The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, an old, ugly and disgusting woman who, in addition to that, hid herself in her house for years. Throughout the text you can completely imagine how Miss Emily and her house would be in that time. After read and seen the movie adaptation of “A Rose for Emily”, I notice some contrasting details between the two ways the story was told, such as, in the book I could completely visualize Miss’s Emily house would be, but the image I picture was completely different as the one shown in the movie. Miss Emily’s house, the main setting, was completely different from what I had imagined. In the short story the house was described as dirty, dark and that some furniture were broken in the inside:” As I read
Another aspect that contributes to the stories’ setting is the descriptions of the homes of the Snopes and the Griersons. Miss Emily’s home is described as being decorated and clean with many details in the woodwork, and the Snopes’ home is told to be a paintless, two bedroom house like the many others they had lived in. Both homes in the stories have become the symbol for the class of people which they house, but as Miss Emily had shrunk from her aristocratic mindset, so did her house. The location of the action of both stories cannot be more different, but their locations contribute greatly to the mood created in the stories.
In this paper, I will be comparing and contrasting three works that we have studied this semester. I will be writing about A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill, and The Open Boat by Stephen Crane. All of these authors’ stories use setting to encompass the idea of freedom. Each author has a different perspective on liberty and they all express it differently through their writing. In each story the main character is trapped, either literally or metaphorically. They can all achieve freedom from their situations, but there are obstacles that stop them from reaching their goal. In A Rose for Emily, the main character is trapped in her house. In The Hairy Ape, the main character is stuck in
William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, is a dark tale of a young girl damaged by her father that ended up leaving her with abandonment issues. Placed in the south in the 1930’s, the traditional old south was beginning to go under transition. It went from being traditionally based on agriculture and slavery to gradually moving into industrial and abolition. Most families went smoothly into the transition and others, like the Griersons, did not. Keeping with southern tradition, the Griersons thought of themselves as much higher class then the rest of their community. Emily’s father found no male suitable for his daughter and kept her single into her thirties. After her fathers death Miss Emily was swept off of
In “A Rose for Emily” Miss Emily Grierson live a life of quiet turmoil. Her entire life has revolved around an inexplicable loneliness mostly characterized by the harsh abandonment of death. The most vital imagery utilized by Faulkner demonstrates Miss Emily’s mental condition. She, being self-improsened within the confines of her home, is the human embodiment of her house; Faulkner describes it as “... stubborn an coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps--an eyesore among eyesores.” (Faulkner 308).
In “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily Grierson lives a life of quiet turmoil. Her
In “A Rose for Emily” she grows up with her father who was very controlling over Emily’s life. He controlled all aspects of her life such as any men who were interested in Emily were sent away by her father. This kept Emily isolated from everyone in the town and she never left her house. According to Watkins “The Structure of ‘A Rose For Emily, “The inviolability of Miss Emily’s isolation is maintained in the central division, part three, which no outsider enters her home.” In “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is shown that the female narrator is desolate and is put in an attic room away from everyone. It is also revealed that she is not treated fairly or well taken care of when her husband who is a physician does not help her get better. From “Gender in The Yellow Wallpaper” Carmen Esposito says “However, her husband never
While one of the most traditional interpretations of “A Rose for Emily” is the variety of meanings for the “rose” presented in the title and how the “rose” fits in with the story. Laura Getty states in her article many varied perspectives that many could ponder when identifying what the “rose” stands for. She states many possible theories that depict what the “rose” means, including theories of other writers that help support her own theory and also that adds another way that most might not consider at first. Most of the interpretations of the rose are all focused on the “internal elements” (Getty 231) rather than the actual rose itself. Getty theorizes about certain characters, buildings, anything that symbolizes a rose in the story as
Denial is a recurring theme in both stories rendered by those who believe to be in a higher class. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily is depicted as an isolated woman who is so attached to the customs and aristocracy of the past to the degree that she cannot accept change. Emily considers herself as a wealthy and powerful spinster, and her family’s position
Miss Emily's house as the setting of the story is a perfect metaphor for the events occurring during
The story begins with the writer describing Miss Emily’s house, which was once nice and luxurious but has become hideous looking. Her house was once apart of the most select in the city, it was now covered with mold. “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.” (Lines 6-9) With the rebuilding of the Old South her house is left alone instead of making any improvements towards it, therefore emphasizing the habits Miss Emily is refusing to let go of.
The story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner would be drastically different if it was written from the point of view of Miss Emily. Her intentions and thoughts would be more pronounced, and because of this, the ending of the story may not come as such a shock. In addition, Miss Emily would be less distanced from the audience, and they would be able to understand her character in a way that the townspeople could not. Miss Emily being the narrator would immensely change the reader’s perception of the story’s ending and her character.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” employs indirect characterisation to create a detailed picture of not only Emily but also of the narrator. While she is described in seemingly direct ways, the comparison between the vision of her in the past and her present appearance reveals further characterization than the descriptors themselves. When she is young and pure to the town, she appears as “a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background” (page 767). She is almost granted an angelic aura by her virginity, and when the town believes she has lost it her image it is turned entirely on its head. They see her as tarnishes and no longer consumable or fit to find a man. She is no longer svelte and desirable, but a “small, fat woman in black” (page 765). The transformation of Emily from slender to fat, and a white dress to a black dress mirrors that of the marriage set’s tarnishing. Emily’s
“Like Miss Emily it stands “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay” alone amidst alien surroundings. When the town complains about the smell emanating from the house, the judge equates house and woman: “Will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” Miss Emily becomes a fallen woman where she lived in a house that had “once been white… set on what had once been our most select street…lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps an eyesore among eyesores.” The house, like Miss Emily, has fallen from purity and like Miss Emily it is an eyesore, for
In "A Rose for Emily", a woman (for whom the story is named) confines herself in her somewhat large house in a small town during the early half of the twentieth century. For the most part, in order to understand the entirety of the story, it is vital to understand the setting and how each character develops it, and,or, interacts with it.
As an image of decrepit grandeur, Miss Emily’s house is used to symbolize Miss Emily’s character herself, the historical setting in which the story takes place, and some of the story’s central themes. Described as “a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorates with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies” (Faulkner 1), the house is ornate and grand in design, even being located on what was once an exclusive street in Jefferson. However, over time, it had become dilapidated and unkempt, with the interior being dark and full of dust, possessing “a close, dank smell” (Faulkner 1). Similarly, Miss Emily was once a young lady of high standing, opulent in her own ways, but slowly aged and lost her grandeur, becoming “a small, fat woman” (Faulkner 1) whose hair was turning grayer as the days went by. Much like her home, Miss Emily was losing her charm over time, showing that her character was stubbornly grasping on to the idea that she still retained an image of splendor she no longer possessed, all while isolating herself from the rest of the town.