The story of Emily Grierson is a hauntingly gothic approach on the resistance of change. It starts out announcing Emily’s funeral is an obligation for the town and the process of the selfish people who would only go for their own benefit. The reader is then transported through time over decades of this southern woman's life while learning about her strange habits and how she became the conversation of many in the town. Everyone has quirks. Emily’s just aren’t the normal ones typically heard from a neighbor. Refusing to pay taxes, buying giant amounts of poison, and even having a house that radiates an odor even from the outside. After her funeral, the town discovers Emily’s dark past and how everything was much worse than they imagined. Emily was an interesting woman. Her habits drew attention from everybody in town and was the hot topic for conversation. Yet, nobody knew anything more about Emily other than the gossip spreading around. The selfishness of the commotion of a new thing to say “poor Emily” for had become very worn out by the time her funeral came around, which caused even more discussion. People poured into her abandoned house for the funeral, but not for the normal reasons. The only motivation these people had was nobody had seen the inside of her house for quite some time. Emily had shut herself out from the world …show more content…
A rose is typically a symbol for love and life, but there isn’t much love in the storyline at all, it’s actually the opposite. This gothic approach to the story wouldn’t give the reader any warm and fuzzies. If the title is said out loud, it sounds like “Arose for Emily” which is exactly what the people do at Emily’s funeral. They arose for her. In Greek legends, Roses were used to represent secrecy. Meaning, the narrator kept Emily’s secret throughout the story until the end even after all the jumping through
In the end, with her death, which is where the story begins, Miss Emily is the talk of the town. Not because people truly mourn her, but because people are curious about the life she had lived in secret, in her big house, for all those years. People pitied her, it was as had been left alone in the world and seemed to have wished it that way.
The narrator seems unable to establish direct contact with Emily, either in the recovery center or their home life. The narrator notes how Emily grew slowly more distant and emotionally unresponsive. Emily returned home frail, distant, and rigid, with little appetite. Each time Emily returned, she was forced to reintegrate into the changing fabric of the household. Clearly, Emily and the narrator have been absent from each other’s lives during significant portions of Emily’s development. After so much absence, the narrator intensifies her attempts to show Emily affection, but these attempts are rebuffed, coming too late to prevent Emily’s withdrawal from her family and the world. Although Emily is now at home with the narrator, the sense of absence continues even in the present moment of the story. Emily, the narrator’s central
Her house reeked of a horrible smell. Miss Emily faces many issues by her community. The whole town gossips about her and talk down on her. "Poor Emily," as they attend her father’s funeral and none of her family members are there. “...the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad.” She lived in a big house all alone with no one, but her slave. After all the pity the town felt for Miss Emily, they started to complain about her.
Miss Emily is also decaying, but it is subtle and internal--the awful smell that begins to permeate from her dwelling is a reflection of the withering woman within rotting. Perhaps most tragically, Miss Emily’s isolation is far from self-inflicted. Her blind devotion to the ones she loves; her father, her husband, her home; only serves to further condemn her actions. Her neighbors disregard toward her inabilty to let go of her father after his death, despite the delicacy of her being, caused for her madness to fester. “She told them her father was not dead.
Throughout the story, the actions of Emily are very absurd. However, Faulkner’s setting helps the audience understand how Emily was able to live the way she has for so long and understand the actions of the town. Emily is very reclusive after the death of her father. She has never been without her father’s constant control. Emily’s father thought no one was worthy of his daughter. As a result, she was been kept away from the rest of the world by her father. When Emily’s father died, she could not
In Faulkner's story, an onlooker tells of the peculiar events that occurred during Miss Emily's life. The author never lets the reader understand Emily's side to the story. Instead, the reader is forced to guess why Emily is as strange as she is. In the story, Emily had harbored her father's dead body in her house for three days (par. 27). The reader is told of how the town looked upon what Emily had done, but the reader is never able to fully understand Emily's actions until the end of the story.
Emily had depression and was dealing with it in her own way by closing herself off. Looks could be very deceiving and in this case, Emily surprised the town when she died. The townspeople realized that there was more to her than they thought and were quick to judge.
The very beinning of the story is extraordinary. It begins with the burial of Emily, the residents around her coffin did not feel anything, most of them were curious. There were neither friends nor relatives, nobody who was in mouring for her, only inquirers. The readers can ask, what kind of person was Miss Emily? Why the others did not feel sadness? Perhaps there is a bigger question: what was the reason that nobody went to her house more than ten years (except her slave, Tobe).
When asked about the meaning behind the title , A Rose for Emily, Faulkner never literally stated an answer. However Emily’s peculiar inability to let things go after they are dead suggests a possible reason for the title. It is not unheard of for one to preserve a rose in a closed book. Similarly, Emily preserved the body of Homer Barron in her house for years after his death. Homer was Emily’s rose. He was the happiness and hope that Emily had closed herself off from for such a long part of her life, of course she would want to keep that as long as she could.
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
He often portrayed the rise and fall of the upper class Southern society. " A Rose for Emily" is a Southern Gothic Literature because the story contains a grotesque death, a delusional character, and a foreboding tone. There are several examples of grotesque throughout this short story. The first example is when Emily chooses to keep her father's body for a few days after his death. She is not able to accept the fact that he is has died.
Emily lived under her neighbors’ microscope. Living in such a small town as she did, it affected how society viewed her, how they reacted toward her activities, and differed from others because of her social class. However, although Emily was knowledgeable about her onlookers, she lacked concern for her illegal and immoral actions because her wealth and status always paid the price for them. In A Rose for Emily, it is well known that Emily possessed a high name because of her family.
Emily’s character is difficult to determine since her thoughts are not conveyed in the short story. It challenges the readers to imagine her feelings when her father passed and the reason for her becoming a killer. As in result, Emily avoids change in her life because her perspective she is fixed on living the same era and does not recognize the change in her town. She is secluded alone in her house letting one servant in and out of her home. In addition, the town remembers her aunt who died and gone crazy, so mental disorder might have run in the family. In conclusion, everyone has different perception in the world because no one can understand each other's life unless they can relate it to their life experience. Emily’s lifestyle is shown
The day after her father's death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was "dressed as usual" and had "no trace of grief on her face (Perrine's 285)." Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to hold on to her father, "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrine's 285)." The town's people tired to justify Miss. Emily's actions, by saying that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy.
Emily behaves the way she does for numerous reasons. She is born into an aristocratic family. Emily is brought up as a Southern belle by her father and is placed on a pedestal by the townspeople. The Grierson’s are known in town for being extremely wealthy and having the nicest house in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County. Due to the fact that her father, Mr. Grierson, keeps her isolated and socially restricted as a child, she behaves abnormally. Emily feels as if she is pressured to live up to her father’s expectations. Because Emily is kept away from everything, she is not yet exposed to the real world.