A Rose For Emily Reality

In the short story A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner, readers are immersed in the narrative of a supposed town member who describes the impact that the recent death of an old woman has had upon their small community. In the narrative, readers are taken on a journey through the life of Miss Emily, an old, lonely woman who is seemingly frozen in her own timeframe. As the story unfolds, readers learn about the various tragedies Emily encountered in her lifetime such as the sudden death of her controlling father as well as her alienation from other family members that leaves her utterly alone following his death. Audiences also learn about events that happened throughout Emily’s life that both molded her as a person and aided in shaping her reputation around the town. From her controversial relationship with a construction worker named Homer Barron to her suspicious purchase of arsenic at the local drug store, there is no question that Emily lived under the constant scrutiny of her fellow townspeople. After reading the initial sentences, it can be concurred that this story doesn’t simply describe the life of an old, questionably insane woman, but also the story of the age-old battle between old and new. Through symbolism and an artful arrangement of the events described, Faulkner is able to meticulously weave a tale of the clash between newer and older generations’ views and standards.

The point of view given by William Faulkner in his story “A Rose for Emily,” was from the prospective of the town which offers an interesting insight into the story that would not be able to be accomplished through other points of views. Seeing as the townspeople are the narrator, Faulkner was able to add a level of mystery and uncertainty to the telling of the story. The reader is able to learn of the events occurring in the story only through the reports from the townspeople which prevents the reader from being able to to know exactly what occurred, but is instead told as an interpretation of the events with bias from the town. In the event of the death of Homer Barron, it is not revealed until the end of the story, after the death of Emily

Miss Emily was raised in the glory days of the South when traditional ideas and customs were a part of everyday life. After the Civil War, during the Reconstruction Era, the atmosphere had changed and Miss Emily was now faced with a different social setting, one that was unfamiliar to her. As the culture of the South began to deteriorate, so did Miss Emily’s grasp on the life she once held to be true. The home of Miss Emily serves a symbol in this story, showcasing her life’s demise as well as the physical and cultural demise of the Southern lifestyle. Her “fallen

Desperation for love arising from detachment can lead to extreme measures and destructive actions as exhibited by the tumultuous relationships of Miss Emily in William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2006] 556). Miss Emily is confined from society for the majority of her life by her father, so after he has died, she longs for relations that ironically her longing destroys. The despondency and obsession exuded throughout the story portray the predicament at hand.

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).

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

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where gossip and judgment didn’t exist? Almost all of Americans gossip in their daily lives, but never realize the negative consequences it can have on a person’s life. In A Rose for Emily, the town's gossiping greatly enhanced the story because it pushed Emily to become isolated and to kill Homer Barron with arsenic. William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily establishes conflict through gossip and explores how it can have a long standing impact, especially mentally.

In this southern setting after the Civil War, Faulkner exposes the theme of resistance to change. A Rose for Emily is an assessment of the way some people deal with vicissitudes in their lives. Miss Emily Grierson who always subsisted under her father’s wings, displays serious issues after his death. The story begins with the end of Emily’s life. Poor Emily’s sentimental clutter and grotesque demeanor bring pity on her character. Some may argue that she was just misunderstood, others may see in her a psychologically unbalanced person, and that her attitude was simply a way of crying out loud for help. In any cases, Emily appears to be someone that the common mortal would feel compassion for, enough to deposit flowers on her grave. Her inability

Miss Emily Grierson, the leading character in “A Rose for Emily”, is a bizarre woman to say the least. Faulkner begins this story with Miss Emily’s funeral, and continues to tell about the interesting events in her life. All throughout the story, Miss Emily exhibits many traits of a mentally ill person, but is never medically diagnosed. Faulkner writes, “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care” (245), meaning that she stuck to her Southern-raised ways. She refused to conform to the modernization of the world around her. The narrator of this story seems to be a person that knows Miss Emily and her family very intimately. The narrator also considers themselves apart of the townspeople referred to as the “we” throughout the story. This story tells about the ups and downs in the extremely intriguing life of a woman that refuses to leave her past.

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” narrates the life of Emily Grierson as seen by the villagers. Controlled by her father and her family background, Emily is a woman deprived of the opportunity to live life at its fullest and experience human passions such as love. Furthermore, she lacks a “sense of self” that causes her confusion and makes it difficult for her to form relationships. Due to the lack of identity and isolation presented all throughout her life, Emily suffers from psychological problems related to schizophrenia.

In Faulkner’s interview at Virginia, he confirms that his story is about a young girl that was controlled by her father. In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily’s father is described as “a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.” Miss Emily’s father refused to allow any potential suitors to converse with Miss Emily; instead, he would send them away, as if they weren’t good enough for his daughter. At the same time, Miss Emily’s father was preventing Emily from leaving his control by placing her in the background. In A Rose for ‘A Rose for Emily’, readers are reminded about the “importance of Emily’s father in shaping the quality of her life is insistent throughout the story” (Fetterley). Even after Miss Emily’s father has passed away, the looming portrait of him in the house is a constant reminder that although he is physically gone, he still watches her every move. In addition to Miss Emily’s father watching her every move, the town is constantly observing Miss Emily’s actions. American critic Brooks proposes that “[Miss Emily’s] life is public, even communal.” Fetterley suggests the same idea as Brooks, “[Miss Emily’s] private life becomes a public document that the town folk feel free to interpret at will… her funeral… is also the climax of their invasion of her private life.” Throughout Faulkner’s story, the people in the town are consistently gossiping about Miss Emily and her actions. When Miss Emily died, the women in the town went to her funeral to see what she possessed in her house, while the men respected Miss Emily because she was an independent women. The individuals of the town knew everything Miss Emily accomplished, even her murder of Homer Baron. The town viewed Miss

It is proximately infeasible not to examine her in a psychological as well as contextual light. Over the course of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily’s erratic and idiosyncratic comportment becomes outright, and the reader, like the townspeople in the story, is left wondering how to expound the fact that Miss Emily has spent years living and slumbering with the corpse of Homer Barron. Miss Emily is not emotionally or mentally well, the townspeople persist in enabling her to maintain her delusions. In fact, their denial is virtually as pathological as Miss Emily’s own symptoms. The townspeople eschew confronting Miss Emily about any paramount concerns, such as the terrible smell that is emanating from her home, which itself is becoming more “detached, superseded, and forbidding” every

There are different components that come to play when writing a good story, amongst those, setting is considered one of the most important and significant. Settings refer to time, place, social and religious environment that permits the reader to understand the characters better. In the case of William Faulkner’s story “A rose for Emily” and James Joyce’s “Eveline” settings is crucial, because the readers would not understand the characters reactions and action without first, through settings, get a grasp of their way of life. These two stories have many differences and similarities in their settings, the main purpose of this essay is to distinguish and explain those similarities and differences.

In "A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner depicts the story of an old, lonely, lady stuck in her own little world. After her controlling father died, Emily has found it difficult to find her place in the world. Her house has slowly become the most hideous looking home on the once most select street in the city. While it once was elegant, and white with scrolled balconies, it is now encroached with filth and disgust. The townspeople in Miss Emily's city worry about her lost soul, and fill their time speaking ill of her. Eventually, Emily begins dating a young man named, Homer Barron, who works for the construction company paving sidewalks on her street. Homer and Emily begin spending time together, which in turn makes the townspeople gossip more, and

Although Thomas Jefferson believed that slavery was against the natural state of man, he was a slaveowner, his farm depended on slave labor. As well, Thomas Jefferson fathered six of his slave, Sally Hemings, children, yet he promotes the need for slavery to the extent that his arguments are used as the South’s proslavery defense. While hindsight is always clearer, it is apparent that Thomas Jefferson’s physical and mental evaluations of African Americans were insufficient in justifying the needs for slaves, when that has been disproven, even by the free slaves of that time. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner allows a murder to occur as a result of absurd justifications through the time. Thomas Jefferson and the characters in “A Rose for Emily” adhere to immoral actions of murder and slavery, that are insufficiently justified through external and internal justifications.