A Rose for Emily, published in the year 1930, is a story that takes place in the early 1900’s, in the American deep south of Mississippi. The author, William Faulkner, illustrates the hardships of an upper class, southern, and female throughout her uncanny and wicked life. The class barrier that ruled chief of the South at this point of time period creates many conflicts for the helpless protagonist, Emily Grierson. The theme that Faulkner mostly tries to give away, is the struggle of letting go of the past and going forward into the future. This theme is shown when Emily’s father dies on the table and she would let nobody in to take him away or, when Emily kills Homer, she let nobody know about her crime. The scuffle of an Emily letting go of her father’s death is shown when she leaves his dead corpse lying on the kitchen table and …show more content…
With the need of a emotional equivalent, she begins to have feelings for a member of the repair crew on the sidewalk, named Homer Barron. The reality of them being married was no existent because, “Homer himself had remarked-he liked men, and it was known that he drank with others in the Elk’s club-that he was not a marrying man” (Faulkner 725). Homer basically said to the men he simply wanted to use her for her body, and after the sidewalk was finished. He would go onto his next Job and would probably never see Emily again. Soon Emily found this out and went to go buy poison from a vendor. After, “That was the last we saw of Homer Barron” (Faulkner 726). This was the last time Homer was seen before thirty years later, Homer’s body was located in a locked room upstairs. This shows how difficult it was for Emily to let go of the reality that Homer did not want to be with her. And this also explains why they found a lock of hair next to Homer’s dead body. It was because Emily had a desire for physical and emotional
She cannot not let go of the man that has monitored her every move. "We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her." She refuses to bury her father, not because she cannot bear to part with him, but because she refuses to let go of the man that she now has complete control over. When Emily is forced to part with her father's body she sets off to find his replacement.
In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.
After her father died, Emily rejects to accept his death for three days and this led her to having a mental break down. It took her a while to accept the fact that he actually had died and it makes sense too, because this is a man who had ruled her life and prevented her from starting any other kind of life. Emily and her father were
A Rose for Emily, a short story written by William Faulkner in 1930, describes the life and death of Emily Grierson, a significant figure in representing traditional south and Southern values in her town. The story begins with her death, but the details of her life are exposed throughout flashbacks by a narrator who seems to be a part of the townspeople. Because of the death of her father, Emily Grierson becomes disoriented and unstable; she believes that her father is not dead and refuses to allow anyone to bury him, much to the townspeople’s dismay. Much like Granny Weatherall, Emily is jilted by Homer Barron, a northern contractor that she falls in love with. She poisons Homer
A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner, symbolizes so much more than what is said in the text. William Faulkner sets an intense mood at the beginning of the story when announcing the death of Miss Emily Grierson. Not many stories start off with death, but in this case, Emily’s death is a very important key point to the story. The narrator manipulates time in the way he tells the story. The narrator starts off with with Emily’s death and continues the story with the past, the late past, and the past past. This time manipulation is very important to set the themes of the story. There is not one specific theme, but actually a variety. For example, the time manipulation by confusing the reader with the past and the present. Another example is the loneliness
William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, is a dark tale of a young girl damaged by her father that ended up leaving her with abandonment issues. Placed in the south in the 1930’s, the traditional old south was beginning to go under transition. It went from being traditionally based on agriculture and slavery to gradually moving into industrial and abolition. Most families went smoothly into the transition and others, like the Griersons, did not. Keeping with southern tradition, the Griersons thought of themselves as much higher class then the rest of their community. Emily’s father found no male suitable for his daughter and kept her single into her thirties. After her fathers death Miss Emily was swept off of
“She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (55). The first grieving stage is denial, but to feel no emotions, no sadness; that isn’t how a normal daughter reacts to the death of her own father. Emily doesn’t grasp that concept of death and emotions. So when she goes on to kill Homer Barron it is no surprise that she keeps the body in the house for years. No one knows that the body is rotting away inside, the only potential hint being the horrible smell coming from her property causing the neighbors to complain. It wasn’t until Emily passed herself, and the town gathered at her house they saw Homer’s body and “a long strand of iron-gray hair” (59) from the bed the corpse was resting in; meaning she was sleeping with the dead Homer Barron.
Faulkner states that Miss Emily would tell the other people that “her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly,'' (Faulkner 804). This part of the story foreshadows another incident where Emily again refuses to let go of the deceased. Instead of Emily not being able to let go of her father, this time she couldn't let go of her close friend, Homer. The hint of Emily not being able to let go of her father in the beginning serves as an indication for the reader that Miss Emily is very isolated and will do anything to prevent that. Emily’s suspicious actions causes the reader to anticipate certain happenings and wonder what will happen next.
“A Rose for Emily” showed how even as much as she tried Emily didn’t know how to survive or adjust to the world around her, because of her upbringing. Emily had to hold on things because she feared they would leave her, because growing up she was so sheltered. “…she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” After her father died she didn’t know how to let go or react even after how he treated her all her life. “…her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.” She even denied his death for days after he died, “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.” Emily lashed out and
Considering the likelihood of the marriage between herself and Homer Barron, Miss Emily felt the need to “preserve” the “flower” in which she felt she possessed. So in order for her to keep him permanently, she made a selfish and impulsive decision to take Homer’s life so that he wouldn’t have a way to escape from her grasp. This act of symbolism shows the reader Emily’s “rose” in which she gains that also counteracts as the title of the story. Her empty life now resides in the empty
Miss Emily stays in the confines of her own home for a number of years after her father's death. The only contact she has is with her servant who takes care of her by getting groceries and helping her around the house. Her isolation from the world is due to the fact that she cannot accept the fact that her father is dead, for he was all she had in the first place. This reflects
Before her father died, he refused every suitor that pursued her; which in turn doomed her to live a solitary life (Faulkner). “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead,” (Faulkner). This shows the internal conflict that Emily has with society. She acts as if her father never died and continues to hold her head high and shut herself off from the rest of the world.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” captures the horror of loneliness and isolation in the heart of a community. Emily Grierson is an outworldly and unwanted presence in the town of Jefferson, encompassing all the opposite values of the place and time she was living in. She represented the old, aristocratic world, forever in conflict with the modern values and fast-paced new generations, from which she retreated under an impenetrable shell.
Once Miss Emily’s father died, she didn’t want to let go. She had no one to love and lover her back. The only love and compassion she knew was her fathers. With him leaving this world entirely, I think she didn’t want to believe he was dead. She wanted to hold on as much as she could. “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days… Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly.” Again, Miss Emily’s necessity for love made her unconscious of the real world, wanting to hold on to something that was not there.
“A Rose for of Emily” is a short narration that explains the life of Emily as narrated by the author, William Faulkner. The story is among the best collections of 1930s. It is based on a fictional setting called the Jefferson in a fictional country known as yoknapatawpha located in Mississippi. According to valuable sources, this book represented one among many that written by Faulkner and had emerged in the national magazine. The story is presented in five phases that are presented by people living in the fictional city. The narration is made from a first person’s perspective as indicated by the constant use of the word ‘we.’