Preview

A Rose For Emily In The South Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
594 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Rose For Emily In The South Analysis
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a surprising short story that begins with the funeral of the main character, Emily Grierson. Faulkner uses an anonymous narrator that is considered to be the voice of “the town” and tells the story out of chronological order. The story basically uses the life of Emily Grierson as a symbol for the changes in the South after the Civil War. Faulkner illustrates the South through the use of a series of symbols, such as Emily’s house, hair, and even Emily’s “rose”.
The characteristics of Miss Emily’s house symbolize her appearance as she becomes decrepit with time and neglect. The house was a beautiful white decorated with gorgeous cupolas, set on what was the best street. Then it became a monstrous monstrosity. Miss Emily changed the same ways as her house did and she too became an eyesore. She had once been a slender figure and later she becomes fat and motionless. During Miss Emily’s death she had been referred to as a fallen monument, which could mean she was once something beautiful and
…show more content…
Well this is the most confusing ending that includes Emily murdering her sweetheart. This is when all the smells developed and the townspeople put lime in her basement. This is symbolic because lime is usually put in the ground before the coffin of the deceased is placed in the ground. The “rose for Emily” was the room where she neatly placed the body of Homer Barron. The room was described as having “rose-shaded lights” and the curtains giving off a “faded rose color”. Knowing from having a girlfriend, many women like to dry out their roses in order to keep them forever, maybe in Emily’s distorted mind she wanted to keep Homer forever. She kept good care of him, which is exemplified by her dressing Homer in nightclothes and laying him on the bed. There was even an iron gray hair found on the indented pillow next to him signifying Emily has been lying next to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner skillfully depicts the changes of Emily, who becomes a victim of the transitional period from the old pre-war society to the new post-war society. The author depicts the process of how an aristocratic lady becomes a killer. The story revolves around the life of a troubled and stubborn woman named Emily. After the death of her father and the disappearance of her lover, Emily becomes increasingly isolated from the society. She persistently lives in her self-made shell so that she can preserve her past and protect herself from the changes of society. By using peculiar factors, overcast atmosphere, and the contrast of desolate and modern life, Faulkner exposes the isolation of a woman trapped in the past, her desire for a happy life, and the degradation of the South after the Civil War.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    'A Rose for Emily': Q&A

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Faulkner describes Emily as a lone woman with no life. The words he uses paint an image that she’s just a creepy lady who lets no one in her house .that the end of the story the town people final get to go into Emily’s house after she died. To their surprise they discover a homers old dead body in the top…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Rose for Emily” is a mysterious and unusual short story. William Faulkner creates a character, Miss Emily Grierson, who is so significant to the town that she is referred to as a “fallen monument” after her death. Miss Emily is an eccentric character, and although she physically changes, her character nor her personality do. Miss Emily is a static character, with internal conflicts, and has odd relationships with her boyfriend and husband. For instance, Miss Emily kept her late father's body and refused to give him up, showing an inability to let go. She keeps his body because she also does not want to be isolated, even though she avoids interaction by staying in her home. Miss Emily's isolation is external with society and also resonates…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Using the city in the south where the story takes place, Faulkner shows the various ways that the characters react with Emily as well as the conflicts and the irony in his short story “A Rose…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The setting of “A Rose for Emily” is a town made up by Faulkner. It takes place in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. It takes place at the county seat of Jefferson. While Faulkner made up the actual town, it can be seen as a typical town in the south around the mid to late eighteen hundreds through the mid nineteen hundreds. This story focuses on the end of the slavery era and the confusion that ensued when that all ended. It also looks at the future generations and how they dealt with the way of life that existed before they were in…

    • 2498 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the life story of Miss Emily Grierson. A woman whose life is fraught with tragedy and grief. Strategically told out of order, Miss Emily’s life draws us in, beginning with the end of her life and the opening of her house to the curious townspeople. The “scrambled” telling of this story serves several purposes in enhancing the story’s interest and depth.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One could interpret the death scene of Miss Emily as symbolic. “And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows…” (Kelly, 163). Dust is a pile of dirt that keeps growing, if not taken care of; which is symbolic of the tragic life of Miss Emily. There is such a buildup of sorrow in her life, and she just keeps it hidden away inside her. The effect it had on her became so great that it drove her insane, literally. A shadow is something that lurks behind someone and never leaves them; which is symbolic of the shadow of the wrong Miss Emily committed, in murdering Homer Barron, lurking behind…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Paper

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At Miss Emily’s funeral she is described as a “fallen monument” (90). This could be a symbol for her once being a beautiful important human being that had diminished while becoming old and not taking care of her image. The town in this story saw Emily as a powerful person because of her family. They had their large house that was very beautiful, but when her father dies she changes just like the house and becomes less regal with time.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When William Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” the South found itself in a position of confusion. After the Civil War the economy was in a decline and Southerners were forced to question their ways of life and moral standards. Faulkner uses the life of a grim, southern lady to examine the tensions between the North and South and how he believed that it would be the ultimate downfall of the entire nation. As the main character Miss Emily struggles to break free from her upbringing, death and desperation control her life. Eventually she would use arsenic to kill her lover, showing a violent and psychotic side of the southern facade. Faulkner describes large scale issues by telling an ominous story…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss Emily would dress in a conspicuous manner, like any of the other women of this time, because their appearance is directly reflected on their husbands or fathers to impress onlookers. Her father regarded her to as a piece of property. The house that Miss Emily lives in is an example for the show of wealth that aged with her. The house was just as lifeless as the person in it, Miss Emily. When Miss Emily died, the house was seen by the public as an eyesore and was seen as empty and lifeless. The Grierson house that William Faulkner used was a symbol of Miss Emily’s change in her social status over time. Emily was the last living Grierson and symbolized her families rich past along with holding true to the fact that all of the other members in the family are considered strong and…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story “A rose for Emily” published in 1930 by William Faulkner focuses on the life of Emily Grierson, a woman who is from a rich family and, now has to deal with her loneliness after her father’s death. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a complex and dark story that keeps readers guessing and intrigued by Faulkner’s abundant use of literally elements. Faulkner’s use of symbolism in the story is used to enhance the plot and create meaning. The point of view by the use of the unnamed narrator in “A Rose for Emily” makes readers question the identity of the speaker. "A Rose for Emily" recalls the terms of Southern gothic literature that sets the tone of the story as gloomy and grotesque.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily is about a poor and unfortunate woman, named Emily, who leads a very personal and lonely life. The theme and story revolves around the secret life of Emily Grierson. The story takes place in the South and reflects the attitudes and lifestyle of the old South.…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis Paper

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Emily’s house that is very similar to her is a structure of a memorial, the only remaining of a symbolic representation of the past. The house “It was a big, squarish frame house that 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. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores (pg204). The house is an extension of Emily. It is a tradition but now it’s out of place because of the society that has changed around her. The house, like its owner, is an object of interest for them. They create their own interpretations of the inside of Emily’s torn down house.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through Faulkner's “ A Rose for Emily” we literally see the South take shape through Miss Emily. Everything Miss Emily did was a clear reflection of the South. “A Rose for Emily” gives an insight of life after the Civil War in the…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Grierson Past

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, a care, a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town…” A Rose for Emily, written by William Faulkner, is set in the South, following the Civil War. Slavery had been abolished, the economy was straining, and society was grieving. In the novel the American South is shown to be in distress, southerners were in denial of any change, and were trying to hold on too any dignity they had left. By allowing the reader to reconstruct the dates chronologically and untangle the characters experiences on their own, Faulkner provides a complex transition from one section to another. In, “A Rose for Emily,” the concept of time present and time past is explored. By making a parallel between the main character,…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays