Emily Grierson Symbolism

Written in 1931, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, has a very horrific and unconventional style to it. The story is about the life of the protagonist, Emily Grierson, after the death of her father, and after the death of her. throughout the story, the narrator switches settings between the past and the present. Emily lives alone in a house that has been around since the 19th century. At the beginning of the story, the whole town is at Emily’s funeral but most of the townspeople just wanted to see the inside of her house, which nobody has seen in the past 10 years besides Emily. Although, In A Rose for Emily, has an odd style to it, it also has a lot of symbolic meaning.

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 “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily Grierson lives a life of quiet turmoil. Her

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a story about an elderly woman, Emily Grierson who represents the old south. “A Rose for Emily” consists of five parts. The story begins with the death of Emily Grierson. Then, the narrator takes the readers into a flashback to the time Miss Emily Grierson is alive. The narrator explains Grierson as a representation of the old south. The narrator describes Miss Emily Grierson actions rather than explain her thoughts on why she choses not to accept the new way of life or the New South. “A Rose for Emily” ends with a twist which is why readers view the story as a southern gothic. By the end of the story, the townspeople discover that Miss Emily Grierson was psychotic. She kills her companion, maybe-lover, Homer Barron with arsenic poison. Emily Grierson could not accept the changes that came along with the new south which transforms her into psychologically damaged spinster. In a sense, Grierson symbolizes the old south to the townspeople; She’s unwilling to change her old ways of living and accept the new south. Faulkner’s story, “A Rose for Emily” protagonist, Emily Grierson and the town symbolizes the old south, which readers can imply by the poor conditions of Grierson’s house, the reconstruction of the town, and Grierson’s funeral.

Emily Grierson is a very misunderstood individual. She lived her entire 74 years of life in the same house in the same city of Jefferson, Mississippi and yet, only a very small group of people can claim they know much about the woman, especially during the later years of her life. She had a mysterious way about her which intrigued all of those around her. The story of “A Rose for Emily” does not occur in chronological order and as a reader, it almost portrays the illusion of being a newcomer to Jefferson, Mississippi and learning about her story through gossip which plays a huge role in this story. As the story begins, Mrs. Grierson has just recently passed and the town gathered at her residency to give condolences and subdue their curiosities.

She holds so dearly onto the things in her life that no longer exist. As Thomas Dilworth so succinctly puts it in his review of “A Rose for Emily,” “she idolized and idealized her father and Homer Barron, even to the point of endowing them with fictitious life beyond death.” Emily Grierson is “…weighed down by the pressures of time, and forced into a transformation that she resists with all her heart—even to the point of putrefaction” (Fitzpatrick). What Emily does not see is that through all her attempts at stopping time, to hold onto the way life used to be, she is altering it. Perhaps if Emily had embraced the change in, and participated in, the Reconstruction of Jefferson, she could have kept her family’s perceived legacy alive.

The mysterious tale, “A Rose for Emily”, focuses on the life and death of the main character, Emily, a stubborn and mentally unstable woman. . Throughout Emily’s life she has lived in the town of Jefferson for as long as the townspeople have remembered. The town develops and changes a lot while Emily lives there, but Emily does not. In “A Rose For Emily”; William Faulkner constructs Emily as a distinct character in order to show the theme of unwillingness to change as the town around her does.

Miss Emily Grierson, the gossip of a small town, is brought down and seperated from society. Although it is unlikely and unrelatable for an old lady to kill then sleep with the corpse of a man, Faulkner makes her character easily recognizable and relatable. With eerie and detailed descriptions, comparisons such as similes, metaphors, and personification allows the readers to make connections to their own world and emotions as well as understand the characters in a real life way. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” illustrates physical and mental characterization through the use of figurative language.

The first symbol, found in "A Rose for Emily", is the house where Emily and her father live. This house is at one time a beautiful home to Emily and her father. During that time, the house symbolizes prosperity, family, and happiness. Unfortunately, the house does not stay a positive symbol forever. Emily 's father dies and the only people that continue to live in the house is Emily and one servant. Emily does not take care of her beautiful home any longer. The house is no longer appealing. It slowly becomes rundown and is symbol of despair and grief. Emily uses the house to alienate herself from the rest of society. She comes out of her alienation when she meets a man that she likes. His name is Homer Barron and she dreams of one day sharing her home with him. However, Homer does not agree with the ideas of Emily and tries to leave her. Emily is not fond of his choice to flee her, so she murders him. She uses the house to hold him like a trophy in a room. The house that was thought of as a positive place in the

Emily Grierson herself symbolizes the traditions related to the Old South. During her funeral, townsfolk thought of Emily as some “fallen monument” (Faulkner) alluding to the fall of the Old South. Additionally, Emily’s house symbolizes a dying world of Southern aristocracy. Expressing the decay of the Old South’s values, “the ladies said; so they were not surprised when the smell developed” (Faulkner), which links the Griersons estate to a world of waning ideas. Homer Barron represents the North and serves as a symbol of change and progress in Jefferson. Homer brings innovation to the growing town of Jefferson, with the “contract for paving the sidewalks” (Faulkner). Faulkner uses many symbols and images in “A Rose for Emily.” However, using the primary character Emily and the Grierson estate as symbols allows for a clearer understanding the resistance to change in the South.

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.

When Emily was younger many young men wanted Emily. They would go to her house and bring her a rose to show the love they had towards her. In the article ‘’Examples of symbolism in the ‘A Rose for Emily’’’ the authors Magher and media declare ‘’ the rose represents the idea of love since young lovers often give each other roses to express their affections. ’’ The rose also showed purity.

“A Rose for Emily” follows the townspeople’s observation of Emily and her family after her death. The townspeople gather in her house for her funeral and share stories of her life. Her house is very much like herself. The readers learn about Emily through the townspeople, which is only so much because of her closed off nature. Emily, just like her house, can be seen by everyone, but what is happening on the interior is unknown. She never exits her home and no one, except her servant who comes and goes every day, visits the home. The town, fill with nosy people, only attended the funeral in order to get a glimpse into Emily’s secretive life. They explore her house, trying to uncover the truth as to what her life was truly like. In the

The Grierson household is an important key factor to A Rose For Emily. The theme of the whole story is being unable to let go of the past. The house provides a place for Emily to theoretically be frozen in time. The house symbolized the past, and it was sort of like a sanctuary for Emily. The townspeople held the Grierson family to such a high standard, this had a huge affect on Emily. As time progressed, society inevitably became more advanced. Emily obviously wanted to remain in the past for as long as possible, so she isolated herself in her home away from the world. The Grierson house was a safe haven for Emily. It was place for her to avoid the present. This something turned her house into a prison. She had nowhere else to go but home,

After an initial reading, “A Rose for Emily” seems to present itself as just a deranged love story. However, after taking a closer look through symbolism in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, you get a whole different comprehension of the story. In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," Emily lives with an overly protective father who denies all who try to show deep affection towards Emily, assuming she was a supercilious women in their town. After Emily’s father passes away, Emily found a lover on her own named Homer Barron, that being said their story together did not have a happy ending. The incidents in this story are concealed in mystery and fascination, symbolism is used to intensify the plot and generate meaning. Though