Feminist Criticism Of A Rose For A Rose For Emily By Judith Fetterley

An important idiosyncrasy of Emily's that will help the reader to understand the bizarre finale of the story, is her apparent inability to cope with the death of someone she cared for. When deputies were sent to recover back taxes from Emily, she directed them to Colonel Sartoris, an ex-mayor that had told her she would never have to pay taxes, and a man that had been dead for ten years. Years before this incident, however, after her father had died, she continued to act has if he had not, and only allowed his body to be removed when threatened with legal action. Considering the fate of her lover's corpse, one suspects she would have kept her father's corpse also, had the town not known of his death.

“‘No taxation without representation!’”(Hart,67). This explains the anger in the colonist on how britain was taxing for the lost items without their consent.

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,

attempted to make Miss Emily once again pay her taxes. They met no success in doing so and did nothing further. The same was so when Miss Emily bought arsenic. The pharmacist requested a reason for buying it, but without an answer, he let Miss Emily do as she pleased. When a disgusting odor came from Miss Emily's House, instead of telling her to fix the problem and hurt her pride, four men attempted to fix it themselves in secret. Overall Miss Emily answered to no one.

He then goes on to describe how “Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business preferred this way of repayment.” Remitting Miss Emily’s taxes was a

When Miss Emily’s father passed away she began to start acting out. Emily is stuburned like her father, who refuses to change. Although her father had lots of money, he only left Miss Emily the home. Soon the town started asking Miss Emily to pay her taxes. But, she refused to do so. Colonel Sartoris, the mayor of the town, planned to not make Miss Emily pay taxes on her house, “Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity” (452), trying not to make it seem like Colonel Sartoris was offering her charity. He made up an imaginary loan from her father to the town

This annotated bibliography is designed to give the readers comprehensive understand of how the theme of feminism is manifested in William Faulkner short story A Rose for Emily. The information gathered about the story was mainly taken from scholarly journals and credible internet sources. The information gathered on the primary text gives and in-depth and critical look on the topic feminism. Through ongoing secondary research literary critics have a wide interpretations of the primary sources. In relation to the topic feminism, literary critics say that feminism can be seen in the story. Issues that literary critics emphases on are the reason behind the feminism theme. Some say it is because of the author personality, while others say it is just the writer expressing what he sees around him during the time that the story was written. These interpretation by literary critics have influenced me not only to look at the words in story but also to look at the author. Further research on the author would be useful, which will give me a full understand of who he is and what was going on when the story was written.

Any evidence against Miss Emily is circumstantial or illegally obtained. When Miss Emily bought arsenic, the druggist labeled it as being “For Rats” (Faulkner 325). The townspeople assumed it was for suicide (326) but did not question it. The arsenic could have been used for any number of pests around the house. Around Miss Emily’s time, arsenic was being used as part of a beauty regiment

But that is what Jefferson wants. He wants to live among rich people and be, or at least pretend to be as rich as them. So he decides “never again to speak to black people” (28) that he now considers as a waste of time and money, because they were always borrowing money from him and never pay back. Then, he used all his savings to buy a big empty house in Rosedale. What Jefferson never thought about is how he was going to fill up the house not only with furniture, but with friends and love. He found himself into an empty house, alone and lonely.

7) What is the significance of Miss Emily’s actions after the death of her father?

By the story’s conclusion, the reader can go back through the story and identify many episodes where Miss Emily behavior

Being a member of an antebellum southern aristocracy meant that she was in a family that was defined as a “planter” also known as a person owning property and twenty or more slaves. After the Civil War, the family went through another hardship. The woman and her father kept on living their lives as if they were still in the past. Her father refused to let her get married. When the woman was thirty years old, her father died. This took her by surprise. After her dad passed, the woman refused to give up his body. The town thought it was just part of her grieving process. After she finally accepted her dad’s death, she grew closer to Mr. Homer. This took the town by surprise. Homer explained to Emily that he wasn’t the marrying type. She did not like hearing those words. Emily went to town and bought arsenic from a drug dealer. Because of this, the towns people were certain she was trying to kill herself. Emily’s distant cousins came to visit because the priest’s wife had called them. Homer left for a couple of days, but then came back after the cousins had left. Emily wouldn’t talk to any of the towns people. They wouldn’t confront her given her reputation. They wanted to ask her about the awful smell that had been coming from her house and to talk to her about her taxes. At first, they said her taxes were over looked in debt to her father, but then they changed their minds and sent her notices. The woman refused to pay them! Years later Emily had

Despite all the rumours talk by the towns people, Miss Emily had her own plan, but as Faulkner wanted to let the readers contradict what is the use of the arsenic he didn’t stated why and how does Homer disappeared. But as a clue, Faulkner come out with the smell, however, continues to persist, rapping on the reader’s curiosity. Miss Emily emerges as a figure frozen in a short of stasis, though throughout it all, Faulkner never makes her character any less complex and ambiguous.

When the Board of Aldermen visited Miss Emily about the taxes she refused to pay,

with no one save her servant. This caretaking of Emily by the town shows the opinion of