“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner Essay

The tone in A come up for Emily by William Faulkner expresses a sense of crotchet and fear. The curiosity of the womans spirit and the fear of the unknown is also established with the fountains diction. The two tones change surface roll over to the principal of view of the tarradiddle (or specify of views for this particular story). A move for Emily is based solely on the curiosity and fear that lingers in the community in which experienter Miss Emily lives.The tone and attitude of Faulkners short piece illustrates the desire to know but the fear of what could be found. The citizens of Jefferson want to know the happenings of the reclusive MissEmily Grierson evidently because she does non roam and gossip as they do since the absence of her husband. Although they lease the need to pry into her private life, they are scared to face her directly precisely because few people have even tried. The theme of curiosity is cognizant with these actions and the tone with which the y are portrayed.The theme is also carried by dint of pop tabu the story with the diction that William Faulkner chooses to use. He carefully crafts his work to present a want to expose the hidden life of the disused woman. He gives her an awful appearance, a rude personality, and an unreason equal stand to loneliness. His diction also proves the prying habits of others. Observers of Miss Emily al musical modes assume about her condition of life. The observers themselves represent the story in which the way it was depicted.Curiosity and also a shrimpy bit of innocence is used rattling signifi preempttly with the point of view of a citizen that characterize the point of view of the entire community of Jefferson. A blush for Emily is told by one person, but the we used throughout the plot signifies the communal viewpoint that is shared. The eyes through which the story emerges is no involve custodyt more than the sight of a spectator retelling the stories passed down about Miss Emily. The design of the story is based solely on the wonders of people and their curiosity of others.A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner EssayA Rose for Emily is a tragic story about a woman noticed Emily Grierson who, for either her life has been controlled by her begin. Once her dumbfound dies, Emily does not know, nor understand how to live her own life. At first she denies that her amaze dies then after three daytimes, with much pressuring from the locals and the doctors, she admits her fathers death and lets the town live with him. Much of the town is wondering what to expect to happen to Emily. Emily becomes a recluse and sends her manservant, Tobe, who has served the family for generations, out to the market to do the shopping for her. One day, she met a Yankee day laborer named bulls eye Barron. home run and Emily began seeing each other and eventu anyy seemed to get serious about their relationship. Emily began to f wholly in love with home run, but Homer did no t have the same feelings for her. One day, Homer disappeared and was never seen nor heard from over again. Many years passed and Emily died. Her cousins were curious and went to her home to see where she had lived her life. Upon their arrival, they find a stud lying on a bed in a clandestine locked room upstairs. On the bed, next to the corpse there was a long bound of iron-gray hair (36).In A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner tells a story about a young woman who is overly-influenced and controlled by her father. Her father has fed up(p)e all the decisions for her and he chose whom she could and could not be courted by. After her father died, it took Emily three days to finally allow the townspeople to give her father a comme il faut burial, because of her defense team that her father had indeed, died. Emily had relied so heavily on her father for all of her life she did not know what to do, or how to live. After her fathers death, Emily stays in her mob where she felt safe , and does not go out into the outside world, regardless of what had happened and changed. As everything changed in the outside world, Emily still lived with the past. For example, when the new city authorities ascend Miss. Emily about her taxes, she explains See Col. Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson (31) even though Col. Sartoris had been fallen for ten years.Emily Grierson is described by Faulkner as a short, fat, and mysterious woman who does not accept change. A good example of Emily Grierson refusing any sort of change is when the town wanted to attach numbers on her brook and a mailbox for mail service Emily Grierson refused to conform to the new ideals. WhenEmily met a man named Homer Barron, the townspeople are surprised to see this Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer (33). Miss Emily represents someone who lives in the South and could not accept the rattling thing that the North takes over the South after the Civil War. W hen the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their things, spinning with slow motes in the single sun ray(30) is an example of old things. Emilys house with all the old things represents the Old south, which has to face a new modern generation.The idea behind this story is about Emilys inability to conform to the present and leave the past. Emily had been henpecked by her father her whole life, because of this, when her father finally passed away, Emily cannot face the fair play about her fathers death, or her loneliness. When Emily meets Homer Barron, she felt that she once again had balance and security in her life. She feared that Homer whitethorn also leave her one-day and she would be alone again. This is the reason that Emily poisons Homer Barron. It is not until the death of Emily Grierson that we find the truth about the death of Homer Barron and how deep Emily Griersons insecurity really is.A Rose for Emily is a tragic story that tells the tale of a lonely(a) and isolated woman. The tone, extremely morbid and dark, was set at the beginning. He began the story by telling us the ending. We already know that Emily Grierson has died. He then begins to form a dynamic picture of how Emily had lived only Miss Emilys house was left over(p), lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores (29). The tone that Faulkner starts strike with the description of Emily Griersons residence is a very dramatic and powerful use of description. An outsider looking in to Emily Griersons livelihood narrates A Rose for Emily in the third person. This is a very effective way for Faulkner to write this story. By doing this, we are not led into the notions of Emily, but more importantly, we know how Emily Grierson is thought of by the locals. Faulkner utilized more symbols in this short story.He used the fact that Emily is stuck in the past, the time when her father was still alive, and the new alderman and townsfolk. These are symbols of the mesh that Emily is experiencing between the old south(past) and the new south (present). At the end of the story, it is shown what William Faulkner meant by a rose, in his title A Rose for Emily. The rose is all of her dust-covered treasures, especially those of her wedding that she wanted this room decked and furnished as for a bridalupon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the delicate array of vitreous silica and the mans toilet things backed with the tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured(36).William Faulkner depicts a very morbid and darktheme. The theme itself fits entirely onto his character, Emily Grierson. I believe Faulkner did a very good job in not only writing this story with a strong theme, but he did it in such a way, in every aspect one could see the theme throughout his short story. I think the vivid drawings of how Emily once lived and who she became is extremely important in A Rose for Emily.Works CitedKennedy, X.J and Dana Giolia. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005.A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner EssayThere are popular sayings that goes love moves in mysterious ways and love makes people crazy. The amalgam of those sayings would somehow serve as a rough description of William Faulkners story A Rose for Emily. Since its publication, the story still captures the imagination of many an(prenominal) present-day readersalthough, in a disturbing way. The title is deceptively, and ingeniously for that matter, designed to make the story seem as a love story. It is important to note that a rose is a prevalently accepted symbolism for love. However, the story begins with the death of the protagonist.Actually, there are many points in the story that would lead the readers to the conclusion that Faulkners story is far from a love story. This reading will be standing beside the argu ment that A Rose for Emily is a love story that presents to the readers love in an unfamiliar form. Faulkner exquisitely described how Emily is madly in love with Homer. She even dreams of being marital to him someday. Faulkners details resemble a layout of a typical love story. However, all of those beautiful renditions of Emilys love are fair(a) diversions to the authors twists.When Emily mentioned that she wants to be married to Homer, he replied that he was not a marrying man (366). The reader could al almost picture Emily as a rose whose petals are lacerate by the sharp gust of wind of Homers subtle rejection. This particular event of her life had significantly contributed to her impending insanity. And because Emily loves Homer so much, Emily had devised a plan to keep him beside her. She had poisoned Homer, paralyzing him for a moment, and then for eternity. She t hen set Homers lifeless body in her bed, then slept with himin every consideration of the word slept.Emilys version of love could be described as unconventional. The story begins describing how the townspeople of Jefferson (Faulkners fictional city) treated her a sort of move monument (Faulkner 5). compensate though the townspeople treat Emily in a revered manner, it would be arguable that they have love for her. In the first part, Emily is already dead and her pitiful yet gruesome background would be unfolded as the plot progresses. A safer claim to make about the townspeople treatment to Emily is that they pathos her at the same time disgusted by her life, or more particularly, her love life.The shocking ending, considered a classic, reveals to the readers that Emily had murdered the one she truly loves, Homer Barron. It is further understandable that the townspeople of Jefferson and the readers (of the real world) would give the sack the question could this be considered lo ve? If we would set aside the conventional notions of love (like couples promising to each other eternity, unfeignedly caring for one another, a mutual understanding, etc. ), Emilys version of love would certainly be dismissed. However, we could still interpret Emilys actions as out of love, but to put it more succinctly, it should be categorized as unrequited love.It should not be disputed anymore that anyone is capable love, even those with hints of insanity. Moreover, it is a general notion that a person who loves someone needs some kind of returned love. And if love is unrequited, the most likely effect on the unrequited lover would be a seemingly incurable misery. Emilys murder of Homer is oftentimes interpreted as an act of desperation. On the other hand, it could also regarded as an reply to the subliminal messages of her love and passion for Homer. As we know of love, through literature and real life, it could paint in our minds illusions of being easily loved back.Emily m ay have been genuinely convinced that she would someday marry Homer and that they would spend eternity in each others arms. The living Homer had rejected her proposal, she may have immediately though that the dead Homer may compromise. Moreover, she had set the dead body in a bed, a symbolism for marriage. In addition, it is implied that she had slept with the dead body of Homer. It is important to consider that the context of the story is a time period where the people are mostly conservatives, especially the aristocrats like Emilys family.It could be interpreted that she did not slept with the body out of mere lust, it could be something close to being love itself. Emilys life could be considered lacking love. The title, A Rose for Emily, suggests that she desperately needs to be loved. She loved her aristocratic lifestyle and her father who provides it for her. But when her father had passed away, she may have felt that all she loved had asleep(p) to grave with her father, being left alone and a pauper, she had become humanized (366).Considering her mental state, she had found love in Homer, he does not want to be with her, it is just understandable that she would do anything to be with the one she loves. After all, the topic at hand is love, a term and a concept with no satisfying definition. Even science admits that love is more than just chemical reactions. If we would delve further in this attempt to understand love, we might just end up mad like Emily. Works Cited Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York Longman, 2001A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner EssayA Rose for Emily is a short story by American author William Faulkner. It tells about an old woman named Emily Grierson lives in the town of Jefferson. The tale sets in the early nineteen hundreds, it opens with the town finding out about Emilys death. Through the whole story, people learn of the life and times of Emily, her relationship with t he town, her father and her lover. People find out the truth that Emily was covert at the end of the story. There are many different symbolisms in the story Among all of the symbolisms , the monument, the frame, the grey hair, the house and a rose are the most important and thoughtful ones throughout the entire story.The monument appears in the beginning of the story as the first symbolism. When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument(A Rose For Emily). Faulkner calls Emily a fallen monument, it also could understand as an nonsuch in a niche. It shows that how the town views her and to connect her to the idea of the old, genteel Southern ways. The modern townspeople dont know what to do with her, and she is so closed off to them, but they respect her enough to just leave her alone. Like Faulkner states, she was like a statue only representing a real, living person and consequently she pass ed from generation to generation dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse. In her old age she is seen as a monument to the past that is never seen outside of her house. All of the respect that her father had realize died with the old men and women of the town.Frames also seem to be symbolic in A Rose for Emily. One of the examples is the scene where the narrator is describing Miss Emilys father as standing in the foreground and framed by the doorway as he held would be suitors at bay. Meanwhile Miss Emily is framed in the background. Emilys father. Mr. Grierson is a controlling, looming presence even in death, and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily. Also he references framing with reference to her crayon picture of her father in the gold frame. The whole story is framed in the idea of traditions dying out as time passes. monument who left a part of her behind in the grey hair.The single grey hair on the repose is another symbolism. The old h air on the pillow signifies that Emily is a history in the town now, lying with corpses as all that she has had to be proud of is also dead. Her desperate attempt to maintain a mark upon the past has failed and she is a fallen angel.The house that Emily lives in is a symbolism that shows the decay as Emily begin getting older and older. The house at one time was one of the most beautiful homes in the whole town of Jefferson. In Emilys youth the house was always well kept. As Emily aged so did the house she lived in. The street she lives in from the symbolic of high class became the worst for the entire town. With faded paint and an unkempt yard it even began to smell at one point. The men of the old Jefferson would never tell a lady that her house smelled so they cured the smell themselves. It would seem that the house and Emily where connected in a way. Both of them had grown old and confused their brightness. The house was also looked at in the same way as Emily. Emily lost her mind and her looks. The house lost the beauty it once held due to old age. They where looked at as a monument to the past.The most important symbolism among the all in A Rose for Emily is in the title itself. The rose is most often thought of as a symbol for love in the trip Homer is the rose or love for Emily. Her father thought there was no man was good enough for her or for the Grierson family. Therefore she was never able to experience passion or the rose of love until she met Homer. The rose for Emily is hope, and passion. However, there is another meaning of rose to consider. However, the rose in the title of the story could therefore stand for Emilys secret that is Homer her rose whom she cherished, loved and kept to herself even after his body was corrupted by the decay of time.While Faulkner had many symbolisms in A Rose For Emily, the symbolisms of the monument, the frame, the grey hair, the house and a rose are the most important and worthful ones throughout the entire s tory. Author William Faulkner truly wrote a wonderful story about an old women who loses her mind. A Rose For Emily uses different symbolisms to show the way in which people all grow old and decay, it tells a story of fallen angel Emilys life.A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner EssayLove, regression and Gossip In A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner uses the point of view of the townspeople to show their personal opinions and judgments of Miss Emily. He writes a story about a woman who is traumatized by the way her father has raised her and the effects of his strict and overprotective mentality. Because of her fathers death she finds it difficult to let go and live a normal life that involves social interaction. To make matters worse than her anti-social attitude, Emily is stereotyped and judged by those in her community. In light of her upbringing and the judgments of the townspeople, Emily becomes attached to anyone who shows her attention. In turn, she is very protective and inse cure of herself in her ability to keep those who she cares about in her life. Emilys father was a wealthy man who would stop at nothing to make his daughter happy, or so he thought. He was said to be so wealthy that he had loaned money to the town (432).He was very strict with Miss Emily in that he would not let any males come to visit or even come near her. Faulkner illustrates this characteristic in writing, None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such (434). The relationships and love that Emily desired were brutally taken away from her because of her fathers struggle to maintain the family view. The author illustrates this by explaining her situation, even with insanity in the family she wouldnt have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized (434). Regardless if Emily wanted to date or not, her father would not let ny of her relationships flourish. Because of her fathers attitude, Emily grew to be very sheltered, and it was no surpr ise to the town that she was single at the age of thirty. Her father was selfish, and his selfishness abolished all hopes of pleasure for her.She felt stuck in her fathers world with no way out. Not only did she feel alone, but she was also under extreme air pressure to live up to her fathers name and maintain the families status in their town. Emilys need to have someone in her life becomes so great that it leads her to stray from her fathers expectations. This is evident when Miss Emily begins to show interest in Homer Barron, a Yankee construction foreman. Emilys actions raise a dispute of feelings among the townspeople, because the ladies all said, Of course a Grierson would not thinkseriously of a Northerner, a day laborer. But there were still others, old people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige-without calling it noblesse oblige (435). The difference in opinions of the townspeople suggests the generation gap and values of the di fferent generations. The new and old generations values conflict because they each believe in different ideas.The older townspeople want Emily to behave appropriately and live up to her familys name. They are also more willing to help Emily in her endeavours because they think of her as proper and noble. The older generation of townspeople felt that her family was a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor--remitted her taxes (432). The older generation performed favors for Emily because of her familys status and heritage. They wanted Miss Emily to fail because it would satisfy their hidden jealousies. The new generation on the other hand, is not as compassionate toward her because they are only familiar with her, not her past relatives, who were well respected and admired. The new generation was not favorable to her past situation. When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction (432).The arrangement of Emilys remitted taxes was not accepted by the new generation of town officials. Faulkner illustrates the difference in values near the beginning of the story to let out the reader to Emilys situation. Throughout the story, evidence proves that Emilys every move is scrutinized by her community. For example, when the story opens, everyone in the town is at her funeral. Faulkner writes, Our whole town went to the funeral the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one publish an old man servant-a combined gardener and cook-had seen in at least ten years( 431). The people of the town go to Miss Emilys funeral, not out of respect, but out of hypocrisy and curiosity. The community views her as a fallen monument. The men in the town attend the funeral to respect her familys name and her fathers success while the wom en went solely to judge her home.In other words, she was once looked upon highly, but through the years she became a recluse and spaced herself from society. Emilys reasons for secluding herself from society go back to when her father was alive and he was her world. After herfathers death, she has a hard time dealing with the fact that he has passed on because now she is alone. Her father kept her from finding anyone worth marrying, so now she will have to live by herself. The reader can reason Emilys importance of her father from Faulkners writing, On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emilys father (432). The reader can assume that the portrait was drawn by her and she is trying to hold onto the only person left in her life. The loss of her father leads Emily to pursue a relationship with the northerner, Homer Barron. Emily becomes attached to him because she is lonely and feels rejected by the town. The traditions, customs, and prejudices of the South doom their so-called affair to end.Emily and him would take drives and attend church service together, but according to Faulkners story Emily discovers that he is not attracted to women. She is already in an unstable state of mind and this information pushes her to the extreme. Emilys relationship with Barron becomes an obsession rather than a love or compassion. Her obsession forces her to take things to the next level. Emily buys items which point towards marriage and the town begins to talk, as usual. According to Faulkner, Emily purchases a mans toilet set in silver, with the letters H.B. On each piece and a complete outfit of mens clothing, including a nightshirt (436). Emilys beliefs that she was sledding to have this man forever cause her to buy these things. In Emilys eyes, whether he wanted to be with her or not, she was determined to have him for her own.The reader does not discover that she has secretly poisoned Homer Barron with arsenic until the end of t he story. Out of curiosity the townspeople search her home, but not until after her burial. Their findings satisfies their desire to know the real truth about her. Faulkner writes, The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him (438).This statement proves that Emily kills Homer out of desperation because she new that by killing him he would never leave her like her father did, because this sleep would, outlast love. Miss Emilys father had sheltered her so much that she could not possibly see herself alone again. All of Miss Emilys actions throughout her life, prove that she did not kill Homer out of love, but out of desperation and loneliness. She became her fathers child and sheltered Homer like her father had once sheltered her.Homer was Emilys rose and she was not going to let it die.