Analysis of William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" Essay

William Faulkner paints a tragic tale about the inevitability of change and the futility of attempting to stop it in "A Rose for Emily". This story is about a lonely upper-class woman struggling with life and traditions in the Old South. Besides effective uses of literary techniques, such as symbolism and a first plural-person narrative style, Faulkner succeeds in creating a suspenseful and mysterious story by the use of foreshadowing, which gives a powerful description about death and the tragic struggle of the main character, Miss Emily. In general the use of foreshadowing often relates to events in a story, and few are attempted to describe character. Faulkner has effectively

A Rose for Emily was Faulkner 's first short story to be published in a national magazine. It was then published in a collection entitled These 13 in 1931 and went on to become one of the most collected American short stories. This short story is a Gothic horror and a tragedy. It is about a lonely Southern woman who has become mental ill after having an unfortunate childhood and being isolated from reality. We can see in the quote from William Faulkner about how “you can be more careless, you can put more trash in [a novel] and be excused for it. In a short story that 's next to the poem, almost every word has to be almost exactly right.” that Faulkner had mixed feelings about the short story as the best form for his narrative. A Rose for Emily has a complex plot and good pacing. Faulkner only gives information needed to foreshadow the murder at the ending or to allow the audience into Miss Emily’s life, so that we could further understand her.

In “A Rose for Emily” author William Faulkner, uses the literary element, point of view, to show the town’s feelings as it reacts to the events surrounding Miss Emily, create a suspenseful tone, and convey the theme that oppression can cause someone to reach their breaking point.

Rather than stating the true meaning of his works, William Faulkner generally uses symbolism to portray the depth of his tales. Throughout the story “A Rose For Emily,” time is a continuous theme that is portrayed through symbols. The past, present, and future are represented by different people, places, and things. One of which such symbols, the main character herself, represents the essence of the past through her father, her house, and her lover.

In “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses setting, character development, and stylistic devices to express the mystery of Emily and the somewhat gossip-obsessed attitude the townspeople have towards Emily.

The short story, “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, is told by an unnamed narrator and broken into five sections. The story is not chronological, but completely out of order, adding mystery and climax. The first section begins with the death of the main character, Emily Grierson, and relates the thoughts and actions of the small Southern U.S. town. A flawed relationship between the town and Miss Emily is seen throughout the story. The tension between the town (society) and Emily is a main reason for her recluse and insanity.

The Representation of Miss Emily as an Extended Metaphor in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner uses the setting in A Rose for Emily to indicate the tone, reveal the theme and suggest a conflict which creates endless possibilities of

The mysterious tale, “A Rose for Emily”, focuses on the life and death of the main character, Emily, a stubborn and mentally unstable woman. . Throughout Emily’s life she has lived in the town of Jefferson for as long as the townspeople have remembered. The town develops and changes a lot while Emily lives there, but Emily does not. In “A Rose For Emily”; William Faulkner constructs Emily as a distinct character in order to show the theme of unwillingness to change as the town around her does.

A Rose for Emily is a story that deals with a women’s sentimental illness caused by isolation. Emily Grierson looses her moral compass, and her trace of reality, her inability to be loved, her desire to be considered as someone important, was never accomplished. The author shows plans of development; using characterization, symbolism, and setting. This is a very symbolic and animatic story. William Faulkner points out his views of empathy towards Emily in the story when he illustrates that Emily had an emotional abusive upbringing with her father. In addition, we see the historical fiction and setting which reflects the racist times that was given in the past. A Rose of Emily is also a symbol of a gothic, and horror

William Faulkner enters the slowly degrading mind of a vulnerable women using the later years of her life after the start of her mental issues. After the death of her controlling father, emily is left with only her family house in Jefferson county. Emily’s mind slowly degrades to the point that she killed a man and locks him away in her home to be with him forever. Throughout the story “A Rose For Emily” William Faulkner uses her relationship with her family and background, her relationships with the community and they way the community treats her, and her inability to distinguish past and present to foreshadow emily’s mental instability. William Faulkner uses emily’s relationship with her family and background to show her slowly degrading

Her house was the only house with cotton wagons, and gasoline pumps. The town described her house as an eyesore which meant that it hurt to look at it. Great reasoning behind why Miss Emily won’t change is, “Change is resisted because it can hurt. When new technologies displace old ones, jobs can be lost; prices can be cut; investments can be wiped out” (Ten Reasons People Change 1). Miss Emily knows she does not have anyone and that hurts her.

As any reader can see, " A Rose for Emily" is one of the most authentic short stories by Faulkner. His use of characterization, narration, foreshadowing, and symbolism are four key factors to why Faulkner's work is idealistic to all readers.

What is interesting about Emily Grierson is that she might not even be the main character of her story. The narrative does not exactly follow her life, but that of the community and their wavering and biased opinions about her. Starting from the first paragraph, the story seems less about Emily and more

William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” was written after the civil war and is often considered a piece of Southern Gothic literature (Davis). Southern Gothic is a subgenre of the gothic culture, which typically relies on the use of supernatural, unusual, and ironic events to drive the plot, all of which can be seen as a driving force throughout the story development of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (Davis). Through Faulkner’s ingenious short story, “A Rose for Emily,” he demonstrates the powerful yet internal conflict that comes with change, and the tension it creates between the realms of the past and the future. Upon further analysis, we come to see the story as a representation of the fallen south coupled with societal commentary and a depiction of the characters as spirits from the past stuck in a present time they struggle to come to peaceful terms with. We can see the powerful message Faulkner creates illustrated throughout his use of symbolism, his protagonist Emily, the community that surrounds her, and the incongruent timeline of events he depicts throughout the telling of his story.