David Madden
David Madden’s Analysis on A Rose for Emily
David Madden describes Emily in many ways. He says “she is a grotesque, southern gothic character whose neurotic or psychotic behavior in her relationships with her father, her lover, and her black servant may elicit many Freudian interpretations,” which he proves by providing an example talking about her relationship with Homer, or even her abusive and controlling bond with her father, which shows how easily one can misinterpret Faulkner’s true meaning behind his story.
Madden notices how the narrator never uses a single individual being singled out in anything. He mentions the point of view of “we” is always used in the story. The reason for this is because Emily is an icon within the community, and he says that Faulkner does this to show the standpoint of Emily throughout the community, and because of this, she is represented as revered no matter what generation. He even talks about back when Emily was a child, throughout the civil war, and how she’s that figure in different generations. He symbolizes her as “the religious person to the people that survived the war”, which is where the community compares her to an angel. Madden talks about how kids are sent to her to learn her ways of having a good spirit, and learning the insides and outsides of being a good person overall, but in reality she really isn’t because of all the bad events she does throughout the story (affair, killing).
David then mentions her ways and fetish with dead bodies, and how this is similar to the towns’ people. Madden says that Emily loved to “preserve bodies” whether it was mentally or physically. Emily was the last of her idolized family, and the community felt it was a need to “preserve her dignity” in case of her death. Another reason for this is because she’s also that last bit of what the old south actually was.
Madden finishes up with talking about the rose, and how it is symbolized in the story. He says that the rose is a figure for
David Madden describes Emily in many ways. He says “she is a grotesque, southern gothic character whose neurotic or psychotic behavior in her relationships with her father, her lover, and her black servant may elicit many Freudian interpretations,” which he proves by providing an example talking about her relationship with Homer, or even her abusive and controlling bond with her father, which shows how easily one can misinterpret Faulkner’s true meaning behind his story.
Madden notices how the narrator never uses a single individual being singled out in anything. He mentions the point of view of “we” is always used in the story. The reason for this is because Emily is an icon within the community, and he says that Faulkner does this to show the standpoint of Emily throughout the community, and because of this, she is represented as revered no matter what generation. He even talks about back when Emily was a child, throughout the civil war, and how she’s that figure in different generations. He symbolizes her as “the religious person to the people that survived the war”, which is where the community compares her to an angel. Madden talks about how kids are sent to her to learn her ways of having a good spirit, and learning the insides and outsides of being a good person overall, but in reality she really isn’t because of all the bad events she does throughout the story (affair, killing).
David then mentions her ways and fetish with dead bodies, and how this is similar to the towns’ people. Madden says that Emily loved to “preserve bodies” whether it was mentally or physically. Emily was the last of her idolized family, and the community felt it was a need to “preserve her dignity” in case of her death. Another reason for this is because she’s also that last bit of what the old south actually was.
Madden finishes up with talking about the rose, and how it is symbolized in the story. He says that the rose is a figure for