Importance of Human Interaction in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

Point-of-View – is the perspective or mode in which a story is being told. The individual narrating the story is someone the author of the story invents, so that he or she will tell the story for the ones reading it.

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a story that uses flashbacks to foreshadow a surprise ending. The story begins with the death of a prominent old woman, Emily, and finishes with the startling discovery that Emily as been sleeping with the corpse of her lover, whom she murdered, for the past forty years. The middle of the story is told in flashbacks by a narrator who seems to represent the collective memory of an entire town. Within these flashbacks, which jump in time from ten years past to forty years past, are hidden clues which prepare the reader for the unexpected ending, such as hints of Emily's insanity, her odd behavior concerning the deaths of loved ones, and the evidence that the

In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily becomes a minor legend during her lifetime. After her death, when her secret is revealed, hers becomes a story that no one can forget. "A Rose for Emily" is the story of the old maid who fell in love with a northerner, but resisted being jilted once too often. And only after her death, "When the curious towns people were able to enter her house at last, did they discover that she had kept her dead lover in the bed where she had killed him after their last embrace." (Kazin 162) . "In her bedroom, Emily and the dead Homer have remained together as though not even death could separate them."(Kazin 162) . Even though her lover had

However, the Grierson’s perception of themselves has not changed over the years. This is evident when the narrator remembers how “the Griersons held themselves a little too high” (31). Emily’s upbringing and place in society are in opposition with her first real beau, Homer Barron, who is a Yankee construction foreman. The reader is informed that Homer “liked men, and it was know that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club – that he was not a marrying man” (32). This is verification that Homer represents the epitome of the type of suitor who Emily’s father was attempting to protect her from. Homer is not of adequate social class and is seemingly not interested in a long-term relationship. A further social significance of this relationship is noted by observing the impossibility of this relationship when Emily’s father is alive. It is only after Emily’s oppressor passes away that she can be with Homer and is free to make her own decisions.

“A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, is a story of Miss Emily Grierson, a woman who was born into a wealthy family in the town of Jefferson. She grew up and lived in a huge Victorian home with servants. After the Civil War, it seems that her family’s wealth started to diminish but the Grierson’s were still trapped in the past of their family’s wealth. Emily Grierson’s past and present life is being recalled by a narrator who expresses the attitudes and ideas of the community. The narrator uses phrases like “We knew”, “We said”, and “We believed” to show the towns involvement. The townspeople pity Miss Emily and look at her as “fallen monument.

When the town called in a construction company from up north to pave the sidewalks, they brought Homer Barron with them. He soon met Emily and they started spending some time with each other. The towns people were startled because he was a Yankee construction worker but happy because she had possibly found someone. In Faulkner’s version, after seeing the two around town, gossip started to form about the two lovebirds. The narrator described it as, “Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister--Miss Emily's people were Episcopal-- to call upon her. “(Faulkner IV). It was not socially acceptable to spend so much time with someone if they were not going to get married. It was against the social norm of the community. The pastors’ wife wrote Emily’s family in Alabama and once the cousins left Emily’s house, the rumor was that they were married. Then Homer left town, then returned to Emily only never to be seen again. In the movie adaptation, there was no pressure from the community to marry Homer. It was not made apparent that it was against the social norm to spend extended amount of time with someone without being married. After Emily purchased the mans silver toilet set and monogramed under shirt for Homer, they assumed they were married, The narrator described him like,

In “A Rose for Emily” author William Faulkner, uses the literary element, point of view, to show the town’s feelings as it reacts to the events surrounding Miss Emily, create a suspenseful tone, and convey the theme that oppression can cause someone to reach their breaking point.

The years following the Civil War brought about a change in Southern life. Many of the wealthy white families who owned plantations, slaves and vast material wealthy had been all but destroyed by the war. And with the dismantling of slavery, many aspects of the South's longstanding socioeconomic arrangement began to slip away. For many of the demographics that enjoyed the racially-driven hierarchy, the changes that carried over into the early 20th century were especially difficult to accept. This is the shifting context into which we enter William Faulkner's first published short story. In 1930's "A Rose for Emily," the title character represents this incapacity to adapt in a most disturbing way. For Emily, the setting is at once a bygone South in which her family was part of an aristocracy, and simultaneously, a gradually modernizing Jefferson, Mississippi within which Emily cannot seem to survive. Ultimately, the protagonist is a figure that has been deeply wounded by socially constructed forces that are largely beyond her comprehension and therefore has retreated from the setting composed by reality into a suspended state within the walls of her decaying estate.

The short story, “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, is told by an unnamed narrator and broken into five sections. The story is not chronological, but completely out of order, adding mystery and climax. The first section begins with the death of the main character, Emily Grierson, and relates the thoughts and actions of the small Southern U.S. town. A flawed relationship between the town and Miss Emily is seen throughout the story. The tension between the town (society) and Emily is a main reason for her recluse and insanity.

Faulkner has characterized all the characters in the best possible way. Emily Grierson, Homer Barron, Judge Stevens – the mayor of Jefferson, Mr. Grierson – Emily’s father, Tobe – Emily’s servant, and Colonel Sartoris – a former mayor of Jefferson are the major charters in the story. The narrator describes Emily as a monument, but with a lot of negativity. The story shows us how she was a smart young girl and then how she end up being an overprotective and secretive old woman. She refused to accept the change when her father died and that’s why she kept telling all the people in town that her father is still alive. Homer Barron is much like Emily. Like Emily, Homer is an outsider and becomes the topic of gossip. The narrator describes Homer as a big man with dark complexion with a good sense of humor. Tobe’s character in the story plays an important role. He is a loyal and dutiful servant. He cared for Emily till she died, but he walked out of the back door and never returned after Emily’s death. Mr. Grierson was a well-maintained person. When he was alive, Emily’s house was always beautifully maintained. He earned a lot of respect in the society but when he died the respect towards his family died with him.

The story “A Rose for Emily” has many relations to the themes: loneliness, social status, gossip, and loyalty. In the story the theme loneliness is presented by the death of her father and the desertion of her sweetheart. Also, Emily wasn’t close to any of her relatives from other places. Because of her family wealth, she had a high social status. Due to her father’s death, her social status went down, along with being in relations with a laborer who is gay. In addition, gossip was a big factor that brought her social status down. It seems to me like the whole story revolved around gossip. Whether she was out of the house or stayed in, gossip arose. When the people would say “Poor Emily” gossip would form about something. For instance, when

While a “Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor share the common themes of unexpected death and the old south, the murders found in each story are vastly different. Both stories tell of strong female protagonists who don’t cope well with change and both foreshadow death right from the beginning, but the murderers themselves come from completely different worlds.

The pursuit of love changes people. While pursuing love, one discovers more about oneself than in most life situations. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” presents Miss Emily Grierson’s life through the voice of a narrator, who portrays the collective conscience of the entire town. The town’s view emerges through the narrator’s descriptions of Miss Emily’s past and ongoing events. The journey of Miss Emily’s love life reveals how her past caused her to kill Homer Barron to fulfill her desires.

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.

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