Emily Grierson's Perception Of Reality

The short story “A Rose for Emily” is told by a southerner, a resident of Jefferson, Mississippi. The story by William Faulkner portrays a woman who lived a life of seclusion. Miss Emily Grierson could not accept that important people in her life could leave her. She was a victim of her father, time and her town. The way the story is told is controlled by the storyteller. During the time spent letting it know, he infers his own and his general public's social qualities, which impact states of mind and conduct toward Emily in a manner that embroils him and the townspeople in her destiny. The author may well ask why he recounts the story at all or why he lets it know the way he does,

When she finally found a male that showed some interest and emotion, she was attached to them. That’s where Homer Barron comes into the story. He would visit Emily and go for Sunday drives with her. When Homer told Emily that he must move on she found herself on the verge of loneliness once again. If Homer would leave it would be two men that have left her. When she realized that he was about to leave she poisoned him and would keep him forever.

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses imagery and symbolism to both illustrate and strengthen the most prevalent theme; Emily’s resistance to change. William Faulkner seems to reveal this theme through multiple descriptions of Miss Grierson’s actions, appearance, and her home. Throughout the short story it is obvious that Emily has a hard time letting go of her past, she seems to be holding onto every bit of her past. Readers see this shown in several ways, some more obvious than others.

Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal

Emily’s father, as well as the people of Jefferson, had always pressured Emily to marry. Her father was never able to find a match for her though, and he eventually passed. Emily then met Homer Barron, a contract worker for the town. They begin to see each other more often, and the townspeople are shocked that Emily would lower herself to being with a man of low class. This shows a bit of irony, in that there has always been pressure for Emily to marry, yet when she finally meets a man she loves, people think she is wrong in her decision. Another piece of irony in this relationship, comes after Emily dies. The body of Homer Barron is found in the attic of Emily’s home. Next to the body are signs that Emily had been sleeping next the corpse. It can be assumed that Emily did murder Homer with the arsenic she had purchased earlier in the story. It

Homer entered her life by courting her publicly; by not wanting to marry her, he would have robbed her of her dignity and high-standing in the community. The ladies of the town felt that Miss Emily was not setting a good example for the "younger people" and their affair was becoming a "disgrace to the town" (75). The traditions, customs, and prejudices of the South doomed this affair from the beginning. Emily could not let Homer live, but she could not live without him. He was her only love. When she poisoned him with arsenic, she believed he would be hers forever.

William Faulkner has done a wonderful work in his essay “A Rose for Emily.” Faulkner uses symbols, settings, character development, and other literary devices to express the life of Emily and the behavior of the people of Jefferson town towards her. By reading the essay, the audience cannot really figure out who the narrator is. It seems like the narrator can be the town’s collective voice. The fact that the narrator uses collective pronoun we supports the theory that the narrator is describing the life of “Miss Emily” on behalf of the townspeople. Faulkner has used the flashback device in his essay to make it more interesting. The story begins with the portrayal of Emily’s funeral and it moves to her past and at the end the readers realize that the funeral is a flashback as well. The story starts with the death of Miss Emily when he was seventy-four years old and it takes us back when she is a young and attractive girl.

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a tragic tale of a Southern aristocrat, Miss Emily Grierson, who is the subject of a town's obsession.  The narrator, a member of the town, tells the story of what transpires in a decaying old Southern house that is always under the watchful eye of the townspeople.  They witness Miss Emily's life, her father's death, her turn to insanity and the death of both her and her lover.  The theme of death runs throughout this tale, which is understandable considering the events that take place in the story.  Faulkner uses foreshadowing to foretell events that will transpire later in the story.  Because of this foreshadowing, a reader

She knew Homer was homosexual and still flaunted him throughout town like an accessory in trying to convince both herself and the townspeople she could move on from her father’s death. However, her relationship may have got into deep with Homer and she had to kill him to make sure he didn’t leave her side as her father did. After Emily kills Homer, “a window that has been dark was lightened and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her” (p.395). This image shows Emily has now become her father in a way and took dominance in her life by murdering someone else, which causes an internal self satisfaction. She keeps the corpse of Homer almost as the resemblance of a trophy for her work. Emily was wealthy woman who appeared to have it all however, she never accomplished close to anything in her life except for taking the life of Homer. The lost of her father signified the lost of herself, in an attempt to find herself emerged a dark character who became mentally and physically consumed by her pain that she was left to fight alone.

When Miss Emily’s father died “the house was all that was left to her” because her father scared away any men that came to her house (Faulkner 2). People in the town of Jefferson tried to help Miss Emily though the tough time, but she did not want to accept the change in her life. However, when Homer Barron came into town; she tried to move on. Miss Emily did not want to be rejected by Homer, so she poisoned him. When Homer was poisoned, Miss Emily kept his body in an upstairs bedroom, and there was evidence she had laid with the

In the short story, the town of Jefferson, Mississippi shows sympathy towards Miss Emily Grierson for the loss of her father and her soon to be husband.

Throught the tragic story we learn and discover the emotional hardship the characters go through as we find out the deep secrets of miss Emily. The story takes place in the late 1800s through the early 1900s, in the sweet town of Jefferson, Mississippi. We learn through the charismatic words of the

A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner. Its plot focuses on Emily Grierson, a representative of the family of previously rich Southern aristocrats. The woman obviously had inherited mental problems, which resulted in the murder of Homer Barron, Emily’s first and only mentioned potential bridegroom. After the crime she turned into a complete anchoret and spent many decades in the house with Barron’s body. There were many factors that contributed to the tragic fate of Emily Grierson. Besides obvious class-specific and psychiatric issues, the list includes the perception of gender roles in the society of the time. Women played second fiddle despite their

The story opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson, an elderly Southern spinster. It then proceeds in a nonlinear fashion to the narrator's recollections of Emily's archaic and increasingly strange behavior throughout the years. Emily is a member of a family in the antebellum Southern aristocracy; after the Civil War, the family has fallen on hard times. She and her father, the last two of

In the early dawn, before Homer’s unanticipated disappearing, he traveled to Miss Emily’s house. He had made plans to take Miss Emily out to a fancy restaurant outside of town, but this was not the case in his misfortune. When he got there, he saw Emily holding a ring with his first and last name, initials,H.B, printed on the shiny, pure silver ring that would fit his finger perfectly. Instead of speaking to her calmly, he then snatched the ring out of her small hands and threw it into the now flaming fireplace across the room. Miss Emily had a depressing look in her eyes as she watched the ring fly across the room as if in slow motion. Miss Emily now realized that this change of events has led her to feel the same as when her father died.“Must I tell you over and over again woman? I am not a marrying man!” Homer exclaimed with anger boiling inside him. “How could you do such a terrible, awfully rude thing such as that? I spent so much money on that ring to give it to you as a gift for redeeming my