Deception: in a Rose for Emily
Brittany McGee
Instructor Jester
ENGL 1102
January 30, 2010
Deception in “A Rose for Emily”
Have you every just watched someone in the neighborhood that you live in and thought that you knew that person? Did you really know the person personally or did you simply think that you know that them that well? The answer is usually no and when you realize that, you may be shocked by who he or she really is. In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the people in a small town think that they know Miss Emily, who they have watched for years, until her death causes them to discover something that they did not know about her. As I was reading this story, I became engrossed by the way Faulkner choice to write the story. Faulkner uses the title of the story deviously to make many readers imagine that the story is something very romantic instead of how it really is and to not reveal the dark twist. When I read the title, at the beginning I thought that the story might be something romantic because of the romantic icon that a rose has become. But, the image of a rose has a darker connotation such as the image of death. These two views are the many images and meanings that come to mind when you consider a rose; however, there is another way to view the rose. When I think of a rose, I also think about the thorns of the rose and that the thorns can be symbolic of pain or of scars and that the beauty of the rose masks the pain. When I finished reading the story, I went back to the title and considered that maybe the rose represents the life of Emily by the fact that people think of her like a “monument,” which is masking the pain and scars on Emily’s heart (Faulkner 90). The rose represents this by the town only seeing the surface of Emily’s life like the beauty of the rose that captures your eyes only, instead of the pain of Emily’s loneliness which the thorns represent on a rose. If you look at it that way, you can see that the rose could be
Instructor Jester
ENGL 1102
January 30, 2010
Deception in “A Rose for Emily”
Have you every just watched someone in the neighborhood that you live in and thought that you knew that person? Did you really know the person personally or did you simply think that you know that them that well? The answer is usually no and when you realize that, you may be shocked by who he or she really is. In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the people in a small town think that they know Miss Emily, who they have watched for years, until her death causes them to discover something that they did not know about her. As I was reading this story, I became engrossed by the way Faulkner choice to write the story. Faulkner uses the title of the story deviously to make many readers imagine that the story is something very romantic instead of how it really is and to not reveal the dark twist. When I read the title, at the beginning I thought that the story might be something romantic because of the romantic icon that a rose has become. But, the image of a rose has a darker connotation such as the image of death. These two views are the many images and meanings that come to mind when you consider a rose; however, there is another way to view the rose. When I think of a rose, I also think about the thorns of the rose and that the thorns can be symbolic of pain or of scars and that the beauty of the rose masks the pain. When I finished reading the story, I went back to the title and considered that maybe the rose represents the life of Emily by the fact that people think of her like a “monument,” which is masking the pain and scars on Emily’s heart (Faulkner 90). The rose represents this by the town only seeing the surface of Emily’s life like the beauty of the rose that captures your eyes only, instead of the pain of Emily’s loneliness which the thorns represent on a rose. If you look at it that way, you can see that the rose could be
Cited: Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2009. Print. 90-95.