Who Is The Protagonist In A Rose For Emily
In William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily” Faulkner divides this short story in five sections based on events in the story. The protagonist, Emily Grierson is a devastated and alone woman when her father dies. Although there is a glimps of when Emily was hopeful and well spirited, the story targets Emily’s ways with towns people and outside relationships as if she is in another world with her mind, for example when is asked to pay her tax responsibilities she simply responds with an answer that would have been said decades ago. However she did suffer from an illness. Emily eventually begins an affair with a construction worker, Homer Barron. She eventually never leaves her house and kills Homer Barron, which was also sealed in her house after
his death. William Faulkner uses imagery and symbolism to show how Emily suffers due to her strict Southern upbringing, the deaths she experiences, and her inability to change with the times. Emily Grierson has a southern upbringing. We can tell this because she had a servant named Tobe her entire life, “a young man-then—going in and out with a market basket”. Tobe helped her with things in life that she could not do or did not want to do. Faulkner uses symbolism to describe Emily’s relationships. Emily lived most of her life by herself with no marriage. In old southern days fathers has strict, enforced wishes with their daughters dating life. Emily’s father has this up keep on his daughter. “None of the young mean were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, he two of them framed by the back-flung front door”. Although, she did listen to her father, she did resent his strong rules of marriage. Through the imagery and symbolism Faulkner uses Emily’s life of being cooped up with her father, she suffered from having the love and marriage that she wanted for herself.
his death. William Faulkner uses imagery and symbolism to show how Emily suffers due to her strict Southern upbringing, the deaths she experiences, and her inability to change with the times. Emily Grierson has a southern upbringing. We can tell this because she had a servant named Tobe her entire life, “a young man-then—going in and out with a market basket”. Tobe helped her with things in life that she could not do or did not want to do. Faulkner uses symbolism to describe Emily’s relationships. Emily lived most of her life by herself with no marriage. In old southern days fathers has strict, enforced wishes with their daughters dating life. Emily’s father has this up keep on his daughter. “None of the young mean were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, he two of them framed by the back-flung front door”. Although, she did listen to her father, she did resent his strong rules of marriage. Through the imagery and symbolism Faulkner uses Emily’s life of being cooped up with her father, she suffered from having the love and marriage that she wanted for herself.