A Rose For Emily Setting Analysis Essay

Setting is the time, mood and place in which a story is set. The details in which an author adds to a story describing the background hold a lot of accountability for which direction the story will eventually go. In the short reading ‘A Rose for Emily’, the author, William Faulkner, uses setting to give the reader more understanding and depth into the alienated life and times of a woman named Emily Grierson.
Faulkner gave descriptions that drew images for the reader promoting a very gothic or spooky feel. More specifically, the given attributes of Ms. Grierson’s house lead the reader to draw images of an old, run down town. The home is the only home which had not changed a bit over the years: the home is old and broken down, especially in comparison to its neighbouring structures. Faulkner refers to the place as “an eyesore amongst eyesores” (1). He also describes it as having “stubborn and coquettish decay” (1). Later on in the story, it is learned that the inside of the house is much the same, specifically noting one room that eventually unravels the story of the sad old woman. The house seems to connect accordingly to the mood which would have

Emily Grierson was an old, overweight woman often dressed in black. The author describes her body as being as if it was “long submerged in motionless water” (1), her eyes “alike two small pieces of coal” (1). It is blatant that the woman is unhealthy and damaged, falling behind in the way that she lives. The life and times of the surrounding people are moving forward, while she is stuck living in the past, leading the reader to better understand the relationship she once had with her late father. All of these factors of setting help to make things clear about the mental state in which the woman was in, and it is most clear when it is made a point with no surprise that Emily was in fact not always alone, as she had been sleeping beside a