Essay about A Rose for Emily

Symbolism in literature is using an object to portray a different, deeper meaning in a story. Symbols represent ideas or qualities that the author has maneuvered into his or her story that has meaning. There can be multiple symbols in a story or just one. It is up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the symbols and their significance to the story. While reading a story, symbols may not become clear until the very end, once the climax is over, and the falling action is covered. In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily,” there are multiple examples of symbolism that occur throughout the story.

     In the short story A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner there is a very interesting character. Her Name is Emily Grierson and she is a rich southern gentile. All her life it seems that she was raised at a standard that was above the rest. By living such a secluded and controlled life it set her up for the happenings in her future.

In “A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, the main character Emily Grierson is stuck living in the past within the isolated reality that she’s been forced into and that she herself created. Throughout the story, a major theme, (meaning what the story is about) is Emily’s resistance to change which leads to isolation. This Faulkner classic shows us how Emily became isolated because of her families, community and tradition.

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a short story that describes the tradition and how it implements people through the idea of death. The protagonist Emily gave into the concept of death the minute her father passed away. Death prevented Emily from pursuing the greater things in life. On the long run, she died of a broken heart because of her father's death and regret. Faulkner presents an argument based of feminism and the nature of broken women. This short story covers the significance of the pursuing of happiness. Emily Garrison struggles to maintain her tradition and the rich status of her family in her small community. However, time change and Emily become a disgrace to her community when she was not married about the age of thirty.

1. Arrange these events in the sequence in which they ACTUALLY occur chronologically (real time):

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.

"A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner is a short story that gives most people quite a shock when it comes to the ending. The story tells about how Miss Emily Grierson changes after her father dies. Miss Emily lives in a beautiful home with an African American servant named, Tobe. After Miss Emily’s father passed away she would never leave the house. Miss Emily was in denial about her father's death. For three days Emily would tell the townspeople that her father was not dead. The townspeople began to think Miss Emily was crazy because of her behavior, “Emily’s subsequent behavior clearly shows that the death of her father was a piece of reality disavowed by her ego” (Scherting). Including, Miss Emily wouldn't pay her taxes, the eerie smell around her house and the fact she killed her lover. Emily’s life, like her decaying house, starts to suffer from attention. What else could go wrong?

In light of Homers feelings toward marriage Emily had been seen in town at the jewelers purchasing a men’s toilet set in silver with the letters H.B. on each

The term "death" refers to someone who is dying or had been killed, basically someone who is at the end of their life. But, to Miss Emily, "death" has a different meaning. "Death" to Miss Emily is when someone is still living their life, even though they are skeletons. Miss Emily keeps dead bodies because she does not ever see death for what it is. She does not think they are dead. In "A Rose for Emily", the theme of control is shown through Emily's interaction with her father in her youth, as well as in Emily's controlling of death.

In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.

7) What is the significance of Miss Emily’s actions after the death of her father?

What makes someone to live an isolated and antisocial lifestyle? What are the causes? What are the reasons that people are in the edge of madness when a great life with many opportunities are in front of them?

Emily actually buys the poison to keep Homer Barron within her grasp. The poison represents Emily’s struggle for normalcy in her life. The poison is Emily’s weapon of choice to make sure that Homer Barron stays within her grasp. She had already lost one important man in her life, so she was longing for at least one man in her life to stick around. The third archetype that Faulkner uses is the setting of the story. The narrator says, “When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermem, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction” (pg 1). The Civil War has just ended and it is a time period when many people are concerned about what their futures will now look like. Miss Emily obviously lives in the South, a place where slavery had run rampant for many years. The Civil War changed all of that. Many citizens no longer knew how to make a living for themselves. The tension and worry of that particular time period clearly represent the turmoil in Emily’s life and the rash decisions she can be seen

Emily was a woman that cannot be described without a the words “ not quite normal”,

The main symbolism running throughout A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, is the theme of how important it is to let go of the past. Miss Emily clings to the past and does not want to be independent. The Old South is becoming the new South and she cannot move forward. The residents of the South did not all give in to change just because they lost the Civil War. In A Rose for Emily time marches on leaving Miss Emily behind as she stubbornly refuses to progress into a new era. In the story, symbolism is used to give more details than the author actually gives to the reader. Symbolism helps to indicate how Emily was once innocent but later changes, how her hair, house, and lifestyle, helped to show her resistance to change. The story is not