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.

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).

Through Emily Grierson, the author tries to convey the struggle against change. Emily herself is a tradition. Over the years, Emily does not change much even though the world around her is changing every day. Emily is entirely cut off from society to the point where she does not even leave her house. No one can understand why. Emily refuses to have numbers attached to the side of her house when the town decides they will be starting mail delivery. She also has not paid taxes in years, supposedly because her father lent money to the town and forgiving Emily’s taxes is the town 's way of repaying her. When the Board of Alderman comes to Emily’s house, explaining why she needed to pay taxes, her repeated response is “See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson” (79). Little does she know, Colonel Sartoris died ten years prior, which is just another example of how cut off from society she is.

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

Faulkner continues his southern gothic writing style when the story goes back to an earlier time in Miss Emily’s life. Faulkner

In "A Rose for Emily", William Faulkner tells the story of an old and lonely lady stuck in her own timeframe. Her controlling father died some thirty years ago and she has never quite found her own ground. Her house has become the most hideous looking home on the once most select street in the city. Previously elegant and white with scrolled balconies, it was now encroached with dust and decay. The people in Miss Emily 's city gossip about her and pity her lost soul. She soon begins dating a young bachelor by the name of Homer Barron, whom is part of the construction company paving sidewalks on her street. They begin taking buggy rides together, and townspeople talk more, and pity Miss Emily more. Things change quickly though, as Miss

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

In William Faulkner 's “A Rose for Emily”, Emily 's murdering of Homer Barron is a complicated series of her past frustrations and fears coming to a point, resulting in the end of Homer 's life. Her motivations for ending his life are intricately related to both her personal history and the ways she has previously dealt with conflicts.

The history of the South could arguably be split into two sections: The Old South and the New South. The Old South is associated to the life Scarlett O’Hara at the beginning of the Gone with Wind, complete with the antebellum dresses and plantation houses. The New South is commonly associated with the era of Reconstruction and continues on into modern history. What many people fail to contemplate is the transition from one southern era to another, the change wasn 't a smooth one. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a metaphor for the conflict between the changing times in the South, also called the development of the “New South” and the traditional “Old South” southern traditions.

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.

In William’s Faulkner story, “A Rose for Emily”, vivid imagery is used to describe the mysterious life of Emily Grierson. Emily Grierson, the main character, is portrayed as a mentally disturbed individual who is pitied among her community. In the story Emily Grierson exhibited behavior that would lead one to think she was insane. The main reason to Emily’s behavior comes from how her father treated her when he was alive. Emily’s father felt none of the “young men were quite good enough” for his daughter, therefore he kept her in the house and under his wing at all times. With this self-centeredness her dad annulled all desires of bliss for Emily leaving her stuck into her dad’s reality with no way out. This sort of family environment for women was normal in southern society. Emily’s constant isolation and deprivation of love contributed to the murder of her lover Homer Barron. Often described as a “fallen monument”, Emily is a convention, unfalteringly remaining the same throughout the years withstanding many changes in her town. Although, Emily is distant from the world she is someone people wish to regard and respect. Even though the people in her in community respect her she is mostly seen as a burden with a peculiar lifestyle.

In the early twentieth century, there was a new literary movement that came to the surface. The new movement was called Southern Gothic. William Faulkner was a Southern Gothic writer who wrote “A Rose for Emily. Southern Gothic writers focused on depicting southern life in the United States after the Civil War by using grotesque themes, imagery, and symbolism.

At most, women have always been second to man, and the concept of a woman ever having her own mind or free will was obsolete, but only with time women slowly gain their independent mind frames. In both stories, “A Rose for Emily” and “Story of an Hour,” there are two women who long for freedom in different ways. The men in their lives keep them from making any kind of decisions that were based on themselves. In these stories, the symbolism, conflict, and the foreshadowing have the readers interested in the ironic endings.

“Prolonged loneliness can transform the brain in a way that makes those who suffer it less able to relate to others” (The Daily Mail) Although change is sometimes viewed as scary, it should not be ignored. If a person is unable to adapt to change, they will further isolate themselves from society. William Faulkner, author of A Rose For Emily, captures with great detail, the effects of isolation. A Rose For Emily centers around the death of Emily Grierson, a “fallen idol” in the town. All of the townspeople view Emily’s death as an opportunity to piece together the puzzle that is Emily’s life. Emily, having had her father turn down all suitors, was never married and did not have kids. This isolated Emily from the rest of the town, to the point where she did not leave her house. Emily’s house was seen as an eyesore to the townspeople—a traditional and dusty house that had yet to update with modern times. Faulkner portrays the process by which human beings become isolated by everyone around them, including themselves when they oppose change. Through descriptive imagery, characterization, and syntax, Emily’s house is symbolic of the opposition to change in tradition and its effects on isolation.

In the story, taxes symbolize death. The death of her father can be symbolized by the cancellation of Miss Emily’s taxes. It also symbolizes Mr. Grierson’s control, even from the grave, over Miss Emily. Upon her father’s death the mayor at the time created an elaborate story to protect Miss Emily from having to pay taxes. This lie was created due to chivalry and sexism. It is chivalrous as the cancellation of her taxes allows her to continue to live in her father’s house. It was sexist because it was impossible for Miss Emily to work and financially support herself. “When the next generation…became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some dissatisfaction,” taxes once again symbolize death, but this time of an older way of life (Faulkner). By showing up to claim her taxes, the town folks are informing her that her role has changed; she is no longer helpless and needs to pay the IRS just like any other citizen. Miss Emily, of course, keeps modern ideas from