Theme Of Suspense In A Rose For Emily

942 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Themes in a rose for emily

“A window that had been dark was now lit and Emily sat in it, the light behind her” (P.130). Emily was known in the town although people had no idea about what she really did; just like her sitting in the window, you knew she was there but all you could see was her shadow. Faulkner manipulated Emily and her relationship with the community along with her lover to create an overwhelming feeling of suspense. This feeling was strategically kept throughout the entire story. From Emily keeping her father’s dead body to her buying the arson to kill Homer. In “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner positions the character of Emily to create a feeling of suspense and uncertainty about who she actually is. The story starts out at her own funeral, automatically making you curious about what happened that led to her death. If Faulkner had not started the story this way it would have removed a huge element of suspense. It would have seemed like a story about a crazy old lady that died at age 74 and nothing more. Faulkner uses Emily in a …show more content…

What are they going to do to him? What about Emily? Well it ended up working out in the communities favor, and Homer left. This shows the extent in which the community was concerned for her, knowing her father would have disowned her if he were alive. There was a lot if things going on at this point and the suspense continued right along with it. When the community comes to her house due to the rank smell the men described her body as “small and spare” (P. 129). She is reluctant to letting the men get her dads corpse and bury him, raising the anticipation level of what they might do to get the body. The town knows the body is in the house rotting, but she does not want to admit to it and tries to play it off as a dead rat. Not knowing why she doesn’t want them to get her father allows for a margin of personal

Show More
Related

  • A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner vs How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O’Brien

    1553 Words  | 4 Pages

    Faulkner first tells that shortly after her father’s death Miss Emily’s sweetheart left her. Everybody in the town thought that Emily and this sweetheart of hers were going to be married. After her sweetheart left her the people of the town saw her very little. Faulkner then tells what might be viewed as the climax of the story next. He explains that one day Miss Emily went into town and bought rat poison. By revealing this so early on in the story it challenges the reader to use their imagination. The readers’ view of Miss Emily could now possibly be changed. It has changed from feeling sorry for this woman to thinking she is going to murder someone.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast A Rose For Emily Short Story

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story makes it harder for first time readers to comprehend what is going on since things are backwards, but in the movie version we see the courtship of Emily and Homer, see her buy poison, and then a rancid smell omitting from her house (Moore). That confusion is what makes the reader craving more instead of the expectedness that comes along with the film. When the reader is lost, he/she is more focused on trying to figure out where they are on the timeline and what is going on causing them to miss the subtle clues thought the story. In the story, Emily wouldn’t automatically be assumed as a murder, but rather she would be seen as a lonely woman secluded from the outside

    Read More

  • A Rose for Emily: Factors the Impacted Miss Emily's Behavior

    555 Words  | 2 Pages

    "A Rose for Emily" is a fictional short story written by 1949 Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is about an aristocratic woman who lived a very secretive and unusual life. Miss Emily had always been very sheltered by her father. He was the only man in her life and after his death, her behavior became even more unnatural. However her father's death cannot be seen as the only cause of Miss Emily's insanity. Miss Emily's behavior was also influenced by her own expectations of herself, the townspeople's lack of authority over her, and her neighbor's infatuation with her.

    Read More

  • Theme of Murder in A Rose for Emily and Killings

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story 'A Rose For Emily'; and the short story 'Killings'; people have been murdered and the motivations for the killings are understandable but never the less still murders. The reason for murder in 'A Rose For Emily'; is not as clearly shown as with 'Killings';, that story is a classic 'eye for an eye'; type story. The main character in 'A Rose for Emily'; (Emily) and the main character in 'Killings'; (Matt) both kill out of love, but the types of love seem to be different.

    Read More

  • The Significance of the Townspeople and Emily's Father in A Rose for Emily

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emily father was highly favored in the town. Faulkner writes in his Short Story Criticism, “The Griersons have always been “high and mighty,” somehow above “the gross, teeming world….” Emily’s father was well respected and occasionally loaned the town money. That made her a wealthy child and she basically had everything a child wanted. Emily’s father was a very serious man and Emily’s mind was violated by her father’s strict mentality. After Emily’s father being the only man in her life, he dies and she find it hard to let go of him. Because of her father, she possessed a stubborn outlook on life and how thing should be. She practically secluded her self from society for the remainder of her life.

    Read More

  • Narrative Worth in A Rose for Emily

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    As Faulkner begins “A Rose for Emily” with death of Emily, he both immediately and intentionally obscures the chronology of the short story to create a level of distance between the reader and the story and to capture the reader’s attention. Typically, the reader builds a relationship with each character in the story because the reader goes on a journey with the character. In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner “weaves together the events of Emily’s life” is no particular order disrupting the journey for the reader (Burg, Boyle and Lang 378). Instead, Faulkner creates a mandatory alternate route for the reader. He “sends the reader on a dizzying voyage by referring to specific moments in time that have no central referent, and thus the weaves the past into the present, the present into the past. “Since the reader is denied this connection with the characters, the na...

    Read More

  • Gothic Literature: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

    1259 Words  | 3 Pages

    Faulkner starts his story by showing the amount of respect that is shown at Emily’s funeral. It is said that the entire town attended this event, but also that some only showed up to see what the inside of her house looked like because no one had been inside in over ten years. “The men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant- a combined gardener and cook- had seen in at least ten years”(pg.542). He explains this to show the mysterious interest of Emily. By explaining the mystery in Emily, he carries a dark tone that mystifies the audience.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Sympathy In A Rose For Emily

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, we never hear the mention of a rose. The rose is a symbol of sympathy and pity that we feel towards her. Emily reflected the rose. She wanted to blossom and bloom but she was held down and lock up from the real world. Emily was the daughter of a rich man, a town hero. Her father, although he was looked up to by the town, was demanding and controlling. He turned down every man that he didn’t feel was worthy of his daughter. He set her up for a life that she could not escape. She became used to this lifestyle and it became who she was. When her father passed,

    Read More

  • Examples Of Characterization In A Rose For Emily

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the story when her father died, it was mentioned that “[Emily] told [the ladies in town] that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (626). Faulkner reveals Emily’s dependency on her father through the death of her father. As shown in this part of the story, Emily was very attached to her father and was not able to accept that fact that he was no longer around. She couldn’t let go of the only man that loved her and had been with her for all those years. While this may seem like a normal reaction for any person who has ever lost a loved one, Faulkner emphasizes Emily’s dependence and attachment even further through Homer Barron. After her father’s death, Emily met a man name Homer, whom she fell in love with. While Homer showed interest in Emily at the beginning he became uninterested later on. “Homer himself had remarked—he liked men” (627) which had caused Emily to become devastated and desperate. In order to keep Homer by her side, Emily decided to poison Homer and keep him in a bedroom in her home. It was clear that she was overly attached to Homer and was not able to lose another man that she

    Read More

  • The Importance of Plot in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “A Rose For Emily”, by William Faulkner, plot plays an important role in how

    Read More

  • Theme of A Rose for Emily

    318 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Expectations In A Rose For Emily

    2563 Words  | 6 Pages

    “A Rose for Emily” reads like a sad and tragic biography set in the nineteenth century. The narrator, who speaks as one representing the story from the town’s point of view, begins by narrating Emily’s funeral. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken through a grim sequence of events, some of which only make sense in retrospect upon reaching the end of the story. The narrator begins then to narrate her background since her father’s death. Emily’s father is cast as a protective figure who turns away any male suitors and keeps his daughter away from the townsfolk. When he dies, Emily refrains from acknowledging his death and for three days refuses to let his body out of the house. Eventually she breaks

    Read More

  • A Rose for Emily Plot Analysis

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the story, the reader is told about her overbearing father, her reluctance to change her ways for the town of Jefferson, and her new love interest Homer Barron. With hints of foreshadowing and learning about Miss Emily’s past problems with letting her deceased father go, the reader finds the story ending at her funeral with the discovery of the body of Homer Barron kept in her house. Miss Emily did not want to lose her new love, so she poisons him and keeps his body around, letting her maintain a relationship with him even though he has passed on. Characters:.. Emily Grierson – A young southern belle who adored her father and became a shut in after his passing.

    Read More

  • Analysis of A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    All in all, the story of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner represents a chilling and twisted story of a woman who used every option, even murder, to keep her state of happiness. Faulkner cleverly uses symbols, characters, and theme to fully illustrate the twisted mind of Emily Grierson and the communities never ending struggle between incorporating modern rules and keeping traditional values.

    Read More

  • Literary Elements in A Rose For Emily

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Through the use of setting, characterization and theme Faulkner was able to create quite a mysterious and memorable story. "A Rose for Emily" is more than just a story though; her death represents the passing of a more genteel way of life. That is much more saddening than the unforgettable scene of Homer's decaying body. The loss of respect and politeness is has a much greater impact on society than a construction worker who by trade is always trying to change things. Generation after generation Miss Emily happily escaped modernism by locking herself in her house – the past.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Suspense In A Rose For Emily

Open Document