A Rose for Emily
Miss Emily
As the principle character, Emily Grierson is shadowy and baffling in the minds of the natives in her town. She is the remainder of an old family that does not take after the traditions of what is anticipated from somebody of their social standing. Emily 's father controls her each development and does not allow any of her suitors to call. When he bites the dust, she holds his body for three days, guaranteeing that he isn 't dead.
As the story advances, Emily translates her life through types of control, and this plays into her cooperation with the town, and even more particularly, her association with her suitor Homer Barron. She is prideful and isolated, driving the townspeople to theorize on her life and to judge her considering how she connects with Barron and how she keeps (or doesn 't keep) her home.
Emily in the long run secures herself away in the dusty, rotting house while she becomes more seasoned and feebler. She has almost no human contact. Toward the end of the story, Emily stuns the town with the privileged insights she has been keeping in her upstairs room, with her psychological condition apparent by the gray hair on the cushion beside Homer Barron 's rotting body.
2) Symbols
Black
There are two references to the shading dark, typically illustrative of energy, demise or fiendishness, in the story. The primary addresses the title character herself, Emily, who shows up as a ' 'little, husky woman dressed in dark ... inclining
Emily’s Mental Deterioration After getting over the initial shock of finding out that the mysterious woman that everyone was talking about was going to sleep each night with a decaying body next to her, it makes sense for the reader to question her mental state. If the reader took a closer look at the town’s description of her, they will realize that as time went on, Emily’s will power began to deteriorate. When she was young, she was the topic of everybody’s conversation, however, she did not let that bother her and walked down the streets with her head held high. Emily took over the old house after her father’s death and kept a few servants around to keep the house tidy, nonetheless, the outside of the house was not kept in the best of conditions.
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
Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.
“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
Homer Barron is described as “a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face” (Faulkner 4). No woman wants to feel as if they’re unattractive, especially when it comes to someone they like in an intimate way. However, Emily’s problem wasn’t that she was unattractive because according to Faulkner, she was quite beautiful in her youth. The ultimate issue did not lie on Emily, but on Homer Barron because of his odd remark that he liked men. Emily must have been confused and a tad bit sad to find out that the man she liked didn’t like her back.
Analysis of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is the best short story because its plot, setting, and symbols are well formulated and incorporated into the story to effectively convey the themes of death and change, race and gender. A Rose for Emily is a short story regarding the life of Emily Grierson as told through the perspectives of the townspeople in a tiny old town in the South. The story begins with the awkward relationship between Emily and her dad, pre and posts his death, and further explores how Emily gets secluded after poisoning her “Yankee” partner Homer Barron and concealing his remains for more than a decade in her bed. William Faulkner exploits various literary devices to create various themes.
Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.
She was alone, she was humiliated by the town, she had to hide away because she was not able to cope. In Tim O’Brien’s article he states, “After her death, Emily is reunited with the other members of her southern class …”, which means, in death, with the people she loved she will no longer be alone” (O’Brien
Character can be described as the person described in the story and characterization is the process that makes the character seem real. He expresses the content of her character through physical description, through her actions, words, and feelings, and through the actions, words, and feelings, of other characters. The unnamed narrator, that it can be identified as "the town" or at least a representative voice from it, in a seemingly haphazard manner relates key moments in Emily's life that help to the explore to Emily’s character. The external characteristics of Emily's house parallel her physical appearance to show the transformation brought about by years of neglect. For example, the house is in what was once a prominent neighborhood that has deteriorated.
As soon as Emily felt as if Homer didn’t feel the same because he hasn’t proposed to her she jumps into an unpredictable state of mind. Emily poisons Homer because she refuses to let him abandon her. Miss Brill I basically living a lie. She tries to avoid the fact that she is isolated. Miss Brill involves herself in many other lives that she is around, but she doesn’t converse with anyone.
Her father had kept her cut off from society. Emily finds a new sense of love and connection when she gets involved with Homer Barron, a man from the North who works in her community. However, Emily's desire to hold onto this connection leads her to extreme measures, ultimately resulting in Homer's death. Emily's jealousy and insecurity stem from her fear of losing the security that Homer provided her. In her mind, killing him was the only way to be sure that he would never leave her.
The story opens with Emily's funeral and then flashes back to her life. Emily was born into a prominent and wealthy family, and her father kept her isolated from the world. After her father's death, Emily became increasingly reclusive and refused to accept the changing social norms of the town. She fell in love with a man named Homer Barron, but their relationship was doomed to fail due to the town's rigid social hierarchy. Emily ultimately poisons Homer and keeps his corpse in her bedroom, an act that highlights the destructive power of tradition and the devastating effects of isolation.
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.
Kierrah Edwards ENGL 201 9/20/15 Character Analysis: Emily Grierson The short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner depicts how seclusion can certainly impact one’s life. Throughout the story, Emily gives off this “insane” impression. However, after fully reading the story, the reader can fully understand why Emily was the way she was. Emily Grierson was a very dependent person.
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.