Thesis For A Rose For Emily

The day after her father's death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was "dressed as usual" and had "no trace of grief on her face (Perrine's 285)." Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to hold on to her father, "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrine's 285)." The town's people tired to justify Miss. Emily's actions, by saying that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy.

     When her father passed away she had nobody to tell her what to do and how to act. This was very devastating and she had a hard time dealing with change. So much so that she wouldn't let the police take the body of her father out of the house for three days after his death. The only thing that was constant in her house was the slave

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is a short story that describes the tradition and how it implements people through the idea of death. The protagonist Emily gave into the concept of death the minute her father passed away. Death prevented Emily from pursuing the greater things in life. On the long run, she died of a broken heart because of her father's death and regret. Faulkner presents an argument based of feminism and the nature of broken women. This short story covers the significance of the pursuing of happiness. Emily Garrison struggles to maintain her tradition and the rich status of her family in her small community. However, time change and Emily become a disgrace to her community when she was not married about the age of thirty.

Desperation for love arising from detachment can lead to extreme measures and destructive actions as exhibited by the tumultuous relationships of Miss Emily in William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily” (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2006] 556). Miss Emily is confined from society for the majority of her life by her father, so after he has died, she longs for relations that ironically her longing destroys. The despondency and obsession exuded throughout the story portray the predicament at hand.

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 the short story “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, Emily, the protagonist, is shown as someone who’s life is falling apart and brought down by society. Emily in this story could be described as a victim to society and her father. Emily Grierson’s confinement, loss of her father and Homer, and constant criticism caused her, her insanity.

"A Rose for Emily" is a wonderful short story written by William Faulkner. It begins with at the end of Miss Emily’s life and told from an unknown person who most probably would be the voice of the town. Emily Grierson is a protagonist in this story and the life of her used as an allegory about the changes of a South town in Jefferson after the civil war, early 1900's. Beginning from the title, William Faulkner uses symbolism such as house, Miss Emily as a “monument “, her hair, Homer Barron, and even Emily’s “rose” to expresses the passing of time and the changes. The central theme of the story is decay in the town, the house, and in Miss Emily herself. It shows the way in which we all grow old and decay and there is nothing permanent

In William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” his main character Miss Emily Grierson’s deranged behavior leaves the reader questioning her mental status.

In the end, with her death, which is where the story begins, Miss Emily is the talk of the town. Not because people truly mourn her, but because people are curious about the life she had lived in secret, in her big house, for all those years. People pitied her, it was as had been left alone in the world and seemed to have wished it that way.

In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner's use of setting and characterization foreshadows and builds up to the climax of the story. His use of metaphors prepares the reader for the bittersweet ending. A theme of respectability and the loss of, is threaded throughout the story. Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes back to the past and hints towards the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies. Faulkner has carefully crafted a multi-layered masterpiece, and he uses setting, characterization, and theme to move it along.

Emily Grierson, a woman of stature and nobility of the once proud South; transformed to a mere peasant, through the fall of the Confederacy and the changes that ensued. Tragic in a sense, the story of her life as told from the author; William Faulkner, in his short story - "A Rose for Emily." (Faulkner 74-79). First published in the popular magazine of his time in 1930, The Forum; Faulkner tries to maintain her self image throughout the story through the narrators eyes as being repressed in nature through her upbringing in society prior to the war and the circumstances of the times as they unfold - while struggling to fill a void of emptiness inside.

2) What does the title of the story suggest about the townspeople’s feelings toward Miss Emily? Why do they feel this way about her? (Or: What does she represent to them?) Is there anything ironic about their feelings?

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.

The story "A Rose for Emily" is one of first William Faulkner’s publications. The action of this story takes place in a time filled with social and political turmoil, when Southern came into a historical lethargy, and when its glow start faded. The elements presented in "A Rose for Emily" make reference to that time and are a tribute to Mss. Emily Graiser. A dominant tone is shown by a footprint of the past and loneliness to which was added symbolism and melancholia. The author showed us through his words issue of life, love and death, a sensitivity which gets us closer of characters' life and struggles.

The story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner would be drastically different if it was written from the point of view of Miss Emily. Her intentions and thoughts would be more pronounced, and because of this, the ending of the story may not come as such a shock. In addition, Miss Emily would be less distanced from the audience, and they would be able to understand her character in a way that the townspeople could not. Miss Emily being the narrator would immensely change the reader’s perception of the story’s ending and her character.