section also mentions that two years after her father’s ...
“A Rose for Emily” is a short story by William Faulkner. “A Rose for Emily” gives readers an inside look at a local town’s recluse. The story begins at the funeral of town recluse and eccentric, Emily Grierson. The town thinks of her funeral as an obligation. The story then transfers to the years before the death of Emily Grierson. We are then given access to the narrator’s memories of Emily, the town recluse and social exclusion. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a prime example of Southern Gothic literature by the use of social exclusion.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." In An Introduction to Literature, by William Burto, William E. Cain Sylvan Barnet, 449-459. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." A Critical Introduction to Short Fiction. Eds. JoAnn Buck et al. Southlake: Fountainhead Press. 96-103. Print.
In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” the main character, Emily last name, is the last aristocratic member of her society. Left with her father’s house and not much else, the town seems to care for Emily, if for no reason other than
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Seagull Reader: Stories. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 155-64. Print
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2012. 84-90. Print.
Miss Emily’s withdrawal is briefly interrupted when a Yankee, Homer Barron, begins working to repair the broken sidewalks of Jefferson. During her sudden reappearance, Emily is seen by the townspeople with Homer and think they are to be married--only to be surprised when Homer mysteriously disappears. After the supposed desertion of Homer, Emily becomes a recluse by closing the doors of her home forever (Beers and Odell 726). Emily secludes herself from the ever-changing outside world by “cooping herself up” in her own home (Harris 175). Although Emily isolates herself from the townspeople, she still retains her family's egocentric
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Portable 10th ed. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2011. 308-315. Print.