A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

On September 25, 1897, William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi. He stands as one of the most preeminent American writers of the twentieth century. His literary reputation included poetry, novels, short stories, and screenplays. Faulkner won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature. “A Rose for Emily” is a short fascinating story written by William Faulkner and it was his first short story published in a national magazine. The story involved an old woman named Emily Grierson, the daughter of a rich man that was considered a hero in the town where they lived. The story takes place in the fictional Town of Jefferson, Mississippi during and after the civil war between the Northerners and Southerners. Emily’s childhood was never easy; her father was always overprotective with her even when she was a grown woman. Charmaine Mosby an English Professor of Western Kentucky University in his work analysis of “A Rose for Emily” writes, “Miss Emily Grierson had been cut off from most social contact and all courtship by her father.” This was the principal reason why Emily Grierson was always a lonely soul.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” it is clear how Emily’s gender affects how the individuals in the town perceive her. Emily’s gender particularly affects how men understand her. Throughout the whole piece Emily is seen as a helpless individual who is lonely and has suffered losses throughout her life. When the reader reaches the end of the story the actions that Emily has taken is unexpected because of the way she is perceived by the narrator. In the beginning of the story, when the whole town was at her funeral and the men were discussing her life, none of the townspeople ever say anything negative about Emily. The men went to the funeral because they saw Emily as a fallen monument to the town. The narrator discusses how the town felt that Emily had become a tradition for them to take care of her. The narrator even points out how she did not have to pay taxes. This clearly shows how women are perceived in this town. Women are seen as unable to take care of themselves and as innocent humans. The way the narrator talks about Emily gives the reader the idea that Emily could never hurt anyone, because of this idea the reader is shocked at the end of the story. The feminist view of Emily allows the reader to be shocked by the ending of the story and it also allows the reader to see the way masculinity is understood in this piece.

William Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” to showcase the changes in society. Faulkner’s story is about Emily Grierson, a southern woman, who is watched upon by the towns’ people of Jefferson from her earlier days until her death. Emily is a stubborn woman because she refuses to listen to the warnings about Homer, a northern man, she claims she does not have to pay her taxes, and leaves her father’s dead body in the house for three days. Emily also becomes secluded over the years only having two people in her life Tobe, her servant and Homer, her lover. The town’s people began to become suspicious when an awful smell was coming from Emily’s house. When Emily died, the people of the town went into her house, and they found the decayed body of Homer. William Faulkner comments that, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” This is a direct reflection on how Emily lives her life because she does not want let go of her past, just like the south not wanting to let go of their tradtion. A decline of the south is the theme of the story and it is shown by the use of characters, conflicts, and symbols.

Compare and Contrast: “A Rose for Emily” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

People often stick to tradition, but does that mean tradition is proper? Throughout time, many things in life change, but sometimes things stay preserved. The past is the past and cannot be altered, but things can become spoiled, whether by nature or by man. Gender representation has come a long way in the past few hundred years. To this day life is still not equal for either group. The genders have portrayed for millenniums certain duties and created imageries people associate with both, and will not go away overnight or in a century, possibly not even in a millennium. These typical obligations have become preserved by literature throughout history. One such narrative is “A Rose for Emily”, written by William Faulkner in 1930. There

William Faulkner at one point stated that if he were offered a chance to choose between grief and nothing, he would have chosen grief (Volpe 187). He additional clarifies why he would do this through the story “A Rose for Emily”. However, the story is not about Faulkner but a lonely, selfish and poor woman, Emily Greirson. Emily is incapable of coming to terms with the notion of death and as a consequence suffers an immense deal of denunciation (Anderson 89). While the town folk anticipated that she would grieve upon her father’s demise, she is not. However, she goes on to claim that her father is okay and alive. Faulkner’s notion of anguish is lucid in this story as he shows the readers that it is worth acknowledging death than disregarding it through Emily’s life (Claridge 59). Faulkner’s story is set in the South, during the racial discrimination and key political shift epoch.

“It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past.” With these words, American author William Faulkner described the duty of an author in his Noble Prize acceptance speech. Under further examination of Faulkner’s works, one would expect to find that he followed his own job description. However, two of his most well-known short stories seem to be contradicting. Neither “A Rose for Emily” nor “Barn Burning” is uplifting because the protagonists struggle with their communities, loyalty to their fathers, and death.

In the grotesque short story A Rose For Emily, William Faulkner’s critical tone speaks clearly as he uses irony and bizarre imagery to criticize his own southern culture. Born in 1897 in Oxford, Mississippi, Faulkner grew up in the center of southern racism and witnessed the post-Civil War transition of his society (Wikipedia). By carefully crafting the characters in the story, Faulkner is able to critique the typical southern view of African-Americans as well as demonstrate the unwillingness of the older generations to transform their rules and ideals to match the change of society that came with the younger generation. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses stereotypical behaviors present in Southern culture, such as class structure and racism, in order to demonstrate and critique the prejudice occurring in Southern society.

Society must come up with a different way of judging people. The amount of people that get judged without fully understanding someone is unreal. People have their own experiences throughout their lives that makes them different, and society must come to terms in understanding everyone before they judge. In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, written by William Faulkner, people within the town attempted to understand Miss Emily’s struggles and tried to judge her accordingly. Throughout the story Miss Emily Grierson struggled as a developing character with many internal conflicts.

In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Faulkner conveys the issue of involving trying to maintain traditional values and control in a society that is facing a change that is radical and widespread. In this story, Emily is seen as timeless figure that contradicts a society that is trying to build up a more efficient, modern lifestyle.

The short, gothic story, “A Rose for Emily” is written by William Faulkner. The barbaric tale began with its ending, which is the death of the main character Emily Grierson. Miss Emily lived most of her life in a mysterious manner, which caused the people in town to reach a level of curiosity to learn more about this exceptional individual. Without any doubts, Faulkner story would not have been so significant if it weren’t for the countless usage of literary elements. Faulkner used foreshadowing, symbolism, and flash backs to create an intense climax that severed as the heart of a Southern gothic. Faulkner used the setting as a source of clarification on how and why loneliness settled in Emily’s life that included a strange past, a lack of

There are many tales about crime and horror, things that have happened in the past. Some stories involve horrible people who are psychotic murders and others may be more simple people who are mentally ill and are in need of some good care. Such is the story of “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, the main character, Emily, is plagued with mental instability and is sheltered from society; but today such a woman would receive treatment options to help her cope and overcome her apparent attachment disorder.

The setting is usually represented by the simplicity of a place and time. In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner expands setting into something much more. The setting goes far beyond just the time and place, it involves the people and objects that surround Emily throughout the story. Faulkner uses those objects and people to show how Emily struggles with accepting the present and leaving the past behind.

In the short story A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner narrates a story of a woman’s life, death, and funeral. The short story is separated into five sections in which each section starts in a different manner. In the first section it depicts Emily Grierson’s funeral at her house in which no one had entered in ten years. In this section we also learn that the town’s previous mayor, Colonel Sartoris, had taken Emily’s tax duties to the city after her father died; mitigating the action by stating that her father had once loaned the community an exuberant amount. When it was time for new town leaders, they did not necessarily see eye to eye with Mrs. Grierson, in which they made several unsuccessful attempts to start paying taxes again. Soon the members of the board went to her house to talk with Emily, she then asserted she does not have to pay taxes in Jefferson. In the second section the narrator flashes back to about thirty years prior to her funeral. The main point in this section is the town’s people feel Emily will become reclusive. Her father just died and the man whom Emily was to marry just left her. It was to be said that the Griersons thought too highly of themselves, because Emily’s father drove away any man that seemed reasonable to marry his daughter. The day after her father’s death, Emily is met by the women of her town at her doorstep, the women wanted to give their condolences, when this happened Emily responded with her father was not dead. She

Symbolism can be something that represents another thing for example the bald eagle of the United States of America represents freedom. Some symbols or objects are trifles things that don’t have any value but some people they think that they have value. There’s a manifold of symbols that represents a lot of things, another example is the Texas flag, the Texas flag has three colors an each one has a meaning the color blue represents loyalty, the color red represents bravery, the color white represents purity, and the big star represents The Lone Star which is a symbol of unity.