Premium Essay

A Rose for Emily Paper

In:

Submitted By sherryjane1899
Words 536
Pages 3
English 112 O’Conner 1
Sherry O’Conner
Mrs. Smith
September 21, 2012

In “ A rose for Emily” Emily is very dependent on her father and after his death she is left without an identity because she did not marry. She has no idea how to go out and get and job and she doesn’t even want to because she feels its beneath her . So she has no money to pay her taxes because her father has passed and he lost his fortune in the war and when the new mayor comes along he and towns people tell her she needs to pay her taxes and she is bewildered. The old major excused her from her taxes not because her father had loaned the town money but out of mere respect for who she was. She did give lessons on china painting , it was a hobby of upper class women in that time. She feels she is above becoming a seamstress or a laborer. The historical content in this story is very important to the characterization in this story. Also her servant, Toby is free, but he stays, the mansion is falling down around him and miss Emily but he stays with because he as well is a product of his environment. The house is all he has even known , he knows no other life, or other way , Miss Emily is his family.
We hear some about her father, proud , old, noble. When he father died, she was so close to him and he was all she knew that she argued with the doctors and ministers and for 3 days wouldn’t let them have his dead body. Denying in fact that he had even passed, she was so heartbroken she couldn’t bare to admit it. We also met the character Homer, whom is characterized as a man’s O’Conner 2 man, He wasn’t going to settle down or marry. Miss Emily bucks tradition when she wants to be with him , because he for one is a laborer and he is a northerner. Miss Emily had him at her house alone and many of the towns people were shocked because it went against her upbringing. She

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

A Rose For Emily Research Paper

...A Rose for Emily In this story "A Rose for Emily" written by William Faulkner, Emily is considered a monument of the southern town, but Emily is living a sad life. Emily came from the Grierson family, who had held their images at high standards. Emily’s father thought of no man good enough for his Emily, so he sheltered her until he passed. When Emily’s father had passed, it was rumored that all he left her was the house and lonesome, “a pauper, she had become humanized.” She would finally have the thrill of a penny now. People of the town would come to offer their condolences on the death of her father, but when greeted by Miss Emily there was no trace of grief on her face and she was dressed as her usual self. She told people of the town that her father was not dead. After about 3 days, Emily broke down and allowed them to bury her father....

Words: 749 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Cmparative Literature

...Comparative Literature Paper Lillian Beller World Literature October 14, 2012 University of Phoenix Comparative Literature Paper Selfishness and revenge are woven through “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner like a fine silk thread, supporting the theme of death in each. In the short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the cause of death is never obviously revealed but lightly hinted upon Emily as the cause. “The Cask of Amontillado,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, the cause of death is revealed but no one knew the cause of Fortunato’s disappearance. These stories contain many differences as well as similarities ranging from imagery, symbolism, theme, and tone. The recognizable commonality of the two is the theme of death. Each of these stories portrays death, or murder, as a result of vengeance, revenge and betrayal. “The Cask of Amontillado” deals with the death of Fortunato and “A Rose for Emily” deals with the death of Homer and Emily. William Faulkner never admits that Emily is the cause of Homer’s death but gives the audience clues that suggest Emily was indeed responsible. Emily’s death seemed to be of natural causes (Faulkner, 1931, p 531). Edgar Allan Poe, in “The Cask of Amontillado” tells the audience of Montresor’s plot of revenge and murder of Fortunato. Betrayal and revenge are obvious throughout both stories. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily first betrayed Homer after he...

Words: 1989 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Rose for Emily

..."A Rose for Emily" is a wonderful short story written by William Faulkner. It begins with at the end of Miss Emily’s life and told from an unknown person who most probably would be the voice of the town. Emily Grierson is a protagonist in this story and the life of her used as an allegory about the changes of a South town in Jefferson after the civil war, early 1900's. Beginning from the title, William Faulkner uses symbolism such as house, Miss Emily as a “monument “, her hair, Homer Barron, and even Emily’s “rose” to expresses the passing of time and the changes. The central theme of the story is decay in the town, the house, and in Miss Emily herself. It shows the way in which we all grow old and decay and there is nothing permanent except change. Miss Emily’s house is one of the important symbols which represent the past because it rejects updating like Miss Emily. The “… house 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” (209).Then it ages with Em... ... middle of paper ... ...me time she is the victim of her resistance to change of time while the world went on without her and misperception of the people around her. In conclusion, this story “A Rose for Emily” tells the life, the love, the time, hopes, and destruction of Emily Grierson by using intelligent symbols. Emily never accepts that the changing world around her might be benefiting...

Words: 299 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Rose For Emily

...fictional elements is the setting of a story. The setting of a story is commonly taken as the environment where the event or the story takes place, i.e. Time, place and descriptions of the environment being inclusive. The setting of a story is of three types; the symbolic setting (book philosophy), the scenic setting (self-explanatory), and the essential setting (real environment of the story). As any other author, William Faulkner in his story “A Rose for Emily”, he borrows a lot from the setting as a fiction element. The paper highlights how important setting as a fiction element was important to William in the process of writing the story “A Rose for Emily.”...

Words: 665 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Junot Diaz

...1 Here is an A paper. I have posted this as an example of what the A paper should look like. Everything about it, from the formatting, to the use of quotes and in-text citation is what I look for in a paper. Also, please note how the paper is tightly focused, with paragraphs arranged around a clear topic sentence and interesting points of analysis throughout. One final word of caution: This paper is registered with Turnitin.com -- so no funny business. Cindy Student June 5, 2006 English Comp II Professor Walsh Social Status and Accountability In William Faulkner’s, “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily is able to live an unconventional life, disregarding the laws of the land, because of her family’s aristocratic standing in the town. Her eccentric behavior culminates in the death of her suitor and a deliberate denial by the town. With each exception that was given to Miss Emily by the town, her belief that she lived under a separate set of rules was confirmed. From the tax bills that she did not pay, to the odors that she was not required to explain, to the rat poison she purchased without proper justification, or the mailbox she refused to have affixed to her home, each incident paving the way for her ultimate crime. With the town’s complicity, every event supported her perception of autonomy. 2 The first unlawful act that was allowed, because of the Grierson family status, was the tax incident. In spite of the younger generation’s desire to hold Miss Emily to the obligations...

Words: 663 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

A Rose for Emily

...William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is among his most famous short stories because of the interesting method of storytelling it employs. Faulkner uses a non-linear plot structure in this story, as opposed to the more often used, more simplified linear plot structure of most fiction. “A linear plot begins at point A, progresses through events which build towards a climax, and then finally reaches point B” (Malone). In contrast, “a non-linear plot typically presents the audience with multiple paths from point A to point B” (Malone). In other words, non-linear plot structures consist of back-and-forth storytelling, or flashbacks. Because of this non-conventional plot structure, “A Rose for Emily” has been described as an “emotionally complex and chronologically confusing narrative” (Petry 53). However, the story has also been cited as “one of Faulkner’s most carefully constructed stories” (Everett 165). The effectiveness of the disordered chronology can be likened to the preciseness of an equation. As Faulkner misdirected his readers through the use of flashbacks, he revealed Miss Emily’s disoriented mental state in her dealings with the passage of time. Faulkner efficiently complicates the narrative situation by opening “A Rose for Emily” with the death of the main character. The first sentence captures the reader’s attention immediately, evoking a collective sympathy for the main character: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral” (Faulkner...

Words: 1257 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

A Rose For Emily Setting Analysis

...Every story has two kinds of setting: the spatial and the temporal. Both are equally important to a reader’s understanding of a piece of literature. The physical location of characters can change the mood and the atmosphere of a story. The year in which the story is taking place can change the choices characters are able to make and the way society views the character’s actions. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner the time period and physical location confines characters and affects the outcome of the story. Gilman and Faulkner limit their characters in temporal and spatial setting to show the limitations of women in the physical, mental, and social aspects of life. First, Gilman...

Words: 1145 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Nice

...Qwayla Jefferson Jefferson 1 Homa Ferdowsi Comparison paper January 28, 2013 The Flowers vs. A Rose for Emily The ending in the stories “The Flowers” and “A Rose for Emily” both result in a death. Even though somebody died at the end of both stories, their deaths were different. In the story “The Flowers the main character was Myop, and in the story “A Rose for Emily” the main character was Emily. Myop was only ten at the time; she was an innocent little girl. Myop was free-spirited and didn’t have a worry in the world, “nothing existed for her but her song.” She loved to be outside in the fresh air, “It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house that the days had never been as beautiful as these.” Myop always seemed to go into the woods behind her home. Emily was a miserable old lady; she was miserable due to her father’s death, and after her sweetheart went “missing”. Emily seemed to hardly step foot out of her house, “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” She preferred to stay indoors. Myop was an innocent little girl that ran into a dead person. Since things started to look unfamiliar to her she started to head back home. As she was heading home she walked right into a dead body, “It was then she stepped smack into his eyes, her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose, and she reached down quickly, unafraid, to free herself.” After ...

Words: 586 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Reaction for a Rose for Emily

...Nursing Virac, Catanduanes Reaction Paper A Rose for Emily Submitted by: Sheila Mae T. Tapar BSN 3A Submitted to: Mrs. Victoria Gianan Professor I. Summary/Synopsis A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner first published in the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum. This story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha County. It was Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine. Faulkner explained the reason for his choice of the title as: [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who has had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute ... to a woman you would hand a rose. The story is told in nonlinear narrative and begins at the huge funeral for Miss Emily Grierson. Nobody has been to her house in ten years, except for her black servant. Her house is old, but was once the best house around. The town had a special relationship with Miss Emily ever since it decided to stop billing her for taxes in 1894. But, the "newer generation" wasn't happy with this arrangement, and so they paid a visit to Miss Emily and tried to get her to pay the debt. She refused to acknowledge that the old arrangement might not work anymore, and flatly refused to pay. Thirty years before, the tax collecting townspeople had a strange encounter with Miss Emily about a bad smell at her place. This...

Words: 1435 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

A Rose for Emily

...Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” English Composition 1102 Thursday Night An Analysis of the Sections in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” Outline I. Outline II. Introduction A. Opening Statement B. Author Information III. Body A. Section One B. Section Two C. Section Three D. Section Four E. Section Five IV. Conclusion V. Works Cited OPENING STATEMENT William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the story of an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson. Emily lived a luxurious life in a poor southern state, obeying her overbearing father until her ultimate death. “A Rose for Emily” begins with the death of Miss Emily Grierson and proceeds to tell the story of her life in the years leading up to her death and the horrible secret she has kept hidden. The story is told from the point of view of a nameless narrator and a longtime citizen of Jefferson, Mississippi. He notes that while the men attend the funeral out of obligation, the women go primarily because no one has been in, nor seen the inside of Emily’s house for years. It should also be noted that Jefferson is a critical setting in much of Faulkner’s fiction. The story is told in five sections, and opens in section one with an unnamed narrator describing the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson. The narrator not only speaks for himself but also represents the community at large. The story continues on through section five where the narrator describes what happens after Emily dies. The story...

Words: 2939 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

A Rose for Emily

...“A Rose for Emily” Tajia Kelly English 201 Prof. Elise Denbo “A Rose for Emily” To many resistance to change is the underlying theme of American author William Faulkner’s short story entitled “A Rose for Emily”. To others, resistance to change merely did not exist at all, Tyriese Simone states “the main idea of Emily was to show the willingness to change, changes brought on by the post-Civil war, death, change in society and loss of wealth”. Upon review, the real theme of this story is the resistance to change yes, but especially when it comes to adults modeling their relationship’s base on the relationship that they had with a parent of the opposite sex. Faulkner himself stated “Given a choice between grief and nothing, I'd choose grief” yet he wrote this story of this egotistical, impractical, isolated old woman, Miss Emily, who not only have mental and emotional problems but who is also unable to come to terms with the idea of death and suffers great deals of denial. Unlike Faulkner, Emily chooses grief, but nothingness came along with it due to the attachment with her father. The relationship she had and had always known with her father altered any relationship she had all her life. After the death of her beloved father she was very adamant about not changing and keeping things the way she knew. From a Psychoanalytical perspective, It is very much accurate to state that Emily “the monument of society” not only resists change but she models her relationships with the...

Words: 2049 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

What Repression Can Do to a Woman

...What Repression Can Do to a Woman Since the beginning of time women have been treated as second class citizens. Women were repressed and were forced to face many problems. At that time women were mainly controlled by their husbands and could not freely do things without the consent of their husband. This paper shows how this is evident in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In both stories, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and significant meaning of the titles are essential in bringing the reader to an unexpected and ironic conclusion. The similarities begin with both of the authors being raised in the south. We can presume that is one way they could described the situations that they faced so accurately; situations like political and social presumptions problems especially for women at that time. Chopin writes how “women are to be seen and not heard”. That was the standard for women in those days. Women had no basic rights like voting and generally lived under their husband’s rule. Chopin's stories seemed very modern even though it was written over 120 years ago. Chopin stretched boundaries with her writing. The late eighteen hundreds were a rough time for women and there were not the options like divorce that is available now. Through Mrs. Mallard, we could see the social repression that women felt at that time. Therefore, in this story there is so much domination, Chopin said "They were...

Words: 1268 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Hamlet

...Anthony livingston Dr.Lemaster Final paper 05/02/14 Diversity of Love Love can be an intensive feeling of lust from one individual to another, as well as an obsession that leads to people doing unusual things. The different types of love conveyed between the stories “A rose for Emily” and “Hamlet and Ophelia” are over compassionate ties and misleading love associations. Between these two stories the true dimensions portrayed of love are both ordinary and extreme. Once reading these books a reader can conclude that love itself can make you do some crazy things. “A rose for Emily” is a fictional analysis of horror or gothic tales between an over protective father, a psychotic spoiled daddy’s girl, and her lover. The relationship shown here between the girl and her father can be perceived as a typical father-daughter scenario played into today’s society. As most fathers, Emily’s dad never saw anyone up to his standards for his beloved daughter. With this being said Emily was never allowed to date or find a man’s love beyond her father’s. This put her in a distressful emotional state when she had to come to terms with her father passing away. Emily was an extremely over-bearing individual when it came to love. Her family and father had always been highly overrated people. They looked at other human-beings who did not fit their upbringings as “outsiders” and below them. In this narrative, the citizens of the town which Emily resides in are very judgmental when it comes...

Words: 1361 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Miss Emily Change

...Change is Everyone feels the effects of societal change and Miss Emily Grierson is no exception. During the duration of “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, the town and its people experience great change from generation to generation. Even though Miss Emily does not leave her house for an extended period of time, she was still impacted by the negative effects that the changing society brings. From a problem with her tax exemption to the loss of the endearing pastime of china painting, Miss Emily can feel the new generation’s impact. The reader will see that most of these alterations of the town take place in Miss Emily’s historical house and her house soon becomes the prime scene for the most destructive result of these...

Words: 1206 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Tragic Heroes

...Mike-Irabor English 1302: Composition 2 David Glen Smith, Instructor November 29, 2012 Research Paper Miss Emily Grierson and Eveline The family and society’s expectation of a woman has led to some women becoming tragic heroes and anti-heroes who battled consistently with their true identity. Literary works of William Faulkner in the short story, "A Rose for Emily", and James Joyce’s "Eveline", reflects the negative impact of these expectations. Based on information, culled from Dr David Smith’s notes, tragic heroes are driven and obsessed with past deeds or by fate, they are neither entirely good nor entirely bad and are fated to cause grief to individuals or to the community, they are often leaders in the community or head of family (2). Faulkner shows these common traits of tragic hero in Miss Emily Grierson; a protagonist in self-exile from the modern world, locked away in her decaying mansion (3). In James Joyce’s Eveline, a protagonist is revealed as tragic hero who endures a dramatic and tragic life full of conflicts, but Smith thinks otherwise, he refers to her as an anti-hero and is of the opinion that antihero should not be confused with tragic hero because, “existentialist believed modern life does not allow the existence of a true hero. Modern life dehumanizes everyone”(3), short of this, Eveline is a classic example of a tragic hero. William Faulkner’s Miss Emily and James Joyce’s Eveline are women who in the quest of fulfilling the roles assigned to them by...

Words: 2596 - Pages: 11