A Rose for Emily

Movie Review

SETTING
Intrinsic to the development of both character and conflict, the setting of "A Rose for Emily" is Jefferson, the county seat of Faulkner's fictional kingdom that he named Yoknapatawpha county, a county in which Colonel Sartoris is an important figure.
The emancipation of slaves after the Civil War, the South was inundated by Northern opportunists, known as carpetbaggers. Against the Northerners who had no code of conduct, the newly-poor plantation owners retained their aristocratic arrogance. And, the code of chivalry of such men as Emily Grierson's father protected the women against encounters with men such as Homer Barron. This code of chivalry keeps Colonel Sartoris from taxing the poor spinster and Judge Stevens from confronting Emily about the smell emanating from her house.
However, the new generations of the South are removed from these antiquated ways, and it is this conflict between twentieth century and antebellum ways that is presented in Emily's character.

CHARACTERS
EMILY GRIERSON - A eccentric recluse, Emily is a mysterious figure who changes from a vibrant and hopeful young girl to a cloistered and secretive old woman. Devastated and alone after her father’s death, she is an object of pity for the townspeople. After a life of having potential suitors rejected by her father, she spends time after his death with a newcomer, Homer Barron. She ultimately poisons Homer and seals his corpse into an upstairs room.
HOMER BARRON - A foreman from the North. Homer is a large man with a dark complexion, a booming voice, and light-colored eyes. He develops an interest in Emily and takes her for Sunday drives in a yellow-wheeled buggy. Despite his attributes, the townspeople view him as a poor, if not scandalous, choice for a mate. He disappears in Emily’s house and decomposes in an attic bedroom after she kills him.
JUDGE STEVENS - A mayor of Jefferson. Eighty years old, Judge Stevens attempts to delicately handle the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson property.
MR. GRIERSON - Emily’s father. Mr. Grierson is a controlling, looming presence even in death, and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily.
TOBE - Emily’s servant. Tobe, his voice supposedly rusty from lack of use, is the only lifeline that Emily has to the outside world. For years, he dutifully cares for her and tends to her needs. Eventually the townspeople stop grilling him for information about Emily. After Emily’s death, he walks out the back door and never returns.
COLONEL SARTORIS - A former mayor of Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris absolves Emily of any tax burden after the death of her father.
SUMMARY OF PLOT I. EXPOSITION - Miss Emily Grierson died, the entire town attended her funeral in her home, which no stranger had entered for more than ten years. II. INITIAL - Thirty years earlier, Emily’s father has just died, and she has been abandoned by the man whom the townsfolk believed Emily was to marry, the women of the town call on Emily to offer their condolences; meeting them at the door, Emily states that her father is not dead, and a charade that she keeps up for three days. III. RISING ACTION – Emily had an affair with Homer Barron, thus, her reputation is further compromised, she goes to the drug store to purchase arsenic, a powerful poison but she is required by law to reveal how she will use the arsenic and she offers no explanation so the package arrives at her house labeled “For rats.” IV. CLIMAX DENOUEMENT - Some of townspeople fear that Emily will use the poison to kill herself because her potential marriage to Homer seems increasingly unlikely, it was said that Homer enters the Grierson home one evening and then is never seen again. V. RESOLUTION – After Emily’s death, the door to a sealed upstairs room that had not been opened in forty years is broken down by the townspeople; they saw Homer Barron’s dead body and then notice the indentation of a head in the pillow beside Homer’s body and a long strand of Emily’s gray hair on the pillow.
SYNOPSIS - Emily had become an institution, so her death sparks a great deal of curiosity about her reclusive nature and what remains of her house.
POINT OF VIEW
Death hangs over “A Rose for Emily,” from the narrator’s mention of Emily’s death at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily’s death-haunted life to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. In every case, death prevails over every attempt to master it. Emily, a fixture in the community, gives in to death slowly. The narrator compares her to a drowned woman, a bloated and pale figure left too long in the water. In the same description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of the Old South, a grand lady whose respectability and charm rapidly decline through the years, much like the outdated sensibilities the Griersons represent. The death of the old social order will prevail, despite many townspeople’s attempts to stay true to the old ways.
Emily attempts to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself. Her bizarre relationship to the dead bodies of the men she has loved—her necrophilia—is revealed first when her father dies. Unable to admit that he has died, Emily clings to the controlling paternal figure whose denial and control became the only—yet extreme—form of love she knew. She gives up his body only reluctantly. When Homer dies, Emily refuses to acknowledge it once again—although this time, she herself was responsible for bringing about the death. In killing Homer, she was able to keep him near her. However, Homer’s lifelessness rendered him permanently distant. Emily and Homer’s grotesque marriage reveals Emily’s disturbing attempt to fuse life and death. However, death ultimately triumphs.

THEME
Power of Death