...of the nature of death and all that it entails. This is no less true in southern gothic writing and in the writings of William Faulkner. Published on April 30, 1930 in a major magazine at the time, Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” showcases the life of Ms. Emily Grierson, a local townswoman, and is captured in a mysterious and eventually horrific context that allows the reader to understand the sadness and morbid side of death. The story is a set in a southern context that Faulkner knew all too well and contains implications of contrasts between northern and southern society. Faulkner uses many different elements in this work to portray death in its entire grotesque and horrifying splendor. Particularly, Faulkner uses two certain elements to accomplish this task. Faulkner successfully conveys the theme of the power of death in “A Rose for Emily” by incorporating the use of the literary elements of foreshadowing and narrative voice. Faulkner’s use of foreshadowing works to reveal the theme of death in this work rather well. The story is divided into five different passages, each detailing a progression towards death – the end of Emily Grierson’s life. Just by listening to Faulkner’s tone in the first sentence and throughout the rest of the work, the reader can easily determine there is a definite presence of foreshadowing: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women...
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...Gabriel Roncal Dr. Reginald Abbott ENGL 1102-265 28 February 2013 The Southern Book of no changes: An Analysis of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” From Lao Tzu One of the five classics of Taoism, the I Ching or Book of Changes, states that the world and life are always changing, and that only the superior man is meant to overcome these special circumstances. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the main character Miss Emily Grierson isolates herself from reality and makes the decision of defying the human necessity to adapt. In this way, Faulkner uses this story to illustrate the audience about the incapacity of the South to accept change after the Civil War. Once the North beat the South, many southerners did not accept the fact that their lives had changed. They clung to the past and rejected the new vision of America. Emily’s personality represents this last try to stand firm to the old traditions of the South. In the beginning of the story, the reader can observe that even her property is a holdout: "But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of the neighborhood; only now Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pump-a eyesore among eyesores" (Faulkner, 91)....
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...Literary Analysis of “A Rose for Emily” In the story “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson is well known for her sorrowful background due to the loss of her governing father and status of isolation. In addition to Faulkner’s one-of-a-kind narration, he constructs a complex chronology that allows the reader to gradually become aware of facts, motivations, events, and emotions. Though Faulkner’s technique in “A Rose for Emily” may initially be a bit confusing, it reminds the reader this story is not one that can necessarily be told with simplicity, for there can be many answers to one question and many questions to one remark. One may think that the townspeople could easily be considered the antagonist, and while this may be true, Faulkner provides perspectives of all characters allowing the readers to perhaps question if there could be more than one. The townspeople made Miss Emily the talk of the town, making sure she was constantly being secluded. They eventually stopped sending their children to her China painting lessons, and pressured her to the point where she killed her lover in order to feel she had not lost her dignity. Essentially, they played a significant role in the death of Homer Barron, ruining their relationship with talk of disapproval. The townspeople could have possibly been well informed of their action, which can lead the to fact that it was not chosen to investigate Homer’s disappearance or prosecute Emily for that matter. The town antagonizes...
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...My nomination for best short story will be “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The reason I selected this is my interest in the Civil War era. This short story is intriguing by the use of changing the chronological order to hold the reader’s attention. The story is broken into five sections and each section has the reader wondering what Ms. Emily Grierson has done. The use of Homer Barron schemes the reader into believing that the two had fallen in love with each other, even though in the end, Homer was poisoned by Emily. The setting of the short story is the historical Mississippi southern town after the civil war. Emily is the protagonist of the story, while Homer is the antagonist. Homer is a northerner or outsider and is seen in the town as someone trying to take over the town. The third element is the point of view, which is the ghostly view of the narrator of the story (Klien, 2007). The use of the characters, historical setting and point of view provide the reader interest of what the plot will...
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...Andrew Costroff ENG 102 Faulkner and American Literature Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner is commonly considered one of America’s most creative and inspiring novelists. Influenced by authors such as Phil Stone, Sherwood Anderson, and James Joyce, Faulkner’s works center on themes like racism, sexuality, and social decline that was taking place in the 1920’s and 30’s in the South. At the core of his stories and novels are symbols of decay, like Miss Emily in “A Rose for Emily”, and Southern pride, like in “The Sound and the Fury”. His experimental use of techniques, such as stream-of-consciousness and multiple narrators, make his work challenging to read, but nonetheless unique. Many of Faulkner's writings are set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional area reflecting his native Lafayette County, which played a major role in shaping one of the world’s most artistic imaginations. William Faulkner (he actually added the u later) was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi. He was named after his great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, the “Old Colonel” who often appears in William’s stories. As a young boy, he would often listen to stories told to him by his family, particularly his mother Maud and his grandmother Lelia – both of which were well-educated and excellent readers. These included stories of the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, slavery, and the Falkner family. Considering this, it is easy to see how themes of racism, sexuality, and battles of...
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...A Rose for Emily Can you imagine being so lonely that you would do something unbelievable to prevent you from being alone? That is just what Miss Emily did. Miss Emily came from a wealthy family with a father who made decisions for her. He did not think the men that tried to date her were good enough for her, so he ran them off. John McDermott states, “In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson’s overbearing father forces her to live without love.” After her father died, Miss Emily became a loner. In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner uses Miss Emily’s funeral at the very beginning to show the separation between Miss Emily and the townspeople when he states, "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her 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 save an old man-servant a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years.” From there, the house, her servant, and the bad smell are used to symbolize her secluded life. Miss Emily’s inherited her house, but nothing else according to the narrator, “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad.” She lived alone for many years, except for her servant. People moved out of the neighborhood over the years and finally Miss Emily’s run down house is the only one left on the street. This is noted early in the story, “But garages and...
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...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...
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...Freud and Faulkner A psychoanalytic Reading of “A Rose for Emily” Abstract Undoubtedly Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. He was an influential thinker of the early twentieth century who elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex energy-system and the structural investigation of which is the proper province of psychology. Freud articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression and he proposed tripartite account of the mind ‘s structure, all as part of a radically new conceptual and therapeutic frame of reference for the understanding of human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions. Freudian approach can be analyzed well in The short story “A Rose for Emily” which is one of the great stories by an American novelist William Faulkner. In this essay I ‘m going to analyze this short story and the characteristics of its protagonist ( Emily Grierson) from Freudian and psychoanalytic criticism. Introduction Miss Emily Grierson, the main character in William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” is certainly strange by any average reader’s standards and a character analysis of Emily could go in any number of directions. It is nearly impossible not to examine her in a psychoanalytical and Freudian criticism specially about: Phallic stage, Oedipus Complex and the role of Id, Ego and Superego. The Phallic Stage According...
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...Marionette William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, is an example of how a small town’s inhabitants can shape the character of one woman based on gossip. The narrator, comprised primarily of the many voices of the town’s people with little input from Miss Emily, draw their own conclusions about her, a women who was a sort of living relic in the town that was progressing into modern times without her. Since the many voices of the town’s people comprise the narrator, their speculations shape Miss Emily’s character, her reasons for being a recluse and their reasons for avoiding confronting her. While Miss Emily is the main focus of Faulkner’s short story, no insight into her personal feelings or thoughts are ever revealed. The depth of her character is left up to the assumptions of the town’s people. She is always talked about at a distance which leaves her character flat. Even when the issue of taxes arises and the sheriff sends two men to talk to Miss Emily she is described in a morbid way; “her skeleton was small and spare…she looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water…with that pallid hue.”(Faulkner 788). Just with physical description alone the town’s people can manipulate Miss Emily into an uninviting women. Miss Emily’s reclusive behavior doesn’t sit well with the inhabitants of the town. They’re in the habit of socializing and being a part of each other’s personal lives. In contrast, Miss Emily does not share...
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...in William 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...
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...William Faulkner once said, “Given a choice between grief and nothing, I'd choose grief” (Brainyquote). He further explains why he’d do this in “A Rose for Emily”; although the story is not about him, he details the loneliness and selfishness of a poor woman, Miss Emily. Miss Emily is unable to grip the idea of death and suffers great deals of denial. After the death of her father, the townspeople expected her to be in a state of grief but alas she is not. Instead she proceeds to say that her father is very well with her, alive. William Faulkner’s idea of grieving is clear in this story because he shows his audience that it is better to accept death than to ignore it through the accounts of Miss Emily’s journey. William Faulkner’s story takes place in the South, during a time period of racial discrimination and major political change. By using reader response criticism, a reader can analyze “A Rose for Emily” through the aspects of the secret held within the story, race found through anthropology, and gender found through anthropology. To begin with, one can analyze “A Rose for Emily” by examining the underlying hidden message found within the story. The hidden message that William Faulkner tried to convey in his story was the themes of death and change. Death looms through the story from the beginning right on through to the end as the narrator begins describing the beginning of Miss Emily’s funeral. Miss Emily herself chooses not to accept the fate of death when her extremely...
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...300 December 10, 2014 A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner captures the life of a wealthy woman coping with life after the death of a loved one. Death is an indescribable feeling that can cause pain, anger, and sorrow for almost everyone. Early on in the story, Emily’s father passes away leaving her with all of these emotions concealed on the inside. After her father’s death Emily was left alone to grieve which caused her to react to his death in an unusual manner eventually leading to a state of depression. Emily barricades herself in her home away from the outside world for a long period of time trying to cope with her loss, but it seems as if life has moved on without her. Once she emerges from her home, it is like she is trapped in the past. Emily no longer has a sense of place and time. Emily finally finds happiness in a man by the name of Homer, but because of her family’s status in the community it causes a rift between Emily and herself on whether to keep him around or not. This caused Emily to go into a deeper depression, hiding from the world once again. Although death is a reoccurring theme in the story, it is not the only thing that has critics striving to understand the story even further. For starters, the title of the story has one scholar by the name of Laura Getty extremely interested because Faulkner does not come right out and say why he titled this story “A Rose for Emily.” It is almost as if one has...
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...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...
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...former southern belle Emily Grierson who’s affected via certain events dealing with her past is encompassed through the story, “A Rose for Emily.” Emily’s world consist of fantasy where death has no meaning or purpose to her. Within this short story Miss Emily has a problem accepting that Colonel Sartoris who is her father has died, and to her his death isn’t real. Since Miss Emily has yet to acknowledge her father’s death she has also yet to realize her world has begun to change around her, and has since begin adjoining her life with denial, sorrow, and death. William Faulkner tries at conveying his views on death and the importance of not letting someone’s death consume you early in the story. Faulkner eludes at not to give in to the sadness, and grief that often comes along with death. Within this short story Faulkner conveys how important it is to expect the unexpected. Faulkner uses Miss Emily as his example by her killing of Homer Barron, which was a major twist and totally unexpected. Third person is the narrative used within this short story, with Miss Emily’s portrayal being explained through the watchful eyes of the citizens of Jefferson, with most looking at her as nothing more than a mysterious, unassuming woman. With the people of Jefferson being so inconspicuous and not really suspecting anything out of the norm, it gave Miss Emily the opportunity to be viewed as a regular human being. Faulkner’s intentions were to have Miss Emily explained in third person...
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... in which one can locate certain finer qualities” (Owens 1). William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor there are characters to which these attributes apply. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily is from a proud, aristocratic family only then that had made through the Civil War era; Miss Emily used to live with her father and servants, in “a big squarish frame house, decorated with cupolas” (Faulkner 82). The town’s people conspire unconsciously to protect both Miss Emily Grierson and the community from shame and Emily’s unusual behavior after her father’s death. This was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The setting in “A Rose for Emily” is post civil war Jefferson, a small town in the south where the Confederacy is a thing of the past. The people within “this class and its attributes cannot be separated from each other by a change in outward appearances” (Owens 1). Miss Emily ‘s behavior influenced by her own expectations of herself and the townspeople’s lack of authority over her years after “Colonel Sartoris invented the tale that Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town” and “remitted her taxes” (Faulkner 82). The narrator leads the reader to believe the Griersons had always thought very highly of themselves; after her father’s death Emily is the last Griersons. Therefore, the responsibility of upholding the family name now lay with Miss Emily; “these qualities are fixed in blood and are passed directly from...
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