...life and death of Miss Emily Grierson.Faulkner's primary themes are the struggle of the individual will against the pressures of time and change, and of the conflict between the interests of society and the individual's needs and desires.He arranged the story in five sections of roughly equal length. The first, which begins with her death, deals with Miss Emily's encounters with the tax officials, the next with the death of her father. The third tells the story of her buying poison for an unnamed purpose, and the fourth tells the story of Homer Barron and Emily's own aging and growing isolation. In the fifth section Faulkner returns to Emily's funeral, and the shocking discovery that follows it. The first section of this short story additionally includes a description of the history behind the town's relations to Miss Emily. The narrator comments: "Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town". This obligation began in the year 1894 when Miss Emily's father died; he left her nothing but the house. That year the town's mayor told Miss Emily she was exempt from all taxes because the town owed her father. Miss Emily accepted his exemption and the tradition began. As this section comes to an end, a new mayor tries to get Miss Emily to start paying taxes, but she refuses. The second section of A Rose for Emily describes Miss Emily's life shortly after her father's death. This section displays Miss Emily as a woman...
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...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 was originally published in the April 30, 1930, issue of Forum Magazine. It was his first short story to ever be published in a major magazine. A slightly revised version appeared in two collections of his short fictions...
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...The fact that men and women have different motives for attending their funeral points to a gender conflict and testifies to their controversy. And the reference to a "fallen monument" gives her something sublime but also inhumane. Miss Emily as a monument - this description is repeated several times, her rare sightings adding to the mystery: "Now and then we would see her at the window for a moment” (Faulkner 221). And even towards the end of the story - she no longer leaves the house at all - she is now and then seen in her window: "like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which" (Faulkner 222).The monument Faulkner made his character in to and the tone of the story gives way to associations with grace, respect and timelessness, but also acts as being inhumane, artificial - ultimately: dead (which is Emily’s outcome). Emily also moves between the border of life and death. It cannot be said, fully identified with certainty whether she is watching her neighborhood or not (during all those years of seclusion). The comparison with one of the angels in colorful church windows - provided with the features of tragic serenity - conveys this...
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...with the real world. Miss Emily Grierson was raised by a narcissistic father who created an isolated woman. Her father secluded her from the rest of the world by assuring no one was good enough for her. After her beloved father’s death, she struggled to let him go. Later in her life, she meets a man named Homer Barron, who was in town to fix the town’s streets. The unknown narrator, who lives in the town, and fellow townspeople notice Miss Emily’s happiness with Homer and believe that they will get married. The townspeople specifically thought Homer and Miss Emily were married when Miss Emily bought a men’s toilet set in silver. However, when Homer disappears, Miss Emily loses another person she loves. In “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily’s dreams of love collide with the real world. Miss Emily loved her father and he is the only person by her side. He is the only person in her life because her father is narcissistic. Faulkner suggests that Miss Emily’s father abuses his daughter. This may be the reason “none of the young man were quite enough” for her (Faulkner 439). The way Miss Emily acts with her father, the town “thought of them as a tableau” (Faulkner 439). After Miss Emily Grierson’s father passed, Miss Emily became the last of the Griersons. Unable to accept the death, it is only after three days that Miss Emily allows the coroner take her father’s body away because she is unable to let him go. However, the town understands Miss Emily’s decision by including...
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...oh that’s creepy? Miss Emily Griersons home in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” fits the description of an old creepy home. Living in the town of Jefferson, after her father’s death, Miss Emily was left with nothing else but his home. By her actions portrayed in the book, she refuses to move on to a new generation and she wishes to live just the way she always has. Because she is well known in the town, it makes her the center of gossip amongst the townspeople. Her life she is living in the home is an astonishing mystery. The townspeople are sad for her as they make assumptions that she would take her own life, and then happy for her as they assume she has married the love of...
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...understanding of the external conflict between the protagonist, Miss Emily, and society. The nonlinear plot structure of “A Rose for Emily” creates a different way of comprehending the narrative by keeping the true nature of Miss Emily questionable. Faulkner begins the first section in present time, giving a recap of Emily’s life as the local townspeople attend her funeral. The funeral is being held at her home, which no one had entered for over ten years, drawing the entire town to attend. Faulkner uses flashback in the second section to give you a hint as to what is to be discovered at the end. The flashback occurs thirty years earlier, when Emily refused an official inquiry when the townspeople detect a powerful odor coming from the property. The cause of the smell is revealed at the end. Another flashback occurs in section three, recounting when Miss Emily first begins seeing the man people believed she would marry, Homer Barron. Miss Emily ends up going to the pharmacy to purchase arsenic. This keeps the reader in suspense because the real reason of purchasing the arsenic is never revealed. The last flashback is in section four, when the people of the town believe Emily was going to commit suicide. This causes the women to insist that the Baptist Minister to talk some sense into Emily. He does, never speaking of what happened but refusing to go back again. This causes the reader to wonder what Miss Emily had told the Baptist Minster. The reader returns to present...
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...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 cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting...
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...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 was about two years after her father died, and a short time after her lover disappeared from her life. Anyhow, the stink got stronger and complaints were made, but the authorities didn't want to confront Emily about the problem. So, they sprinkled lime around the house and the smell was eventually gone. Everybody...
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...In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, the author uses many different rhetorical strategies and literary devices in order to enhance the story's deeper meaning. The unique point of view, which is first-person-plural, allows for the story to be interpreted in many different ways by the reader. Using words throughout the story such as “we” and “our” let the reader know that this is not just one person narrating the story, but rather multiple people. These people narrating would be the townspeople that live in Miss Emily's community. How Miss Emily is viewed by her community changes quite a bit throughout the duration of the story. In the beginning, the people attending Miss Emily’s funeral, even though most of them are there just out of curiosity...
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...reason. The story begins at, if written in chronological order, what would be right before the end. He then continues the story jumping backwards and moving forwards. A key part is skipped in the retelling of Miss Emily Grierson’s life, which is told at the end of the storyline, and it is perhaps the most interesting part of the story. The story starts off at Miss Emily Geirson’s funeral. Emily is the main character in the story, and Faulkner has her dead in the first sentence. It should be noted that neither Faulkner, nor Emily are the narrator for the story, and instead the narrator is the viewpoint of the general townspeople that knew, or thought they knew, Emily Grierson. Faulkner then has the narrator explain Emily’s house, which plays a mysterious role in the story. It was said for the women that attended her funeral, “mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house.” (Faulkner 91) The story then goes on to tell the origin of Miss Emily’s tax evasion, a settlement she got away with, until the newer generation of mayors and aldermen came in to power. It goes on to tell the time before her death where a deputation from the Board of Alderman visited Emily to settle the dispute of the taxes. When Emily answered the door, it gives an external glimpse of Emily’s life at the time. The story describes her as “A body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.” (Faulkner 92) This paints a vivid picture of a depressed Emily. So again, the aftermath is shown...
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...A Rose for Emily Summary How It All Goes Down You might want to look at our discussion of the novel's setting before you enter here, or at least know it's there to help if you get tangled up in this story's crazy chronology. Also keep in mind that the narrator of this story represents several generations of men and women from the town. The story begins at the huge funeral for Miss Emily Grierson. Nobody has been to her house in ten years, except for her 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 any more, 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 was about two years after her father died, and a short time after her lover disappeared from her life. Anyhow, the stink got stronger and complaints were made, but the authorities didn't want to confront Emily about the problem. So, they sprinkled lime around the house and the smell was eventually gone. Everybody felt sorry for Emily when her father died. He left her with the house, but no money. When he died, Emily refused to admit it for three whole days. The town didn't think...
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...ominous feeling throughout the story. The story begins describing the funeral of Miss Emily. Miss Emily and her family had once been the center of the town and now Miss Emily’s reputation had died right along with the rest of the old men and women of the town. The narrator explains that the men attended her funeral out of obligation while the women came because no one had seen the inside of her house in years. Miss. Emily lived a very shelter life. Miss Emily was always alone and eventually the neighborhood starts to make rude comments about her. They begin to connote her as” crazy” but she was really not use to living on her own and was still morning the lost of her father. The story goes on to illustrate Emily’s house as “an eyesore among eyesores”. This house had once been white “the best looking house in the neighborhood” but is still decorated with the style of the seventies. She lived in a neighborhood that once was the best neighborhood in town, now deserted. The only house that was left was the one of Miss Emily. This particular house was ragged from many years of misuse and neglect. The type of Gothic element doesn’t portray Miss Emily as a loving southern woman rather a dark, evil, and mysterious woman. The story precedes describing Miss Emily when she was alive. The narrator depicts Miss Emily as having no thought for others. He goes on to describe her as controlling. Miss Emily even resorts...
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...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, giving the narration, and description of sympathy, thus...
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...gothic literature. Faulkner expresses sadness for the love that is not returned, and a drive that Miss Emily Grierson uses to get what she wishes for. He adapts a gloomy and mysterious tone in order to compare Miss Emily’s rejection to young adults today. Faulkner opens his story by expressing the amount of respect that is shown at Miss Emily’s funeral. It is said that the entire town attended this event, but also that some only showed up to see what the inside of her house looked liked because no one had been inside in over ten years. He explains this to show the mysterious appeal of Miss Emily. By explaining the mystery in Miss Emily, he conveys a dark tone that baffles the audience. Faulkner then shifts the story toward explaining what Miss Emily’s house had once looked like. It was a big grim house that was once white. It was the only one left on the street and many believes that it was an abomination to the community. It is evident that Miss Emily and her house are connected in a way. Miss Emily’s family was once one of the most prominent in the town because of the relationship the father had with Colonel Sartoris, but as she grew older the opinions of her social status changed along with her. Her father not only had great power within the community, he also had power over her as well. This authority is shown through the portrait that Faulkner painted in the story: Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a straddled silhouette in the foreground...
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...basis to determine the atmosphere of the town and mood of Miss Emily Grierson. The time frame, in which “A Rose for Emily” is set, is an important component to the setting of the story. The story is based sometime during the late eighteen hundreds, after the battle of Jefferson and the end of slavery. The time frame is important because it displayed how families or persons of prestige and wealth usually set themselves apart from other ordinary inferior citizens. It was almost as though the town and its people in which, the Griersons lived, were in debt to the family. The author states, "Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligations upon the town. (Pg 80)” Miss Emily was not compelled, or to be forced to adhere to any request made by the town. Since the town was under new authority and not Colonel Sartoris who was already dead, but had previously remitted Emily's taxes, so she felt under such circumstances it was necessary for her to pay them. When the smell developed in her house and disturbed the neighbors, she did not fell obliged to do anything about it, resulting in the town’s men having to sneak and take care of it themselves. Although, Emily’s time of status had long past the town still treated her as if she were of certain superiority. For instance, they gave her an almost state like funeral with there being all members of the town attending her funeral even though; they hardly knew or...
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