A Rose for Emily
Darrius Jones
Dr. Gafford
A Rose for Emily
3/21/13
The short story begins by telling the end of it; the story begins with the funeral of the aristocratic Miss Emily Grierson during the time period of the civil war. The funeral turnout so big, the whole town of Jefferson attended. The town felt responsible for Miss Emily because they felt that she was a “tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (287). “The men of the town respected Miss Grierson and viewed her as a fallen monument” (287), whereas the women of the town haven’t been in the house for years and was viewed by the narrator to have attended the funeral just to get a peek of the inside of Emily’s home to see how she lived. The house sits on a street that was once the town’s most prestigious areas. With all the other homes replaced with garages and cotton gins Miss Grierson’s house was the last one standing. The house was described as “a big, squarrish 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” (287). Now, time has taken toll, and neglect of the maintenance has distorted its once beautiful structure.
The main conflict in the story was Emily facing reality, she didn’t know how to let go of her past “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves” (288). Agitated by her tactics, the town is getting tired of taking care of her, “So the next day, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing” (291). The townspeople think she is stuck up and arrogant because she thinks that everything revolves around her. Isolation from the society caused her to become depressed, unhappy and crazy, leading up to her destroying Homer.
Emily was a heavy set woman “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged
Dr. Gafford
A Rose for Emily
3/21/13
The short story begins by telling the end of it; the story begins with the funeral of the aristocratic Miss Emily Grierson during the time period of the civil war. The funeral turnout so big, the whole town of Jefferson attended. The town felt responsible for Miss Emily because they felt that she was a “tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (287). “The men of the town respected Miss Grierson and viewed her as a fallen monument” (287), whereas the women of the town haven’t been in the house for years and was viewed by the narrator to have attended the funeral just to get a peek of the inside of Emily’s home to see how she lived. The house sits on a street that was once the town’s most prestigious areas. With all the other homes replaced with garages and cotton gins Miss Grierson’s house was the last one standing. The house was described as “a big, squarrish 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” (287). Now, time has taken toll, and neglect of the maintenance has distorted its once beautiful structure.
The main conflict in the story was Emily facing reality, she didn’t know how to let go of her past “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves” (288). Agitated by her tactics, the town is getting tired of taking care of her, “So the next day, “She will kill herself”; and we said it would be the best thing” (291). The townspeople think she is stuck up and arrogant because she thinks that everything revolves around her. Isolation from the society caused her to become depressed, unhappy and crazy, leading up to her destroying Homer.
Emily was a heavy set woman “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged
Cited: SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Rose for Emily.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2013 Dliworth, Thomas. “A Romance to Kill For: Homocidal Complicity in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily.” Studies in Short Fiction 361999 251-62. 21 Nov 2008. Yagcioglu, Semiramis. “Language, Subjectivity and Ideology in “A Rose for Emily”.” Journal of American Studies of Turkey 2(1995) 49-59. 21 Nov 2008. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” In The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 2160-2166. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.