Figurative Language In A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner

"A Rose for Emily" is a fictional short story written by 1949 Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is about an aristocratic woman who lived a very secretive and unusual life. Miss Emily had always been very sheltered by her father. He was the only man in her life and after his death, her behavior became even more unnatural. However her father's death cannot be seen as the only cause of Miss Emily's insanity. Miss Emily's behavior was also influenced by her own expectations of herself, the townspeople's lack of authority over her, and her neighbor's infatuation with her.

When Miss Emily finds somebody, though, it quickly pushes her to desperation. Her relationship with Homer Barron is a result of the life and death of her father. Ironically, he is a northern, roughneck Yankee, the exact opposite of any connection a Grierson would consider. Unsuspectingly, Emily is attracted to him, which is an oddity itself considering her lack of personality and his obvious charisma, for “whenever you [hear] a lot of laughing...Homer Barron [will] be in the center of the group” (560). He is also the first man to show an interest in her without her father alive to scare him off. The town is doubtful that the pair will remain together, but Emily's attachments are extreme, as seen when she would not surrender her father's body. The circumstance exhibits how her feelings are greatly intensified towards Homer. However, he is “not a marrying man” (561). When it appears as though he will leave her, she kills him with poison. While seemingly the opposite effect of love, killing Homer is quite in line with her obsession. If he is dead and she keeps Homer all to herself, Emily will never lose him; he can never leave her. Other such details that express her extreme attachments appear as she buys him clothes and toiletries before they are even considered married. There is also the revelation at the end of the story that she has been keeping his body for over thirty years and sleeping with it, clearly demonstrating her overt desperation

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.

Some of the townspeople considered this as an inappropriate match for her and said, “That even grief could not cause a real lady to forget oblesse oblige.” Emily could not stand loosing anyone else and murdered Homer. She had missed so many chances of marrying anyone because of her father, so the only resort she had left was to kill homer and hang on to him forever before he would leave her life like everyone else. Once Emily had passed away, the townspeople went inside her house and saw that Homer’s body was there in the bed. Astonishingly they saw “the second pillow (had an) indention of a head… and saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” Faulkner had described Emily’s hair as iron-gray so it could be assumed that Emily had been lying next to homer all this time.

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.

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.

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.

William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, is a dark tale of a young girl damaged by her father that ended up leaving her with abandonment issues. Placed in the south in the 1930’s, the traditional old south was beginning to go under transition. It went from being traditionally based on agriculture and slavery to gradually moving into industrial and abolition. Most families went smoothly into the transition and others, like the Griersons, did not. Keeping with southern tradition, the Griersons thought of themselves as much higher class then the rest of their community. Emily’s father found no male suitable for his daughter and kept her single into her thirties. After her fathers death Miss Emily was swept off of

In her mind she is wanting to find someone who she could spend the rest of her life with but Homer is just wanting a fling and not a commitment. This is something that the citizens of Jefferson will worry about, as they feel that they must look after Emily since her father passing. The townspeople are like her parents and feel like it is in their best interest to look after her. This could make the reader show sympathy for Emily, rather than disliking her.

In “A Rose For Emily” written by William Faulkner, Miss Emily Grierson’s father never let Emily marry and he always chased her boyfriend’s away. After her father passed away, Emily found a new boyfriend and when he was going to leave her she became very upset. She did not want her father to get away with her never letting her get married. Emily bought rat poison and murdered her boyfriend that was about to leave her. She then placed his body on her bed upstairs and slept next to him every night. "A Rose For Emily" written by William Faulkner, figurative language is used to help convey the theme of isolation, bringing up the past and slavery.

In many ways A Rose for Emily is an eerie tale portraying the love between Emily Grierson and Homer Barron. The story begins with explaining the odd characteristics Emily portrays throughout her father’s death. While denial is inevitable, not letting authorities pick up a body due to complete denial made her a talking sensation to the townspeople. Emily was aloof and private towards her emotions and didn’t think twice over her actions. Harron, an outsider as well, worked over construction in her town. He was known for not being the marrying type but when seen with Emily, many speculation arose. Throughout the narrative things are not what they are seen, the lack of indication where Harron is in Emily’s funeral, the no reasoning towards Emily’s poison purchase, and the way in which Emily slowly grew more disconnected with the outside world are all examples of foreshadowing the story’s conclusion.

In “A Rose for Emily” the character Emily can be a dark person, the author shows us what she did to the man Homer Barron. The author includes the story mysterious and irony, for us to think about what can happen to some people as a result of living alone for a while and loosing someone who they deeply care about. Emily is in a situation that affected not just by herself, but other people too because she keeps her feelings and thoughts to herself.

At the end of the story, Faulkner wrote about the visit from Emily’s cousins and their findings after Emily passed away. “For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, the conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him” (Faulkner 59). After Emily poisoned Homer, she kept his body to feel nothing would ever change in her life ever again. She did not want to face the reality of Homer wanting to leave her, so she though killing him and keeping his body would be the solution to not change her life and held on until she died. Faulkner’s story helps to show that it is healthy allow changes and modifications into our lives and put the rest behind us. Emily Grierson was a lost soul who didn’t know what to do with her life when everything and everyone around her was changing. Due to her holding on for so long, she lived a very unhealthy life and never learned to be an independent

The short story A Rose for Emily is the tale about Emily Grierson and the time leading to her death. Emily was raised by her father to have a sense of class and expectation to be treated as such. Emily grew up in an era where black women were not allowed to be on the street without aprons, this was set into motion by her father. Her house was on one of the nicer streets in the town and was kept well. Emily was raised by her controlling father who never thought any suitor for his girl was good enough. He had made arrangements when Emily was a child that he should never have to pay taxes. This was indicative of the power her family once reveled in.

A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner about a woman named Emily Grierson who lived a sad, sheltered life. Emily’s issues started early in her life with her father, a man who sheltered her from normal life and ran off any man that was interested in marrying his daughter. Shortly after his death, a new man started to become part of her life; his name was Homer Barron. Unfortunately, this relationship did not last long and he quickly decided to leave her. In fear of him leaving her, she found it easier to kill him rather than live the rest of her life alone. During this time period, the early 1900s, it was expected of a woman to get married and create a family. This was never a possibility for Emily,as her father smothered any possibility of a man pursuing her for marriage. Emily was led directly into a life of depression, loneliness, and reclusion because of social norms and the actions of her father.