The Creepy Old Lady 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 literature, readers often see topics that one can relate to; topics that mimic everyday life, personal anecdotes or situations one has experienced . “A Rose for Emily,” a fictional story written by William Faulkner, shares eerily similar details with an article written in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 30, 1987, “A Woman’s Wintry Death Leads to a Long-dead Friend,” by Dick Pothier and Thomas J. Gibbons JR. Faulkner’s narrator depicts the reclusive life of Miss Emily Grierson and the events leading to the discovery of a dead man’s body that had been locked away in her 2nd story bedroom for over forty years. In the article, Pothier and Gibbons report how a woman named Frances Dawson Hamilton was found to have “lived with the skeletonized remains” of her long-time companion for over two years after being discovered frozen to death in her home (153). Faulkner’s short story heavily relies on the narrator’s knowledge in addition to his point of view and experiences whereas Pothier and Gibbons report facts observed on scene or learned from interviews of neighbors, police, and investigators. Although fear of solitude initially motivated both women to behave so outlandishly, it is the authors’ distinct portrayal that illustrates each individual’s intentions.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” it is clear how Emily’s gender affects how the individuals in the town perceive her. Emily’s gender particularly affects how men understand her. Throughout the whole piece Emily is seen as a helpless individual who is lonely and has suffered losses throughout her life. When the reader reaches the end of the story the actions that Emily has taken is unexpected because of the way she is perceived by the narrator. In the beginning of the story, when the whole town was at her funeral and the men were discussing her life, none of the townspeople ever say anything negative about Emily. The men went to the funeral because they saw Emily as a fallen monument to the town. The narrator discusses how the town felt that Emily had become a tradition for them to take care of her. The narrator even points out how she did not have to pay taxes. This clearly shows how women are perceived in this town. Women are seen as unable to take care of themselves and as innocent humans. The way the narrator talks about Emily gives the reader the idea that Emily could never hurt anyone, because of this idea the reader is shocked at the end of the story. The feminist view of Emily allows the reader to be shocked by the ending of the story and it also allows the reader to see the way masculinity is understood in this piece.

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.

In the short story “A Rose for Emily,” author William Faulkner shows a woman, Miss Emily Grierson, who is seen as an upholder for tradition by the community. Emily lives on her own with a butler in her old, dusty mansion and has her story told by the viewpoint of unnamed narrators in a total of five sections, each depicting her life from someone one in the community's perspective. The story demonstrates Emily's life through the eyes of bystanders. We are introduced to the main character through her funeral being hosted in her home in which has not been seen in over ten years, excluding the single servant. Miss Emily had a special relationship within the community since 1894 when they remitted her taxes.

In the short story "A Rose for Emily" writer William Faulkner uses the town's' point of view to develop Emily Grierson's character. As a result, Emily remains a mystery to all, except her manservant, until she passes away. Throughout the story Faulkner hints that Emily could be clinically insane because she believes that Colonel Sartoris is still alive, she keeps her father's corpse, and she murders Homer Barron. Emily's first appearance in the story suggests that she is disconnected from the world outside her deteriorating house due to her lack of southern hospitality. Faulkner introduces her house first to parallel its deterioration with Emily's decline in mental health.

In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner uses¬ the normality of tradition versus change that is destined to occur, along with the power of death. Through the enigmatic figure of Emily Grierson, Faulkner conveys that Emily struggles to come to terms with death, rather than accepting it she tries to overrule it. As a living testament to the past, she serves as the traditions from past decades that people wish to respect and honor; nonetheless, she is also a burden and entirely disconnected from the outside world as she sees it. Within these struggles that we see our main character go through we see a tremendous significance with Emily’s home, the rose, and of course the strand of hair. Faulkner demonstrates theme and symbolism to fully capture the

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner describes the life and death of Emily Greirson, an eccentric woman who lived in the town of Jefferson. The story is divided into five different parts, with each part revealing more about Emily Grierson’s history and the details that lead up to the climax towards the end of the story. The story opens up with the narrator describing that when Emily Grierson died, everyone in the town of Jefferson attended her funeral. Grierson is then described as being a “tradition, a duty, and a care” to the people in Jefferson, though members of the younger generation begin to disagree with this idea. Part two consists of how a horrible odor is found coming from Emily’s house, which leads to her neighbors compaining about the odor to the mayor.. The mayor disregards the

William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” tells a story of Emily Grierson and her life in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. Emily finds herself trapped in a strict society where people expect others to follow the traditional gender roles instead of having equality among each other. While most women in Jefferson are strong and independent, Emily defines herself as dependent and childlike, contrasting to what modern-society women believe.

The “Rose” in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” we learn about a beautiful and elegant woman named Emily Grierson. She grew up with a controlling father who chased away all of her suitors, leaving her hungry for love. She soon meets a Northerner, whom she falls in love with and goes through desperate measures to keep him, driven by her jealousy.

A major theme in “A Rose for Emily” is traditions versus change. Faulkner uses Emily, the main character in his narrative, to convey the fight that Emily put up for trying to preserve customs in the face of widespread and drastic changes that happens in her hometown of Jefferson. Jefferson is currently experiencing change and accepting more modern ideas or worldly possessions. Emily has a hard time accepting this new generation of people and ideas. An example of a new idea is having to pay taxes. The younger generation accepts this while Emily does not. It is hard for her to see her hometown embrace a more modern and commercial future instead of traditions. “Alive, Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor…remitted her taxes” (Faulkner 794). When Faulkner said that “Emily had been a tradition” he was describing her as set in her ways and unwilling to compromise her beliefs in keeping traditional values even though there was change occurring in her community. One of the changes the community experienced

“A Rose for Emily”, written by William Faulkner in 1931, follows a series of peculiar events in Miss Emily Griersons life. Written in third person limited, Faulkner utilizes flashbacks to tell of the period between the death of Emily’s father and her own passing. Split into five short sections, the story starts out with the townspeople of Jefferson remembering Emily’s legacy and how each new generation of government officials dealt with the issue of her taxes. Moving on, the narrator describes the gradual downfall of Emily Grierson, due to complaints that begin to arise of a bad odor around her house. In the third section of this short story, the people of Jefferson begin to pity Emily for her involvement with a man beneath her social status, Homer Barron. Towards the end of this section, the community is convinced that she has gone crazy, following her purchase of arsenic from a pharmacist. At this point, there has been speculation that Emily would marry Homer, but he eventually disappears. The story closes with not only Emily’s aged body being found in her house, but the corpse of Homer being discovered in one of her upstairs rooms. Throughout this whole narrative, the name of the author is never revealed, but Faulkner leaves clues for the reader to make assumptions on who this person is that knows Emily Griersons story so well. In “A Rose for Emily,” although it is never directly

After an initial reading, “A Rose for Emily” seems to present itself as just a deranged love story. However, after taking a closer look through symbolism in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, you get a whole different comprehension of the story. In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," Emily lives with an overly protective father who denies all who try to show deep affection towards Emily, assuming she was a supercilious women in their town. After Emily’s father passes away, Emily found a lover on her own named Homer Barron, that being said their story together did not have a happy ending. The incidents in this story are concealed in mystery and fascination, symbolism is used to intensify the plot and generate meaning. Though

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson is the main character who represents the old values and traditions of pre-Civil War who is faced with the new values and traditions that challenge everything she has ever known. The very first description we get of Emily is the reason people attend her funeral: “the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument” (Faulkner 168) which immediately gives the reader an idea of her being from a past time. Her family’s home is the last remaining building from the town Emily grew up in because “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood” (Faulkner 168). The first major example of Emily’s inability to conform with the new traditions is the revoking of Colonel Sartoris’s tax deal. The old tradition pitied her after her father’s death, but the new tradition didn’t value this and sent her a tax notice every year to which she always sent back. When the sheriff visits to collect the taxes, Emily insists that he needs to talk to Colonel Sartoris who has been dead for 10 years. This delusion shows that Emily is unable to come to terms with the end of the old values. In section II of the story, Emily is trapped as being the last of the Griersons due to her father’s death before he chose a suitor for her. The town “believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner 170) and this combined with the old tradition of the

In A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner uses the narrator to describe Emily Grierson’s long-standing title in the community, provide background information about Emily, and also to encompass the reader within the story and all them to create their own judgements and opinions about the notorious Emily Grierson. In the town of Jefferson, simply saying the name Grierson guaranteed to make all ears within hearing range perk up in an effort to gather new information about the monumental recluse. The Grierson family’s importance was equivalent to that of southern royalty. This was first established when William Faulkner opened the story with Emily’s death and how “our whole town went to her funeral; the men out of a sort of respectful affection