Literary Element: Plot
Title: A Rose for Emily (William Faulkner)
Plot and A Rose for Emily I thought that A Rose for Emily was a very strange story that had an interesting plot. The story was told from an outside perspective that was somewhat apathetic. This allowed the plot to develop around the strange old woman, Emily. Emily was sort of an outcast of the town and put herself into isolation inside of her house. The story was interesting in how it used the in media res style of writing to start. The beginning with the funeral of Emily gave the reader’s an immediate feeling of remorse and grief. William Faulkner further told of Emily’s life and how she became so secluded from her townspeople. The way that the author described the strange events that happened throughout Emily’s life made them really stand out as critical points that influenced Emily in her process of becoming secluded from the townspeople. I really enjoyed how the author subtly provided these insights into the development of Emily without blatantly pointing them out as key events. They allow the reader to understand her better and somewhat understand what she’s been through and why she is who she is. The story starts in media res as it opens with Emily’s death, and then it switches to flashback as it flashes back to important events in Emily’s life. The theme of death is prevalent because the opening paragraph is about Emily’s funeral and how everyone was in attendance. In addition, the plot is developed around the theme of death as the author flashes back to the death of Emily’s father. Finally, the story concludes with the death of Emily and the discovery of her lover’s lifeless corpse. Death is further exemplified in the scene containing the discovery of Emily’s deceased lover. “The man himself lay in the bed. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.” (William Faulkner, pg 97) This quote clearly exemplifies the author’s ability to show Emily’s profound infatuation with death as she apparently slept in the same bed as her deceased homosexual lover. It was also pretty heavily implied that Emily was the one responsible for the death of her lover as she purchased rat poison from an apothecary.