Decay Of The South In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

This short story by William Faulkner is set in Post-Civil War Mississippi, as racial and class tensions rise the old south must change to progress or risk decaying. The reader can determine the historical time and background in part one when Faulkner describes Miss Emily Grierson’s final resting place, “And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson” (451). This is the first symbol of change and decay, the end of an era, a change in history and laws sadly marked by death and decay. He continues his use of symbols throughout to portray the relationship between change and decay. Decay is due to a resistance to change. In his short story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses symbols such as Emily, her house, and Homer to portray change and decay.

In “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner reveals the sentimental attitude toward the Old South and the traditions that had died with it. The Old South was described as the southern states of the US original colonies before the Civil War which lasted from 1861-1865. When Faulkner wrote the short story in 1930, the Southern society was still in shambles due to the abolition of slavery and the unwillingness to accept defeat. The era of Reconstruction was slow and cruel to the society that was once prosperous and plentiful, which resulted in bursts of revolt through ideas such as the Black Codes and the Ku Klux Klan. These ideas were attempts to secure the way things had been and showed the desperation of those still clinging to the past. Through the portrayal of Miss Emily, Faulkner conveys societies nostalgia for the Old South and their longing for the way things used to be.

Slavery was ending, sidewalks are being paved, and neighborhoods are being taken over by businesses.Yet through it all, the house stubbornly remains. The once beautiful estate has a square frame, with winding balconies, spires, and cupolas. Faulkner illustrates it as “an eye sore among eye sores” (82). The home, at first, was white but now has a “coquettish decay” (82), just as Miss Emily has over the years. Lack of modification expresses refusal to change and the choice to continue living in the past. The yard still contains gasoline pumps and cotton wagons that were used in times of slavery. People of the community complained of a foul, rotting smell circling the perimeter of the house. It was the only home left on the street that fails to follow modernization along with the rest of the community, continuing to reflect old values of southern society. Miss Emily seems to want to preserve the estate just as it was in the past, even though it was destroying the exterior of the house

A Rose for Emily is a southern gothic story that takes inspiration from Faulkner’s own life. In addition, the story is set in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha Mississippi, modeled after Faulkner’s childhood home of New Albany in Lafayette Mississippi. Moreover, A Rose for Emily works with symbols of time, something Faulkner is opinionated on I.E. his famous quote, “The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past.” In any Case, William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily expertly uses symbols such as the house, the rose, and the hair to portray an unsettling, eerie change and decay in the story.

Faulkner’s,” A Rose for Emily” is characterized by a powerful imagery, plot and setting which are interwoven to create a gothic feeling. The story unfolds in Jefferson, the living fragments of a land that is plagued with civil war. Among the remains of Jefferson is Emily’s house which appears to be the summary of what has become of the wealthy and noble in Jefferson. The description of the house in itself creates a haunting atmosphere. The “stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps,” coupled with the “cemetery”,

A Rose for Emily is a very complex and intricate story. During the story there are many undertones such as symbolism of the old south to the new south. As this story plays out Faulkner has written in many ways for Emily to defy her father and the old south.

In order to emphasize Miss Emily portrays the Old south to the new, Faulkner represents that change will not prosper when she decays to her death.“A Rose for Emily” is used to address the themes of progression and changes because it is related to the American South. Faulkner phrases how the south refuses to see the Historical fate and social change, and if the south doesn’t accept to the assembled time. The south will have a difficult and lonely death like Miss Emily.

After her father died, Emily became the last of the prestigious southern family. During a period of social change, Emily was placed in a very awkward position as her southern values clashed with the new era’s. She had no spouse except for one suitor who mysteriously disappeared. After her death her house was searched, revealing in the upstairs room the rotting corpse of her past love. A streak of gray hair was found next to the man which concluded that Emily still slept with her dead suitor. At first reaction, many critics viewed the story to be dreadful and gruesome due to it’s necrophiliac content and eerie plot line. But the work quickly penetrated the mind of many avid readers, as further analyzation revealed a beautiful work of social criticism under the veil of dark and omnipresent horror. This style of literature was popular in the nineteenth century, and made once again with writers such as Faulkner. Southern gothic literature dwelled on weird situations and flawed characters. It brought out the darkness within people and places in order to comment on

In this short story, they are many symbolisms that the author or narrator uses to describe Emily’s personality and her actions during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Nonetheless, the narrator or the author also displays the different forms of social conventions that were used during those certain centuries. For instance, most white women were expected to marry a man from either the south or the north depending on where they are from and Emily was thought to marry or have a relationship with a man from the south since she is from the south. However, Emily was in a relationship with a northerner who was not of high social status and during those times people didn’t like the sight of that because that is what most people thought during the 1800’s.

Emily herself comes from a long line of fictional southern corruption. In Faulkner's other stories chronicling the Satoris family, the tradition is one of seedy doings. Also, after learning of Miss Emily's death, we catch a glimpse of her dwelling, itself a reflection of its late owner. The house lifts "its stubborn and coquettish decay" above new traditions just as its spinster is seen to do, "an eyesore among eyesores" (80) This description lets us know that this used to be a grand home, built from much money and probably with the employment of the use of slavery.

Society is comprised of different age groups, and “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner William depicts some of the perspectives the young have of the elderly. Every age group has a unique view of the previous group, and groups, with different themes developing. The story of Emily resonates in numerous societies, from being treasured to being feared. The elderly in the community represent both wealth as well as poverty, just as Emily did, though not necessarily in material wealth. The story had a lot to convey, and a standout amongst the most consistent is the battle between Old South, the pre-Civil War era vs the New South, which rose from the Civil War. In this story, Miss Emily served as a piece of the Old South, similar to Colonel Sartoris, her

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the story of his own internal conflict between letting go of the past and moving into the present. Miss Emily, much like Faulkner and other southerners, is comfortable in her way of life and anything new scares her. Faulkner dealt with these struggles himself. For Miss Emily, in the struggle between old south and new south, the old south is the

First of all, the house described in the beginning symbolizes the isolation and death themes of the story. Emily’s house is a monument that is the only remaining figure of the dying Southern aristocracy. The large house, a “squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies” (Faulkner 1.2). Although the setting of the story depicts that much has changed. At one time privileged, now the streets and neighborhood had lost their standing as elite. The house serves as proof for tradition but it seems to be out of place among “the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps” (1.2). The house seems to be the only living remaining from the old ways of living.

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” discusses the complacency of neighbors, death and decay, and the dissolution of the South. While these three factors are literal within the story, there are deeper levels of each that contribute to the others. The decay would not persist without complacency, but there would be no reason for complacency if Emily’s nobility was not dissolving. The complacency of the town towards the deaths surrounding Emily represents the inability of the South to fight off the destruction of the romantic Southern society.

The house passed down from Emily’s father to his daughter was once a southern grand lively home built just after the Civil War “…an eyesore among eyesores” (Faulkner 451). Miss Emily’s house was once the talk of the town, “It was a big squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and