In the short story “A Lady with a Dog” by Anton Chekhov, the protagonist Dmitri Gurov takes an interest in the new vacationer in Yalta, Anna Sergeyevna. At first Gurov is only interested in Anna for his own sexual pleasures but as the story progresses the reader notices that he is actually falling for Anna. Anna becomes the perfect target for him to escape his loveless marriage and enter a new romance. The reader soon finds out that Anna is also in a loveless marriage. When Gurov goes to Anna’s hometown to express how he feels, he sees a “long grey fence adorned with nails” (3) surrounding her house. The fence was a symbol of how confined Anna was by her marriage. The fence lets the reader know that there was no escaping her marriage. The climax of this story would be when Gurov falls in love with Anna and decides to go visit her to confess his love to her. They eventually make arrangements to meet up together to continue their romance. The conflict in this story is internal because Gurov had been confined to a loveless marriage for years and looks outside of his marriage for comfort. He is a direct character because the reader always knows how he is feeling. Whether he is bored, sad, enticed, or happy. Gurov is also dynamic character because at first he just wants Anna for his own sexual pleasures. He never truly cares to understand the person she truly is but then he slowly starts falling for her. His feelings for her went from lust to love. And Anna is a FOIL character because when Gurov first meets her all he wants is to have his way with her but the experience these characters had with each other changed how Gurov felt about Anna and opened his eyes up to reality.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
1. “A Rose for Emily” is narrated in first-person plural. Why do you think Faulkner chose “we” rather…
- 756 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In conclusion of William Faulkner's short story "A Rose For Emily," he explains emily as an archaic woman because she does not understand why the new generation begins to take over. William Faulkner also describes Emily as a women of pride given to her by her late father. Lastly Emily portrays bizarre because she killed her husband and kept him all to…
- 63 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
In his article entitled “A Rose for Emily,” Donald Akers states that this short story will “remain a remarkable, provocative work regardless of the critical approach.” Akers described Emily as a weird character because of her refusal to pay taxes in the story and telling the tax collectors to discuss her taxes with a dead man. The man had been dead for ten years, and she was pretending he was alive. The author states that Emily’s being weird may appear throughout her whole family, and that being strange may have been passed on to her. Akers statement that Emily’s great-aunt, Old lady Wyatt, was crazy proves just that. Akers blamed Emily’s weirdness on her father. He stated that because her father would not let her date, she rebelled after he was dead by choosing a man out of her social class. She then would not let Homer leave, and did so by killing him. Akers said that, “the discovery of a strand of her hair on the pillow next to the rotting corpse suggest that she slept with the cadaver or, even worse, had sex with it.” The critic’s statement is what helps the reader comprehend that Emily is psychologically off. Akers later questions if Emily may be a tragic heroine in the story. He questions this because she is described as being an idol two times throughout the short story, and even though she poisons Homer, she is seen as, “a victim of her circumstance.” Those statements of Akers seem to match what Faulkner may think of Emily, based on his chosen title, “A Rose for…
- 282 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In the story “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner uses characterization to portray Emily’s mental decline throughout her life. By being kept away from the real world by her father, to being free to venture out after his death to having to keep a murder a secret. Faulkner best characterized Miss Emily as snobby, crazy and secretive.…
- 357 Words
- 2 Pages
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 -
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a story of love. By the end of the story, readers become aware of the true irony of the story. There are a variety of literary devices in the story, all of which contain different meanings and help readers better understand the irony. Because Emily loved Homer so much, she killed him so he wouldn't “leave” her. The reality is Homer is actually gone, because he is dead. Ultimately, William Faulkner uses symbolism, imagery, and flashbacks to tell the ironic story of “A Rose for Emily”.…
- 608 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In order to understand William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” you need to know a little bit about the author. Most of his novels take place in the state of Mississippi with colorful history and richly varied population. The frequent theme in his novels is the abuse of black people by Southern whites. “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the late 1800s in Mississippi after the civil war. The main character is Emily, who comes from wealthy background, but at the time of the story her family has lost its fortune. Faulkner uses a great deal of visual imagery that can illuminate Emily’s life. The author suggests that her father is a dominant character who does not allow his daughter to behave a certain way that would compromise their good name, and through these images one can see why these events lead the main character to a tragic end.…
- 997 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner includes multiple situations to foreshadow the short story’s ending when Homer Barron’s decomposed corpse is discovered. Faulkner makes it very clear to readers as the short story progresses, by addressing the smell, the poison, and Homer’s disappearance that foreshadow to the discovery of his body in Emily’s house.…
- 601 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In William Faulkner “A Rose for Emily’’ we think about who is Emily, what does the rose symbolizes, and most of all who is the narrator. Throughout most of Faulkner’s story for me as a reader I wanted to figure that out. In the beginning Emily is presented as a woman who grew up wealthy never having to worry about anything. But over time things changed after her father’s death. Later on, Emily never really takes notice of the present.…
- 480 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” the story is revolved around the character Emily Grierson. The story is told by the townspeople where Emily lives. These people are attending her funeral and pitching in memories and tales they remember from Emily’s life. It is through the collective voices and opinions of the crowd that the reader is able to interpret Emily’s struggles. With Emily Grierson’s choices the reader can tell that she is a dependant woman, with psychotic tendencies, and does not take the thought of change and rejection lightly.…
- 900 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Faulkner begins “A Rose for Emily” with Miss Emily’s death and he ends it with a death as well. The development of the story gives readers a glimpse of Miss Emily’s…
- 575 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Kinney has argued that Miss Emily’s delusions, especially about her father’s death, develop as a defense mechanism, for the death of her father represents “the death of the old order and of herself as well” (94). John Staton adds that “Having been consumed by her father [figuratively], Emily in turn feeds off Homer….She has taken into herself the violence in him which thwarted her and has reenacted it….” (235). Some feminist critics interpret Miss Emily’s illness differently. Appleton Aguilar, for instance, contends that Miss Emily “insists on maintaining her own existence, which the townspeople continually refuse to allow as they wish her to sustain her position as icon and memorial to the antebellum South” (30). While Miss Emily’s gender and her place, both literally and figuratively, certainly exacerbate and may have even caused her condition, there is far too much textual evidence to support the counterargument. Miss Emily is not merely trying to assert an independent existence; rather, she has never been able to do so and for that reason she has developed symptoms of schizophrenia as a maladaptive coping mechanism. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a short story that is, at its heart, a tale about the pressures of society and the ways in which they can wear people down. Miss Emily lacked adaptive coping skills to help her manage…
- 790 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Emily’s father had a significant impact on her daughter’s life. Mr. Grierson was the reason Emily was not married and he was also the reason Emily experienced attachment and control disorders later in her life. The narrator tells the readers that the Grierson’s had held themselves a little too high for what they were and that none of the young men were good enough for Miss Emily. The town’s people thought of the Grierson’s as a tableau, with Miss Emily in the background dressed in white and her father in the front with his back towards Miss Emily clutching on to a horsewhip. When Emily’s father died she had trouble letting go. For three days, when the town’s people came for the body, she met them at the door denying the fact that her father was dead. The narrator claims, “We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner 3). This is where the readers can first identify Emily’s attachment disorder. Later in the story, after Emily has passed away and the town’s people are let into the Grierson’s house for the first time they break down the door to the room of which no one had seen in forty years. In this room they find Homer’s decayed body lying in the bed. The narrator observes, “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. Once of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 7). In this final scene of the story, that readers can identify Emily’s attachment disorder once again. The readers can also identify a theme of control here as well. When Emily’s father was alive he was an overly controlling figure towards her. Mr. Grierson had driven away all young men from his daughter and now that he was gone she could finally have power in that aspect of her life. That is…
- 421 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Imagery is an author’s use of descriptive words and phrases to develop depth in their stories by providing vivid detail so the reader can imagine all the components involved. In the story, A Rose for Emily, old Emily Grierson’s traits, characteristics and life are brought about through Faulkner’s descriptive language.…
- 629 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In the short story, “A Rose For Emily” written by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson ultimately killed Homer for eternal love and the fact she needed a man to depend on since she did her whole life. Everyone has heard the crazy things that people do for love, but some boundaries are broken with ridiculous cases of death being the solution. For example, Romeo and Juliet had to go to the extreme of death for love, but in this short story by Faulkner, death forces Homer to have an early retirement and settle down with Emily. There are many reasons why Emily killed Homer, but for the most part she did it to not be lonely, to have someone to love her forever, and the fear that she would lose another man since her father recently passed away.…
- 664 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays