A Closer Look At William Faulkner 's A Rose For Emily

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a story that uses flashbacks to foreshadow a surprise ending. The story begins with the death of a prominent old woman, Emily, and finishes with the startling discovery that Emily as been sleeping with the corpse of her lover, whom she murdered, for the past forty years. The middle of the story is told in flashbacks by a narrator who seems to represent the collective memory of an entire town. Within these flashbacks, which jump in time from ten years past to forty years past, are hidden clues which prepare the reader for the unexpected ending, such as hints of Emily's insanity, her odd behavior concerning the deaths of loved ones, and the evidence that the

The setting of the story takes place in Faulkner’s make believe city of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi. In a house that was once owned by the late Elder Grierson. When the townspeople finally enter the room upstairs that “no one had seen in forty years” (Faulkner, Section 5), they are stunned by the condition of Emily’s once grandeur house. Furthermore, the house that once set on the “most select street” (Faulkner, Section 1) was now surrounded by garages, cotton gins and was the only house left on the street. Although, once described as “a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies” (Harris), it is apparent that along with the family name, the family home had been on a downward spiral for many years.

When a person has only been taught dysfunctional love, it is all too often that this is the only kind of love they will ever experience. In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner explores an unorthodox relationship between an aristocratic southern lady named Miss Emily Grierson, and a blue-collar northern fellow named Homer Barron. The narrator, who likely represents the townspeople, describes Miss Emily’s unusual father in detail. Because of this illuminating description, the reader is able to begin to understand the strange dynamic Mr. Grierson and his daughter share. The story reveals how an over-controlling parent can negatively

In a rose for Emily, the narrator was an unnamed younger townsperson. They didn’t identify with the women that went to comforted Emily after her father past or the men sneaking to her house chasing a smell. However, the narrator uses the words we when referring to the townspeople in whole. This also shows the narrator is participating in the story events like a fly on the wall. The narrator says thing like “we believed that she was fallen” and “we all said, "She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing” to show the town’s objective. They dislike her even after the support her family had once given the town. These same family feeling of degust was shared by Emily toward the narrator. Emily keeps a barrier between her and the

“A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, is a story of Miss Emily Grierson, a woman who was born into a wealthy family in the town of Jefferson. She grew up and lived in a huge Victorian home with servants. After the Civil War, it seems that her family’s wealth started to diminish but the Grierson’s were still trapped in the past of their family’s wealth. Emily Grierson’s past and present life is being recalled by a narrator who expresses the attitudes and ideas of the community. The narrator uses phrases like “We knew”, “We said”, and “We believed” to show the towns involvement. The townspeople pity Miss Emily and look at her as “fallen monument.

In “A Rose for Emily” author William Faulkner, uses the literary element, point of view, to show the town’s feelings as it reacts to the events surrounding Miss Emily, create a suspenseful tone, and convey the theme that oppression can cause someone to reach their breaking point.

Stubborn and a bit unstable, Emily Grierson is the main character of William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily “. Emily is a prime example of a flat character because she seldom changes throughout the whole story. Emily acts as if nothing has changed over the years. In the town of Jefferson, It’s as if time went to a stood still. She shows this flat affect throughout the story in many instances. For example, like her refusing to pay her taxes, not keeping up with the maintenance of her father’s home after his passing. So much so that the home was referred to as “an eyesore among eyesores, still standing among the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps (Faulkner, p. 121).

The poor conditions of house show readers that Emily Grierson’s hometown and Grierson as a person represents the old south. Grierson’s house

In contrast to the third person limited point of view in “Parker’s Back,” the point of view in “A Rose For Emily” is the first person. The narrator’s exact identity; the first line refers to “our whole town,” implying that s/he is a towns person and neighbor. In fact, the narrator is never specified as one, single person; the pronouns “our” and “we” seem to indicate that the narrator consists of several people, or even the town as a collective whole. Rather than being told by a narrator who is outside of the story, and therefore objective, the first person nature of this narrator

In the story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner makes use of a point of view that is seldom used in literature. He uses first-person plural narration to tell the tale through an unnamed character's point of view. Although the narration comes from the first-person point of view, the narrator often uses pronouns that are usually associated with third-person such as “they”, “she”, and so forth. Also, through an unconventional, yet brilliant manipulation of point of view, Faulkner was able to create a definitive impact on how the readers view and think about Ms. Emily Grierson. The pronouns and diction used by narrator, who collectively is representative of the thoughts of the townspeople, demonstrated the isolative nature surrounding Ms. Grierson,

William Faulkner has done a wonderful work in his essay “A Rose for Emily.” Faulkner uses symbols, settings, character development, and other literary devices to express the life of Emily and the behavior of the people of Jefferson town towards her. By reading the essay, the audience cannot really figure out who the narrator is. It seems like the narrator can be the town’s collective voice. The fact that the narrator uses collective pronoun we supports the theory that the narrator is describing the life of “Miss Emily” on behalf of the townspeople. Faulkner has used the flashback device in his essay to make it more interesting. The story begins with the portrayal of Emily’s funeral and it moves to her past and at the end the readers realize that the funeral is a flashback as well. The story starts with the death of Miss Emily when he was seventy-four years old and it takes us back when she is a young and attractive girl.

In Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily” the story is told through more than one persons’ eyes even though it is being told through first person narrator. Since the story is told through more than one person’s eyes it makes the point of view plural. The townspeople of Jefferson (including many generations) tell the story from their point of view. The story shifts from telling the story from the point of view of Miss Emily’s father’s generation. This is shown through the statement “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (31). It then shifts to telling the story from Miss Emily’s generation, and then moves onto tell the story from the generation that followed her. The word “we” is used often and refers to who is responsible for what happened to Emily in the story. It is safe to say that through the point of view in which the story is told one can determine that not one person feels responsible for what happens to Emily in this short story. The townspeople as a whole feel responsible, which then sets the tone for the

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” the story is revolved around the character Emily Grierson. The story is told by the townspeople where Emily lives. These people are attending her funeral and pitching in memories and tales they remember from Emily’s life. It is through the collective voices and opinions of the crowd that the reader is able to interpret Emily’s struggles. With Emily Grierson’s choices the reader can tell that she is a dependant woman, with psychotic tendencies, and does not take the thought of change and rejection lightly.

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the story of an sad and lonely lady, stuck in her time. Because her father died, she never fully recovered from it and was not able to find herself. Emily’s house was in the past was considered elegant and was built on the best street in town in the 1870’s. Now the house is old and an unattractive building to the neighborhood. People in her town begin to bad mouth her because of her lost soul. Homer Barron, an employee of a construction company, begins to begins to date Emily. The townspeople do not seem ecstatic about this, because they think she is doing it out of being lonely and depressed since her father died. Later on, she

It is a fact, that the narrator makes judgments both for and against the protagonist and also present outsides observations when he stays “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition , a duty , and a care ; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town “(Faulkner,82) being this to emphasize the responsibility that the people of the town felt whit her and stays also his point pf view in the situation . The narrator is sympathetic to Miss Emily, never condemning her actions. Sometimes unabashedly and sometimes grudgingly, the narrator admires her ability to use her aristocratic bearing in order to vanquish the members of the city and an example is when she go to buy the arsenic and the druggist ask her to tell him for what she is going to use it ,and she just look him eye to eye and the man go and give her the arsenic without ask her anything else . As we could see it is hard to determine the gender of the narrative voice because is talking as the people and never use a word for describe himself . He uses the words “we” and “they” and changes it continuously because he does not want to be involved in all the things the community did and he is blaming the community for Emily’s behavior. Faulkner uses the perfect kind of narrator for develop his genre , a mysterious and creepy narrative voice to develop