The short story, A Rose for Emily revolves around a single woman named Emily who lives in the South. Emily is never given a rose in the novel. The title, on the other hand, is noteworthy, because young couples often offer each other flowers to communicate their feelings, and the rose symbolizes the concept of love. In this narrative, the author discovered certain symbols that portrayed Emily Grierson's unhappy existence. They are the rose, Emily's hair, the ticking of the watch, the color black, and her father. Emily's father, Grierson, sets the tone for her story of loneliness and control. He establishes himself as the primary figure in Emily's life, whipping away her suitors and establishing control over every element of their household. What makes Emily interesting is that a strange smell lurks within the premises of her home. Her neighbors become aware of this unusual scent and begin to investigate. …show more content…
Miss Emily's mansion served as a symbol for Emily Grierson. She was a very stubborn, and dismissive woman. Upon receiving a paper, Emily said, “I received a paper, yes. Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff... I have no taxes in Jefferson.” she said. After her father's death, Emily remained indoors for a while, especially after her ex-boyfriend broke her heart. Emily had another family, but they were all living in Alabama, and she was not close with them. The townspeople sent for Emily’s family because they were dismayed by the truth that Homer and Emily engaged in sexual activity. Emily's hair grays a few years after Homer disappears, and her final opportunity to marry has passed, symbolizing the end of her sexuality. She had a black man take care of her during the time she was cooped up
Emily knows how the people in the town stare and talk about her dating Homer and she does not care. Emily likes to hold on to the past and considering how she was brought up she cannot let Homer go when he states that their relationship is coming to an end. She decides she will hold on to him anyway she can. She inds up killing Homer and keeps him in the house with her. People complain of the smell but the townspeople will not confront her.
Mr. Grierson, Emily’s father, prohibited her from socializing with men because, in Mr. Grierson’s eyes, there was no man suitable for Emily. After being tired of being alone for so long, Emily decided to date Homer Barron. Homer Barron was a Northerner and worked as a foreman for a construction company. The older folks of the town were excited for Emily, there was even talk about marriage between the couple. However, the younger crowd did not believe Homer was that of Ms. Griersons high status.
Faulkner says, Emily buys Arsenic from the druggist and the next day Homer is seen entering her home and that was the last time anyone ever saw him or Emily for some time. No one but the negro servant left the house. (Faulkner 455) Emily kills Homer because she doesn’t want him to leave her. If he’s dead, he can’t run
All though we only see it talk about the rose in the title and it does not mention anything else about a rose throughout the story we can still tell what that rose is a symbol of. The rose in the title is a symbol of how Emily has yet to find how to love herself. Emily’s father kept her inside that house forcing her to only love him. From the story we got that her father was the only love she knew. Which was why she did not want to let that go
“We remembered all the young men her father had driven away” (453). Miss Emily’s father drove away young men interested in her, not allowing her to have a love life and therefore a life outside of him. This controlling treatment of Miss Emily by Mr. Grierson coincides with Emily’s fight to control her love life with Homer. “Because Homer himself had remarked - he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club - that he was not a marrying man” (454). If it weren’t for the fact that Miss Emily murdered Homer, he would have left her, therefore she used the murder as a way to keep him close to
Miss Emily Grierson’s father was an overbearing man, known to have instilled many not-so-pleasing values in Emily; ones that she would always struggle to surpass. Due to his character, the town thought of Emily as “a tradition, a duty and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 75). They believed her to have thought so highly of herself that she would not converse with just anyone, which is a completely false misconception. Her father secluded her to the point where she became totally dependent on him, never really socializing with any member of Jefferson, especially not “all the young men her father had driven away” (77). By isolating her from common folk nearly all her life, Miss Emily Grierson was put in a direct line of failure which snowballed rapidly after her father’s death, leading her to “cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (77).
The previous lavishness of the “big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies…set on what had once been [the] most select street” (437) indicates that Emily came from a well-off family that was probably highly respected. The whiteness of the house can be taken to symbolize the innocence of her youth, and that as she got older her macabre habits manifested themselves and polluted that innocence, leaving the house dingy and tainted. The condition of the house when Emily dies is that of a worn down vestige to the past, “an eyesore among eyesores” (437), representing how the towns people saw her. She was a curiosity, a clandestine entity that could only be unraveled after her death when there was no one left to safe guard the dark secrets of her house. The house stands as a monument to a lost time and a testament to tradition that has no place in the modern era, much like Emily
Furthermore, the short story is written in a first person point of view by the community of Jefferson, which develops the irony that leaves not only Jefferson, but the reader in ‘awe.’ The community of Jefferson is left with a plethora of questions of Miss Emily’s mysterious lifestyle. Correspondingly, the community of Jefferson becomes very obsessed with Miss Emily. “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house…” (Faulkner)
The narrator focuses a lot on Emily Grierson after her death. The narrator said multiple times they believed she wasn’t crazy. However, their actions proved to show the opposite. Emily’s father played a role in her isolation.
The story revolves around a southern woman named Emily Grierson who is the protagonist of the story. The time period of the story happened roughly around late 19th to early 20th century. The setting took place in a fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. The narrator of the story is the people around Emily, which is full of judgmental and gossipers. In the story the narrator describes how Emily change physically and mentally over the years.
She lived in an isolated world after her father’s death. Finally, she meets Homer; Homer was a man who knew what he wanted in life, and Miss Emily was not part of it. This drove Miss Emily to do the unthinkable, and she bought rat poison and killed Homer. Years passed, and no one knew that Miss Emily killed Homer and had him lying in the upstairs bed dead. It was intel her death that the towns people realized that miss Emily had become mentally ill with the death of her father and
The townspeople took note of this, as they “believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were. None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such” (Faulkner 3). In doing this, Emily not only isolates herself from the community by making them feel inferior to her, but she also isolates herself from a possible husband. Since her father died, a male figure in her life
To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,
The story "A Rose for Emily¨, tells the years of Emily´s life after her father's death and the towns reaction and thoughts based on her actions and events in her life. After her father's death she isolated herself from the whole town and rejected every man in the town.
Purpose of Emily 's Rose When you hear a rose for Emily you would think about a positive love story involving a couple that meets dealing with a rose. When I saw the title, Emily 's rose I thought about this girl named Emily wants a rose that was mailed to her "Prince Charming". However, death plays a positive and negative theme in this short story. The rose is symbolic by the thorns of a rose representing the pain cause by Homer Barron towards Emily.