Dhal Wayne Lorenzo
October 12, 2012
ENG251
Symbolism in A Rose for Emily
What if you had a life full of people that only saw you as just an object for your entire life? Having to suffer loneliness through your entire life and having everyone you ever loved and cared about leave you as you pass into the next life. A rose for Emily is just the story that sets you in a setting that shows you the true colors of everyone around you and how everyone one in your life truly viewed you. From the beginning this story follows Emily and her life in her town within her home. With this story and all its symbols and clues, what really stood out is the setting. Her home is the biggest symbol in her life because that is where her whole life is set and that's where important events were experience, all the way to her death. As we explore this major symbol in this tragic story we can see may different reasons why her home is important. From the beginning of her life, with her father purchasing her home, to how she lived and was talked about by the townspeople, to her passing where she lost all her loved ones in a tragic lonely ending.
From the beginning, the story is told by a number of perspectives and are always going back to Emily's home. Her home was once one of the most envious homes around in their town because of its size and looks. Like the text describes “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street..” her home was descriptive to being a place of envy once before. Having the largest home in the town, Emily's father must have done a good job and did a lot of work to get the largest home. Having this big house people were envious and always wondering what Emily and her father was up to. Having to live in a house of that size made everyone wonder and judge by always looking and always observing them. Like in the text as a narrators description “eyesore among eyesores” people didn’t like how they have that house and how they obtained it. By not being accepted by the townsfolk, they judged Emily throughout the story and throughout her lifetime. Being after the Civil war Emily's father had made a fortune and had control over a lot of slaves to make their home. Having a extravagant home at the time jealously was bound to happen and curiosity into Emily and her families life would occur with it.
Thought the author in the story made the house seem eerie and dead because of all the horrible events that took place, I think the truth is that Emily found a haven in her home. Like a lot of people especially Emily she just wanted a home where she could feel safe at, and a home where she could be with her loved one or a person she dreamed of loving and caring for. Adding to her father, this home provided comfort to Emily, kind of like a family member because it was always there with her, she always went back to it, and something that she will always have.
Toward the height of her life as a beautiful lady, she always lived in that home and was looking to find a significant other to be with her. In this home she dreamed of marrying and being happy in this home that her father left her because that is the only place left for her that she could go to when things got dark and the only real place where she would not be looked at and judged. A place where she could hide form the townspeople and their curiosity on her life and how she is living. Her home was a place like this because its a place where she felt safe at and a place she has deemed the only place she can stay sane in. Having a haven like her home Emily put all her safety into it and that’s why there was so much emphasis on the detail of her home in the story. Always going back to her home somehow the author explains a lot of the events there and links it back to there making her home the biggest symbol in the story and in Emily's life.
As we look at the beginning of the story, we are set into the funeral for Emily and the towns people wondering about Emily and why she does not go out. In the text people haven’t been to her home for almost 10 years, and the only person seen in their home was her servant. The townspeople had an arrangement for Emily to pay taxes, but she refuses to pay and just shuts herself in her home. She is not happy with the new arrangement and cannot accept the new ways of her life with her father gone. This is where she takes shelter in her home. Her safe house, sanctuary, a place where she does not have to worry about anything. Her home provides Emily with a sense of comfort in these dark times because she has nothing else to believe in or to hope for. All she has is herself and the home she grew up in, a home where she belongs to, a home she can relax and have no bad things happen to her. This thought of process to Emily must have been difficult because of what happened to her over the years and must of put her into denial for the many bad events that had happened to her in the past years. From the lost of her father to the diminishing sanity she suffered for being secluded in her home for many years.
Over the years to pass, her home went from being a envious dream house to families in the town to being an eyesore of a place that just lost its beauty. To be corroded into something that the townspeople didn’t like to see and a place where they always have to look at because of its size. Like in the event of when the townspeople complained about the smell and odors coming from the house, they try to make Emily come out of her little haven to address it. This is always around the time where they wanted to collect taxes. Complains from neighbors about the stench from her home make authorities want to confront Emily about it but couldn’t because they felt bad for her and what she went through. They took upon themselves to go over to her home and use lemon to cover the smell of the stench that the neighbors were complaining about. Again we see that her home is being used to display a part of her life where it symbolizes the decline of Emily's life. Where it represents that the decaying of her home reflects the decaying of her life. A home not suitable for people because of its age and looks. Much of life Emily's life, her home reflects her loneliness and non caring for anything anymore because of what she went through.
When Emily's father died, she didn’t react to that event for three days, and was in denial about it. This was a heavy blow to Emily because that was the last family member she had. After this event, her father left her with no money, only their home. This is the point where her home because absolutely the last place to find happiness because she had nothing else in the world. I think this is the turning point where she sort of snapped because she lost so much and don’t have anywhere or anyone to turn to. This is probably why the townspeople started to think that she was turning crazy and having a hard time to cope with her fathers passing. Being left with nothing, but the home where she spent your life at must have been devastating and that’s what made Emily stay indoors for so long through the rest of her life. Being cooped up in her home, not socializing or talking with others for years on end must have not been as hard for her because all she did was stay in the place where her happiest memories were. Having a heaven like her home, that’s what Emily must of felt through all the years of loneliness because she didn’t belong no where else in the world, no where she could feel safe and comfortable by herself.
As her fathers passing went, Emily met another man. This man was Homer Barron and she quickly grew fond of him. The townspeople did not like their relationshop, but Emily kept on, liking him more and more. Though Emily found the secret of Homer and that he did not intend to be hers. Again Emily is struck by misfortune because she could not accept Homer not being hers. We come back to her being lonely in her home because of what happened with Homer. She is then seen buying poison saying that its for the rats in her home and this is suspicious because the townspeople think that she will kill herself in her home. All events lead to her house, the main setting of the story. Later from this event she invited Homer into her home. Having another significant other in her home Emily must of felt a little happier and less lonely. Having someone to share a precious place with, a place where she first dreamed of having a family and being happy before all the dark past events. This must of put her on edge also because she did not want to lose this feeling of happiness, where she had so many things she cared about in one place. This makes me believe that the one place she wanted to be and stay would always be her home. Since she looked like she was getting married to Homer, she goes with it and even though it was a lie she enjoys it and that is what made her invite Homer to her home and did what she did. She wanted to enclose these happy memories with each other and make sure that she will never lose anything she cared about. A dream is what this must of felt like to Emily because she gets to be in a place of familiarity and with a person she loved.
After these events Emily's home became a more emphasized symbol because of all these things that had happened to her in her home till that day. Her home would reflect herself in the coming years because she would feel isolated and more lonely in it. It became almost like a prison that kept Emily from going out because even though she does not having anything to look forward to outside of her home she suffered alone for years on the inside. The decaying land and rottening wood, her home slowly aged and suffered, like herself though the many years of isolation. Being isolated and lonely would only server to make Emily even more depressed because it would only remind her of nothing but despair. She had no one else in the whole world she could turn to or seek comfort in. She could only stay in that home where she lives with the rotting corpse of her love resides. This made her home the prison for her where no one else can enter and where she can never leave because she does not want to do anything else. This huge symbol of Emily's isolation propelled her to her downfall and social isolation because of what she had done and what she has hid over so many years till her death. The truth of her actions could only mean true loneliness in a home of many years and memories, a home where she began and will end, and a home where she seeked comfort, but also suffering because of her history.
As we get to the ending we see that Emily gets lonelier and lonelier because of where she had been through. Through her life in her home she has encountered a lot of emotions and people. Having like a roller coaster of emotions from the perspective of the townspeople and the setting in her home. When Emily had passed on and we come to the funeral at the end, we see the townspeople curious of her home was like. The living conditions and area where she had experienced the important life events that had happened to her. The place of comfort and security for Emily through the many years the townspeople been watching her at and judging her. We see the truth about Emily as they uncover the sealed room and the corpse beyond that door where she laid her head. In the secrets of her house, in that room and bed where the deceased Homer laid, Emily found a little happiness next to the man she loved, in the place she called home. And like the house aging away, Emily to also aged away with it.
In conclusion, a life of loneliness and misfortune always followed Emily and all the tragedies that happened to her in this story always lead back to one of this stories biggest symbols, her home. Her father, her loved one, the townspeople, it all goes back somehow to her home. The largest symbol in this story and how her life is showed, her house was always there. Showing the truth of everyone around her to her lonely days of living in her home, her house was always there for her and reflected her in the story. Through her life she aged and her home followed, she suffered and her home followed. From the beginning of when she lived with her father, to her fathers passing and Homer, to the end and secrets found, her heart laid with her home and her home always mentions of her life progress. All the way to the end of her story, the end and truth of Emily.