Rose For Emily Symbolism

“The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valence curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man’s toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. Among them lay a collar and a tie as if they had just been removed, which lifted left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust” (Faulkner, 4)

In William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, the author gives readers many examples of literary devices such as symbols, imagery, foreshadowing, repetition, and punctuation

Emily. Faulkner uses symbols in the story to represent many things that the reader might have missed. For an example, the rose shaded lights and the valence curtains of faded rose color symbolize death. Rose is created when you mix the color black, (which symbolizes depression, death, and morbidity) with red (which symbolize anger, pain, and suffering) you get a shade of rose. Also, the rose in the story can symbolize the good and evil of Mrs. Emily. A rose is a beautiful flower, which need attention and water to grow, but most roses have thorns. Mrs. Emily is like a rose, she needs love and attention to survive, but when she is rejected by Mr. Homer, the rose dies and in the end, Mrs. Emily “pricks” those who have done her wrong. Another symbol that Faulkner had depicted to readers is the dust. The cloud of dust that Faulkner mentions throughout the story symbolizes the hidden secrets of the main character, Mrs. Emily. The dust is kind of like a blanket in which she uses to cover up parts of her life that she doesn’t want the townspeople to know about her. Also, the dust can symbolize death as well

Faulkner is comparing the decked and furnished room to a bridal or a wedding. Usually when you attend weddings they are usually rented hotel conference rooms or churches in which the wedding planner or the bride and groom usually decorate with lavish decorations and designs to celebrate their wedding day. Faulkner uses the furnished and decked room to compare to a bridal or a wedding. Faulkner also uses repetition in the quote as well. The word “upon” is repeated six times within the quote which gives emphasis of where in location is these objects that Faulkner describes in the story. “Upon this room” “Upon the delicate array of crystal”, “upon the dressing table” gives the reader an exact location of where the objects were placed that Faulkner is describing in detail to the readers. Faulkner also uses instances of punctuation such as commas that are present in the quote. The commas that are used in the quote depicts that the sentence is speeding up to build a suspense of the Faulkner’s piece. The commas also show that the story is about to reveal something that readers were anticipating. According to Noah Lukeman’s book titled A Dash of Style he states “A comma is the speed bump of the punctuation world. With its power to pause, the comma