William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily Essay

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 the beginning, the audience gets a glimpse of the house belonging to Miss Emily. The exterior of the house was beautiful, but aging. When it was first built in the post-civil war era, it was lovely. However, after revolution and change, Miss Emily’s home was the last standing house on the block. This is vital to the story because it paints a picture for the reader’s mind. The interior of the house was dusty and unclean after the change. This demonstrates how cooped up Miss Emily truly is. She never

Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal

William Faulkner paints a tragic tale about the inevitability of change and the futility of attempting to stop it in "A Rose for Emily". This story is about a lonely upper-class woman struggling with life and traditions in the Old South. Besides effective uses of literary techniques, such as symbolism and a first plural-person narrative style, Faulkner succeeds in creating a suspenseful and mysterious story by the use of foreshadowing, which gives a powerful description about death and the tragic struggle of the main character, Miss Emily. In general the use of foreshadowing often relates to events in a story, and few are attempted to describe character. Faulkner has effectively

Just as Miss Emily’s resistance to change is symbolized by the Grierson house so is Miss Emily’s loneliness. The Grierson house is so symbolic because it had once been a hub of activity with china painting lessons and guests. After the death of Emily’s father, the house was shut off from the rest of the world, very much like Miss Emily herself. The narrator tells us that “From that time on her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty, during which she gave lessons in china painting.” (Faulkner 34). We can tell, and perhaps understand to some degree, that Miss Emily has a very real fear of being left alone. This is first revealed by her denial of her father’s death for several days. “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days” (Faulkner

In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," a series of interconnected events collectively represent a single theme in the story. Symbolism is the integral factor involved in understanding the theme. "A Rose for Emily's" dominant theme is the search for love and security, a basic human need which can be met unfavorably in equivocal environments. Faulkner's use of symbolism profoundly develops the theme of the story, bringing to light the issues of morality that arise from a young woman's struggle to find love.

The leather furniture was cracked, and if the chairs were sat upon dust rose about one's thighs. The house seemed to be submerged in shadows as if it also refused to admit the light of the future. It had once been part of the most stylish street in town. Now it was surrounded with the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps. It had obviously become an eyesore compared to once when it had been so beautiful.

The family of Emily, the Griersons, was a very influential and important family in Jefferson. The townspeople seem to obey a certain hierarchy within which Emily was highly placed.

Miss Emily was part of the highly revered Grierson family, the aristocrats of the town. They held themselves to a higher standard, and nothing or

The story begins with the writer describing Miss Emily’s house, which was once nice and luxurious but has become hideous looking. Her house was once apart of the most select in the city, it was now covered with mold. “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.” (Lines 6-9) With the rebuilding of the Old South her house is left alone instead of making any improvements towards it, therefore emphasizing the habits Miss Emily is refusing to let go of.

While none of the new houses I saw embodied any of the qualities that drew me to admire the older houses, I felt this sense that they were the first step in this process of transformation that was taking place in the Lockwood neighborhood. As a looked up to saw the view of downtown and the sound of busy cars, I thought to myself, I should have expected this to happen sooner or later.

The house had lived through the time of smoke and soot. Every year which passed over the city crept, when dying, into this house, until at last the house was a cemetery filled with dead years.

The house was atop a small old hill. Surrounding the house was a once neatly kept metal fence, now all rusted and covered in overgrown foliage. An old worn gravel pathway lead straight to the door. Weather had taken its toll on the house. The bricks were worn and faded from their original color of red. The door was barely hanging onto its hinges, and the windows were cracked and broken.

The derelict house stood isolated. The front gate that used to shine a bright startling silver had become overridden with rust whilst its turrets and towers which once stood so majestically now seemed to be devastated with the scars of time. With every step she took, a creek would pierce the silence. As she opened the decaying the door, the inside could not have been further from what she had remembered. The light airy haven in which her family had spent most of their time had now turned into a dark shade of grey. The walls which her mother once painted an array of effervescent colours had become shabby and moth eaten. There was no joy to be found in this house. That much was obvious.

I whirled around and peered through the sheeting rain to the Victorian mansion across the street, but all I could see was a vague outline. The dark blue sky had somehow shrouded my view. In all six years living in the town of Eastbay, I had never really paid much attention to the mansion. To me, it was just the house across the street. To the neighbors, however, it was the ghastly old house next to the dark forest that was never remodeled. My eyes darted to the condensed group of pine trees guarding the south side of my fence. A wind blew, and I quickly looked away.