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Setting In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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The Ominous Town of Jefferson, Mississippi
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a short story that uses elements of setting to reinforce the plot and development of the short story as a whole. This story is told from a first-person plural point-of-view which contributes to the setting, and therefore contributes to the meaning of the story. William Faulkner was a Southern author, and his stories took place in the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. “A Rose for Emily” is told through the collective voice of the townspeople as is shown with the frequent use of plural pronouns, “We did not say she was crazy then.” (137). This shows the reader that the townspeople viewed themselves as one plural body in comparison to the singularity of Miss Emily. In order to more deeply express the intensity of the story, the narrator makes ample use of the elements of setting to help the reader visualize just exactly what is happening in the story. These elements of setting set the tone and pace for the entire short story, keeping the reader on edge for every page.
The story begins at the end chronologically, which is Miss Emily’s funeral.The introduction begins with the townspeople seeing inside Miss Emily’s house for the first time, the reader also is allowed to see inside Miss Emily’s house. The knowledge of the setting of the house is crucial throughout the story, as the house symbolizes the rise and fall of Miss Emily. …show more content…

The setting of this story did not only captivate the reader, but it set the pace of the story from the beginning. This story would’ve carried a completely different tone if the setting were in any way changed, and all of the elements of the setting together are what gave this dark story the immense power that it carried and still carries to this

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