A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner And The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin

In the short stories A Rose for Emily and The Story of an Hour, Emily Grierson and Louise Mallard are both similar women, in similar time periods but they both are in entirely different situations. This essay will take these two specific characters and compare and contrast them in multiple, detailed ways.

"A Rose for Emily" is a short story written by William Faulkner. This story takes place in Faulkner 's fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in Yoknapatawpha County. "Young Goodman Brown" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This story takes place during the 17th century and discusses the Puritan belief that all of humanity exists in a state of corruption, except those who are fortunately born into a state of grace.

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily becomes a minor legend during her lifetime. After her death, when her secret is revealed, hers becomes a story that no one can forget. "A Rose for Emily" is the story of the old maid who fell in love with a northerner, but resisted being jilted once too often. And only after her death, "When the curious towns people were able to enter her house at last, did they discover that she had kept her dead lover in the bed where she had killed him after their last embrace." (Kazin 162) . "In her bedroom, Emily and the dead Homer have remained together as though not even death could separate them."(Kazin 162) . Even though her lover had

The short stories “A Rose for Emily” and “The Story of an Hour” are about two women with some similarities and differences. These two women have comparable ideas and they also live in the same society. In this time period they live in a world that was decrepit, and very controlling, and they had to show a great deal of respect to the men of the household. In this time period the woman’s expectations were to clean, cook, and take care of the children and whatever else chores they had to accomplish. Louise character tries to display happiness throughout the story about being free and triumphant, but Emily is the complete opposite. The author, Kate Chopin focuses more on the freedom a woman does not have, and author Faulkner’s main purpose is to show what a woman would go through to keep herself happy.

“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 1). Emily, a member of the town’s elite class, relied upon her father when growing up and after his death, she refused to pay her taxes, stating that her father contributed much to society. But it was evident that she didn’t pay them because of a lack of maturity - financially and socially. When she was younger she pushes herself onto Homer Barron, a Northerner with no interest in marriage. Throughout the story, Emily is conflicted over societal change, and clings to her privileged manner even after finding herself in poverty. Yet, she becomes involved with a man from a lower social class, and a Northerner as well - hinting that he has different beliefs and values. The townspeople, however, believe the relationship it too modern when there is a possibility they are having physical relations despite not being serious about marriage. The community’s inability to commit to progress, contribute to the confused Emily’s decision. In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner uses the symbolism of Emily’s house and her hair to demonstrate her emotional instability and physical deterioration, illustrating the outcome of his story.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” starts out at Emily’s funeral and then goes onto a story about taxes, which Miss Emily is exempt from paying for life by Colonel Sartoris. During her life, Miss Emily’s father kept her isolated and ran off any potential suitors with a horsewhip. When her father died, Miss Emily refused to acknowledge the fact for three days. Soon after, Miss Emily met and started dating Homer Barron, “a northerner and a day laborer.” The town goes from being happy about the relationship to thinking of it as indecent. Homer seemingly deserted Miss Emily shortly after she bought poison. All is quiet for the next 40 years until Miss Emily’s death when Homer’s corpse is found sealed in an upstairs room (Faulkner 323-327). This paints a picture of a lonely, desperate woman. Miss Emily was isolated with just a butler for company. That does not make her a murder. Emily Grierson is innocent of murder because any evidence is circumstantial or illegally obtained, Tobe cared for Miss Emily enough to kill for her, and Miss Emily is legally insane.

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).

In, “A Rose For Emily”, by William Faulkner, the rose symbolizes the town’s respect for Emily or can disclose the irony of Emily never receiving a rose from Homer. At the beginning of the story Faulkner talks about the death of Emily. “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral... respectful affection for a fallen monument.” Emily has, metaphorically, always been in the town and symbolizes the past for her town. Since the town respects their elders, they feel like it’s their duty to honor Emily after she passes away. She separated herself from the town, like the south separated themselves from the north in the Civil War. Once she died, like when the confederate states lost, she was welcomed back into the town, country, when everyone came to her funeral, instead of letting her be off by herself. Homer publically let people know that he was gay and that he did not feel like he would be a good husband or father. “He liked men... he was not a marrying man.” Based on this quote, Emily would never get a rose from Homer because there was no chance of him loving her the way she loved him. The second part of the quote indicates him feeling like he was not the type to marry and settle down to start a family, which is something Emily indicated that she wanted to do with him. The title revealed the way the town views Emily and shows her hope of receiving love from Homer.

In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose For Emily”, there are a few themes and symbols that are the most significant. The main character, Emily Grierson, is used to display the struggle against change while trying to keep old traditions alive. Emily’s house is a perfect symbol of old traditions. The theme of death is also displayed, as death seems to just follow Emily throughout her life. At the end of the short story, something as simple as a piece of long, gray hair becomes a huge symbol of the story, answering many questions for the community and, of course, the readers.

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

Eventually, people in the town wrote to her cousins whom she had fallen-out with long ago. When her cousins came and visited, Emily did two things, however separated by Faulkner into sections three and four. In section three, Emily went to the druggist and bought poison. The town, thinking she would kill herself said, “it would be the best thing” (395). Then, in section four, Emily went “to the jewler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver” (395), and the town believed her and Homer Barron were going to get married. The narrator states, “We were really glad.” (395). After the cousins left, and Homer Barron came back to town (he had left to get away from the cousins), Homer was seen going into Emily’s house by a neighbor. “That was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time” (395), stated the narrator. Emily did not have contact with people in the town, “save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty, during which she gave lessons in china-painting” (395). Then she gave up

In both William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily”, and Kate Chopin’s, “The Storm”, the setting is a very vital part of the literary work. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner introduces us to an older lady named Emily, who was very well known in her town. As we learn through Faulkner’s use of imagery and description, Miss Emily has a rather hard time letting go of people she holds dear to her. We learn that in her basement we have a very raunchy smell. The neighbors try to mask the smell by squirting lime juice, but little do they know it’s the body of her father. At the end of the story we are left in her bedroom with the rotting body of her once lover in her bed. Where there is a strange finding on the pillow beside him. In “The Storm,” we are introduced to Calixta, who is at home alone, doing her wifely duties when an unexpected storm and a visitor arrives. We soon learn that the visitor is a man named Alcee and they have an affair during the storm. When the storm is over and Alcee has left, Calixta’s husband and son arrive safely. We see that Calixta acts as if nothing happened, and assumes her role as the worried mother. They all sit down and have a good laugh while they eat dinner that night. Kate Chopin’s, “The Storm,” does a better job in creating the setting than Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” because Kate thoroughly depicts an image of Calixta’s house and bedroom. While Faulkner only describes the outside of Miss Emily’s home.

Miss Emily is a mysterious character in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. She is the protagonist in this work. Emily used to be a vibrant and hopeful young woman, but something has changed with her. She had plenty of potential suitors, but her father rejected them all. After her father’s death, she is devastated and lonely. It is almost as if she is depressed, but then she meets homer Barron, a foreman from the north. They spend a lot of time together and the town certainly notices. The town talks about these two and it spreads around like wildfire. One day, Homer is seen going into Miss Emily’s house and he is never seen again. Loss can affect anyone and it certainly affects Miss Emily. Miss Emily’s psychological resilience to anything remotely traumatic is very low. She has a very high for need to get love from anyone. Miss Emily is a dynamic character; her mind and body both change throughout the story, but they are very slight changes that someone rarely notices at first.

In the story “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, Emily is described as a mysterious woman whom was an outsider to the whole town. Throughout her whole life her father turned away any man who potentially would marry Emily which left her alone after his death. Until Homer Barron came along—Emily had finally found a man. The town did not know Emily was crazy yet. After she met Homer, the town thought nothing of the events after her father’s death. Emily was happy and not as crazy anymore, or so the town thought—that was until Emily died and they found Homer’s dead body in her bed. In the story Falkner states, “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and