Literary Analysis Of William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Frank Guercio
Mrs. Wagner
English 102
19 September 2014
A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner once wrote the short story A Rose For Emily, even in its time it was considered to be rather spooky considering the ending; however, since then there have been a great number of theories based around Faulkner’s story and I find Nicole Smith’s to be one of the few that stood out from the rest. Her article begins with a short summary of William Faulkner’s life, from his birth in the South in 1897 to his Nobel Prize in 1949. As his history draws to a close Nicole begins to shed light on the story itself and how his past is a heavy influence in his writing. As in most of his works one of the overbearing ideals of A Rose For Emily is a sense of class and of elegance that was as evident as the sky in the South. The main character of the story, Miss Emily Grierson, is William’s way of exemplifying this bygone way of life in a more modern era; and both Nicole and I agree that this is the main plot in the story. Throughout A Rose For Emily the idea of monuments and age are extremely prevalent as both Miss Emily and her homestead are commonly referred to as, “relic.” Even the narrator’s often disjointed accounts of the past all push towards a fond remembrance and need without a want in today’s society. “an eyesore among eyesores” Miss Emily’s house was called, that was to show that even with its cobwebs and peeling paint this building stood as a testament to an age long gone, a