Examples Of Characterization In A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

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.

In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.

In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner employs a narrator to describe Emily Grierson, a recently deceased old woman. Apart from her manservant, she does not interact with others, save for a short period of time in

In “A Rose for Emily” Miss Emily Grierson live a life of quiet turmoil. Her entire life has revolved around an inexplicable loneliness mostly characterized by the harsh abandonment of death. The most vital imagery utilized by Faulkner demonstrates Miss Emily’s mental condition. She, being self-improsened within the confines of her home, is the human embodiment of her house; Faulkner describes it as “... stubborn an coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps--an eyesore among eyesores.” (Faulkner 308).

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses symbolism, imagery, simile and tone. Faulkner uses these elements to lead his characters to an epiphany of letting go of out-dated traditions and customs. The resistance to change and loneliness are prominent themes within “A Rose for Emily”. Faulkner uses “A Rose for Emily” to caution his readers that things are not always what they appear to be.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner escorts the reader through the peculiar life of the main character Miss Emily Grierson. The gloomy tone of the story is set by the author beginning his tale with the funeral of Miss Emily. During course of the story, we are taken through different times in Miss Emily’s life and how she was lost in time, with the town around her moving forward. Through the use of southern gothic writing style, narrator point of view, and foreshadowing, Faulkner aids the reader in creating a visualization of Miss Emily and the town in which she lives while also giving an insight into her sanity.

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 used a great deal of symbolism in this story. His use of symbolism captivated the reader until the shocking end of the story. Some of the symbolism was blatant while some was vague and disguised. While Faulkner’s use of the color white in this story wasn’t obvious at first it soon becomes clear that the color white represents innocence and youth. The Grierson house was white and when Miss Emily was a young girl she wore white dresses as opposed to the black attire she wore in her latter years. This represents the innocence of Miss Emily before she becomes a victim of herself and her refusal to change. The yellow color of the wheels of the buggy Miss Emily and

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner gives an insight into the life of an insecure, abused, and disturbed woman. Miss Emily is a difficult woman to understand. With years of mental abuse, Miss Emily’s mindset regarding social life is twisted making her awkward and insecure. Although Miss Emily seems very proud to be a Grierson, She has been a victim of extreme mental abuse inflicted by her father. One example is in paragraph 25 quote “None of the young men were quite good enough to Miss Emily and such.

There have been many short stories written about life during the Reconstruction era after the civil war. Some stories, even though they are fictitious, are based upon and often mirror actual events that have taken place. The most relevant stories tell of lives and families that have been separated due to war, and how the remnants were left the task of rebuilding. As towns changed, people were somewhat reluctant to let go of past beliefs and what they felt like were entitlements. Promises made to the family of Miss Emily Grierson are only a small part of her life as written about in William Faulkner’s short fictional story “A Rose for Emily” (Faulkner 298). The relationship between Miss

In William’s Faulkner story, “A Rose for Emily”, vivid imagery is used to describe the mysterious life of Emily Grierson. Emily Grierson, the main character, is portrayed as a mentally disturbed individual who is pitied among her community. In the story Emily Grierson exhibited behavior that would lead one to think she was insane. The main reason to Emily’s behavior comes from how her father treated her when he was alive. Emily’s father felt none of the “young men were quite good enough” for his daughter, therefore he kept her in the house and under his wing at all times. With this self-centeredness her dad annulled all desires of bliss for Emily leaving her stuck into her dad’s reality with no way out. This sort of family environment for women was normal in southern society. Emily’s constant isolation and deprivation of love contributed to the murder of her lover Homer Barron. Often described as a “fallen monument”, Emily is a convention, unfalteringly remaining the same throughout the years withstanding many changes in her town. Although, Emily is distant from the world she is someone people wish to regard and respect. Even though the people in her in community respect her she is mostly seen as a burden with a peculiar lifestyle.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” the story is revolved around the character Emily Grierson. The story is told by the townspeople where Emily lives. These people are attending her funeral and pitching in memories and tales they remember from Emily’s life. It is through the collective voices and opinions of the crowd that the reader is able to interpret Emily’s struggles. With Emily Grierson’s choices the reader can tell that she is a dependant woman, with psychotic tendencies, and does not take the thought of change and rejection lightly.

In “ A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the complex tale of a woman who is battered by time and unable to move through life after the loss of each significant male figure in her life. Unlike Disney Stories, there is no prince charming to rescue fallen princess, and her assumed misery becomes the subject of everyone in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. As the townspeople gossip about her and develop various scenarios to account for her behaviors and the unknown details of her life, Emily Grierson serves as a scapegoat for the lower classes to validate their lives. In telling this story, Faulkner decides to take an unusual approach; he utilizes a narrator to convey the details of a first-person tale, by examining chronology, the

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner tells the story of an sad and lonely lady, stuck in her time. Because her father died, she never fully recovered from it and was not able to find herself. Emily’s house was in the past was considered elegant and was built on the best street in town in the 1870’s. Now the house is old and an unattractive building to the neighborhood. People in her town begin to bad mouth her because of her lost soul. Homer Barron, an employee of a construction company, begins to begins to date Emily. The townspeople do not seem ecstatic about this, because they think she is doing it out of being lonely and depressed since her father died. Later on, she

“A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, focuses on many different literary criticisms. A psychological criticism expresses literature through personality, state of mind, feelings, and emotions. “The psychological approach is a unique form of criticism in that it draws upon psychological theories in its interpretation of a text” (George). In this story psychological criticism is shown greatly through Emily, the main character of the book. Do you know why Emily acts and behaves the way that she does? Emily is in a denial, and the situation is making her delusional.