A Rose for Emily - Prose Analysis
Essay 1 – Prose Analysis
This paragraph is found near the end of the short story, “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner. In this excerpt, we are thrust into the funeral of Emily, and the effect of her death upon the townsfolk. Emily, a reclusive and apparently mentally disturbed spinster, has been a talked about figure in the town for the majority of her years. Her life and death have been all about relationships – both of the ones she had, as well of the ones she did not have. We learned that, although her relationships with the townsfolk were at times both cordial and strained, they came to her funeral in order to pay a kind of tribute to an object of their pity for, ironically, another relationship she was never able to consummate. The stylistic device of irony does, in fact, weigh heavily within this single passage, through the entire town coming to the funeral of a divisive figure; the face of Emily's father looming over her death as his personality did throughout her life; and of the old men who would have courted her had they been able to do so.
Faulkner utilizes several stylistic devices in creating this passage. Foremost is his use of metaphor in describing Emily's father's “crayon face...musing profoundly.” This is emblematic of Emily's unresolved relationship with her father, and how her immature impression of – and impressionability to – his domineering personality coloured both her life and her death. Her life's desire to find a true love was never resolved due to his early influence and interference
Faulkner also utilizes onomatopoeia, although in an indirect, metaphorical manner. In this instance, where he describes “the ladies sibilant and macabre,” it is left up to the reader, with the element of sibilance foremost in mind, to imagine what words the ladies might have spoken, words as would typically be used in a funeral setting, such as: condolences, thoughts, prayers,
This paragraph is found near the end of the short story, “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner. In this excerpt, we are thrust into the funeral of Emily, and the effect of her death upon the townsfolk. Emily, a reclusive and apparently mentally disturbed spinster, has been a talked about figure in the town for the majority of her years. Her life and death have been all about relationships – both of the ones she had, as well of the ones she did not have. We learned that, although her relationships with the townsfolk were at times both cordial and strained, they came to her funeral in order to pay a kind of tribute to an object of their pity for, ironically, another relationship she was never able to consummate. The stylistic device of irony does, in fact, weigh heavily within this single passage, through the entire town coming to the funeral of a divisive figure; the face of Emily's father looming over her death as his personality did throughout her life; and of the old men who would have courted her had they been able to do so.
Faulkner utilizes several stylistic devices in creating this passage. Foremost is his use of metaphor in describing Emily's father's “crayon face...musing profoundly.” This is emblematic of Emily's unresolved relationship with her father, and how her immature impression of – and impressionability to – his domineering personality coloured both her life and her death. Her life's desire to find a true love was never resolved due to his early influence and interference
Faulkner also utilizes onomatopoeia, although in an indirect, metaphorical manner. In this instance, where he describes “the ladies sibilant and macabre,” it is left up to the reader, with the element of sibilance foremost in mind, to imagine what words the ladies might have spoken, words as would typically be used in a funeral setting, such as: condolences, thoughts, prayers,
Cited: Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Harbrace Anthology of Short Fiction, 4th Ed. Ed. Jon C. Stott, et al. Toronto: Nelson, 2006.