Miss Emily Symbolism

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,

Miss Emily knew no authority. The townspeople would at times attempt some type of control, but they gave in easily when Miss Emily resisted. When the man who had deceived her into not paying taxes passed away, the next generation of alderman

William Faulkner uses imagery to represent Miss Grierson’s confrontation to change by vividly describing her appearance. With the description given of Emily, readers might conclude that it symbolizes her inability to change. He describes

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” 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).

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

When Miss Emily refuses to respond to a government letter regarding her taxes the Board of Alderman comes to visit her. When she comes in she is cold to the gentlemen, showing her lack of social skills which in many cases is a factor in mental Illness. Also before Miss Emily makes the guests leave she tells the, that if they still think she has taxes they need to "see Colonel Sartoris," (Faulkner 149) who has been dead ten years. This statement by Miss Emily could be seen as her minds unwillingness to live in the present. Her mind belives what it wants which is also the case after her fathers death. We see in the book that after her father’s death and her subsequent breakdown, Miss Emily was “sick for a long time." This could mean the state that Miss Emily refused to believe her father was gone. Right after the death of her father, the ladies of the town come to Miss Emily’s home to offer their condolences, and they observe that she had “no trace of grief on her face” (Faulkner 151). The inability to either feel or demonstrate appropriate emotion, is a classic symptom of mental illness. More explicitly, Miss Emily insisted to the visitors that “her father was not dead” (Faulkner 151). For this reason, Miss Emily would not let anyone remove her father's body until three days after her father should have been buried. Finally the third day “she broke down” and let the townspeople remove the body quickly

Grierson's life to symbolize Southern aristocracy. For example, when she tried to buy poison from the druggist, she had that air of superiority about her that demonstrated her supposed position of authority, which was illustrated when the druggist submitted to her demands and got her the poison (35). Another example is when Emily remits the taxes being imposed on her by the newer generation (33). The townspeople respect that fact that she is an aristocrat. That is why they are very hesitant when it comes to defying what she wants. Also since the story was told in the point of view of the townspeople, we are able to grasp the idea of the slow decline of the customs of the “Old South” as the townspeople continue to move forward. From Emily's point of view, she might still be thinking that the customs from the “Old South” are still active and is not declining at all, since she is someone who is unwilling to accept change. This in turn leads to her slow demise as she is unable to adapt to the changes in the newer generations. However, when Ms. Grierson dies, so do her traditions and customs, basically symbolizing the decay of Southern aristocracy of the town and the start of change that the newer generations will

In 1930 William Faulkner published his very first story, “A Rose for Emily.” The story emerges with the funeral of Emily Grierson and discloses the story out of sequence; Faulkner brings into play an anonymous first-person narrator thought to be the representation of Grierson’s municipality. Miss Emily Grierson’s life was read to be controlled by her father and all his restrictions. Grierson was raised through her life with the thought that no man was adequate for her. Stuck in her old ways, Grierson continued with the Old South’s traditions once her father had passed. Awhile following her father’s death, Emily aims to put the longing for love to a stop and allows Homer Barron to enter her life. Faulkner portrays the literary movement of Modernism utilizing allegory through the post-bellum South after the American Civil War. In the short story “A Rose Emily,” William Faulkner uses a series of symbols to illustrate the prominent theme of the resistance of the refinement of life around Miss Emily.

At the beginning of the story, the reader learns that Miss Emily “is portrayed as ’a fallen monument,’… because she has shown herself susceptible to death (and decay) after all” (West 264). The house can also be perceived as a “fallen monument”(Faulkner 81) as the narrator

In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the author exemplifies the Old South in the character of Emily Grierson. He uses decay to show how the South deteriorated after the civil war. Emily represents the refusal of the Old South to let go of the time-honored traditions and adapt to the changing culture. Even when Emily desperately makes an attempt to move forward, other devout traditionalists hold her back.

Miss Emily’s dad passes away in the beginning of the story. It is obvious that she still looks up and admires her dad. “On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily’s father” (5). Miss Emily Grierson is happier and social when her dad is alive. Death can lead to depression of love ones and that is what Miss Grierson is suffering from. Thus, affecting her social life with the other townspeople. She simply wants to be alone and do not want to get close with other people in the town except this one guy, Homer Barron that she meets. She is afraid of death. She is also afraid of getting close to someone and that person leaving her behind. An example is when she goes to the store to buy a deadly poison to kill Homer Barron (a man she gets attach to, growing a relationship with) and locks him up in one of her rooms, so he can never leave her (Faulkner 45-60). Since her father’s death, she feels as if she has to keep the Grierson’s name and reputation. “She carried her head high enough…as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson” (33). Miss Emily is in a different social class than others.

William Faulkner 's “ A Rose for Emily ” illustrates the extremes that someone may be driven to in the face of the “ loveless ” life that Miss Emily’s father created for her by driving away all the potential suitors. The major and minor events in the story help develop the plot idea that in the progress from an aristocratic but romanticized past to a more egalitarian present and future. Emily represents the standards and attitudes of the old south, and her inability to accept the changes of the new generation, leaving her even more isolated than ever.

Upon reading William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” one discovers several colorful characters, including one Miss Emily Grierson of Jefferson, Mississippi. Readers uncover her quirks and specific character traits as seen through the eyes of the townspeople who are highly interested in the goings-on in her life. Miss Emily Grierson is a round yet static protagonist who is lonely, unyielding to change, and overcome by her unfortunate life circumstances, and as such she should not be considered a mad woman as many readers might accuse her of being.

First, we see that Miss Emily is mysterious even from the very beginning because the narrator talks about how her house used to be, “white, decorated with cupolas, and spires, and scrolled balconies”. By the way the narrator describes her house it seems that it used to be very beautiful and full of life, but now the, “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated”. The narrator mentions in the story is that Miss Emily had a manservant; we start to ask ourselves the question that if she has a servant to wait on her hand and foot than how could she let her house get in such a bad shape like that when she could have asked her servant to keep the house tidy since she is too old to do it herself. Another thing that is mysterious is that the narrator mentions that she hardly ever leaves her house