Essay about William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

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

The summer after her father died, the town hired contractors to pave the sidewalks. The foreman, Homer Barron, and Miss. Emily became quite fond of one another. On Sunday afternoons they could bee seen driving in his buggy together. Soon the people began to whisper about Emily and Homer. Emily held her head high; she would not be seen as anything other than respectful. The town's people believed that Miss. Emily should have kinfolk come to stay with her for a while.

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

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.

Miss Emily?s father used to chase away all of her boyfriends or men she had feelings for. She became adapted to this life of only having her father and when he dies then she feels alone and doesn?t want to ever be alone again and she has not the knowledge to maintain her own boyfriend or husband. So she decides to kill her current crush and she keeps him in a locked room until the day she dies.

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?

The very beinning of the story is extraordinary. It begins with the burial of Emily, the residents around her coffin did not feel anything, most of them were curious. There were neither friends nor relatives, nobody who was in mouring for her, only inquirers. The readers can ask, what kind of person was Miss Emily? Why the others did not feel sadness? Perhaps there is a bigger question: what was the reason that nobody went to her house more than ten years (except her slave, Tobe).

By the story’s conclusion, the reader can go back through the story and identify many episodes where Miss Emily behavior

The story begins with Emily's funeral and from there on, the reader goes back in time to her life until her death. It is written in a chaotic order which is very confusing. However, when taking the time to rearrange the text, the reader discovers how the author

Soon after she purchases the “Arsenic”, Homer Barron goes missing, never to be seen or heard from again. After the funeral of Miss Emily, when her cousins were searching her house, they came upon her locked bedroom. The book describes what they saw when they finally broke itn: “The man himself lay in the bed for a long while we stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin” (Faulkner). When they found out that the body is of Homer Barron suddenly Miss Emily was no longer thought of as a high-class woman, but as a killer. Unfortunately, it was too late for them to do anything about it.

He thought that no one deserved to be with his daughter, so he turned away any suitor who was interested in her. When her father passed away, Emily found a man of her own, Homer Barron. The reader discovers at the end of the story that Emily poisoned Homer Barron, and she had kept his body in her home for decades. The people of the town thought Emily was going crazy, even before they discovered what she had done. Towards the end of the story, the house begins to change and decay.

The story shows Emily's past and her family story. This information explains her behaviour towards time. Firstly, her father's lack of desire to move on into the future and his old-fashioned ways kept Emily away from the changing society and away from any kind of social relationship:

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.

She was a single mother during Emily's initial years. Thus, instead of being able to spend time and play with her 8 month old daughter, the narrator had to go out to look for a job as well as Emily's missing father (199). She defied the image of a typical housewife. Instead of staying home to cook, clean, and take care of her children, the narrator had to go out and get a job.

The story begins at Miss Emily’s funeral, where the whole town shows up to say goodbye to their past treasure. Emily is a symbol for the past days and her life was a mystery, which is what made her so interesting. The story consists of flashbacks from an unknown narrator and tells the tale of Miss Emily and the towns different perspectives of her. Faulkner’s short story is like a “time machine…[it] is about the past and Miss Emily’s tenacious clinging to the past”(Clausius). However, the fact that the whole town shows up to her funeral means that they too can’t let go of her or the past. The town is almost haunted by Miss Emily; although, the narrator is sympathetic towards her. At her funeral, the narrator notes that Emily has been “. . .a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the