...English 12 September 8, 2011 Gothic Elements in “A Rose for Emily” Novelist, William Faulkner, in his short story “A Rose for Emily” Illustrates several Southern Gothic Elements. This particular story has a moody and forbidding atmosphere. Throughout the short story Faulkner depicts images of a cold dark neighbor and a dilapidated mansion. Through these elements this creates a dark and ominous feeling throughout the story. The story begins describing the funeral of Miss Emily. Miss Emily and her family had once been the center of the town and now Miss Emily’s reputation had died right along with the rest of the old men and women of the town. The narrator explains that the men attended her funeral out of obligation while the women came because no one had seen the inside of her house in years. Miss. Emily lived a very shelter life. Miss Emily was always alone and eventually the neighborhood starts to make rude comments about her. They begin to connote her as” crazy” but she was really not use to living on her own and was still morning the lost of her father. The story goes on to illustrate Emily’s house as “an eyesore among eyesores”. This house had once been white “the best looking house in the neighborhood” but is still decorated with the style of the seventies. She lived in a neighborhood that once was the best neighborhood in town, now deserted. The only house that was left was the one of Miss Emily. This particular house was ragged from many years of misuse...
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...|A Rose For Emily | | Like so many American writers, Faulkner found himself again and again writing short stories, some of which are considered| |as equally important as his best novels. Good as his short stories are, they seem always at the threshold of being absorbed into| |the Yoknapatawpha saga — that legendary matrix which is Faulkner’s real achievement. However, for a beginner of Faulkner | |scholarship, his short stories may well be an easy start. “A Rose for Emily” is Faulkner’s first short story published in 1930. | |Set in the town of Jefferson in Yoknopatawpha, the story focuses on Emily Grierson, an eccentric spinster who refuses to accept | |the passage of time, or the inevitable change and loss that accompanies it. Simple as it is in plot, the story is pregnant with | |meaning. As a descendent of the Southern aristocracy, Emily is typical of those in Faulkner’s Yoknapatwapha stories who are the | |symbols of the Old South but the prisoners of the past. In this story, Faulkner makes best use of the Gothic devices in | |narration, and, the deformed personality and abnormality Emily demonstrates in her relationship with her sweetheart is | |dramatized in such a way that we feel shocked and thrilled as we read along. | |In this story, Faulkner’s strong condemnation of...
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...n William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily", we are guided through the isolated life of the newly departed Ms. Emily Grierson. This story is narrated in a unique point of view; a collective first person. The purpose of using "we" is to speak for the town's citizens as the narrator to create a sense of intimacy between the reader and the story, and it allows the town to voice opinions or comments that reveal the values of the townspeople. This particular point of view also contributes to the gothic and somewhat morbid atmosphere that has made this story so popular. The story is told by an unknown narrator who is clearly a town resident, ("When Ms. Emily died our whole town went to the funeral "). . Faulkner shows that the narrator is in the story itself by writing "we did not say she is crazy then" implying he/she, himself or herself were concernedlending to the authenticity of the account. In an effort to create empathy for Emily, she is described through the eyes of the townspeople who although gossip about her also refer to her as "poor Emily". Poor Emily is left a poor spinster by her harsh father, deserted by her suitor, and humiliated by her homosexual lover. There are personal accounts of her father's funeral, the suitors that were chased away, the china painting classes and steadfast refusal to pay taxes. The reader begins to feel compassion for this poor lonely woman who lives such an isolated life. It is also understood that without this particular narration...
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...A Rose for Emily Can you imagine being so lonely that you would do something unbelievable to prevent you from being alone? That is just what Miss Emily did. Miss Emily came from a wealthy family with a father who made decisions for her. He did not think the men that tried to date her were good enough for her, so he ran them off. John McDermott states, “In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson’s overbearing father forces her to live without love.” After her father died, Miss Emily became a loner. In "A Rose for Emily," William Faulkner uses Miss Emily’s funeral at the very beginning to show the separation between Miss Emily and the townspeople when he states, "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years.” From there, the house, her servant, and the bad smell are used to symbolize her secluded life. Miss Emily’s inherited her house, but nothing else according to the narrator, “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad.” She lived alone for many years, except for her servant. People moved out of the neighborhood over the years and finally Miss Emily’s run down house is the only one left on the street. This is noted early in the story, “But garages and...
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...William Faulkner was a great short story writer whose literature has withstood the test of time. “A Rose for Emily” is one of his better know pieces that can be interpreted in many different ways. The theme one connects with after reading the story depends on the reader’s view of the writer and the writing itself. Many people look at the story as a love story in which a woman is unable to let go of her lover and only wants to preserve him like a rose. Letting go was difficult for the women and holding on was easier. She did what she had to do to preserve her love for her lover even if it was against the town’s laws. The time period in which this short story was written is also important when critically analyzing the writing and the writer’s purpose and theme. During the time that Faulkner wrote this story, he was greatly in debt and seeking ways to become financially stable. He wrote this story not knowing that it would be his first published work and bring him wealth and recognition. It was first published in 1930 but covers the time periods of 1861-1933. This was a very critical time in American history. During this time period, the South was fighting for their livelihood, slavery against the North. They were trying so desperate to hold on to what had held their southern cotton economy together. They felt that the federal government had no power over the states especially their slavery supported economy. They did everything to hold on to their culture but eventually war was...
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...“A Rose for Emily”, not a literal Rose. (Faulkner) This short story by William Faulkner is compiled with a lot of gothic culture, death and insanity. Depending on who you are, you can interpret part or the story as a whole differently. The tile is “A Rose for Emily” but as I will get into later in this essay, at no point in the story does the narrator talk a about a literal rose. So what does this rose symbolize? What significances does it have in this story. Emily as a young woman who lived with her father. They were wealthy people in their town. She once had a sweetheart, but he was driven away by her father. Her father didn’t think any man was good enough for her, so she was never married. She never had a male figure in her life except her father. When her father passed away, she was left alone and in the large house they had shared. For the first few days after his passing the towns people would stop by to check on Emily but she denied her father was dead and that he was very well and alive. They begged her to let them bury his body. After a few days she finally let the people in to get her father. The house Emily’s father left her living in alone, over the years it had started to fall apart. Emily withdrew and basically disappeared from the town. Years later she emerged. At that time there was a crew in town repairing the roads. Emily started to accompany a man that was there working. They went on buggy rides through the town. His name was Homer...
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...Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” English Composition 1102 Thursday Night An Analysis of the Sections in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” Outline I. Outline II. Introduction A. Opening Statement B. Author Information III. Body A. Section One B. Section Two C. Section Three D. Section Four E. Section Five IV. Conclusion V. Works Cited OPENING STATEMENT William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the story of an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson. Emily lived a luxurious life in a poor southern state, obeying her overbearing father until her ultimate death. “A Rose for Emily” begins with the death of Miss Emily Grierson and proceeds to tell the story of her life in the years leading up to her death and the horrible secret she has kept hidden. The story is told from the point of view of a nameless narrator and a longtime citizen of Jefferson, Mississippi. He notes that while the men attend the funeral out of obligation, the women go primarily because no one has been in, nor seen the inside of Emily’s house for years. It should also be noted that Jefferson is a critical setting in much of Faulkner’s fiction. The story is told in five sections, and opens in section one with an unnamed narrator describing the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson. The narrator not only speaks for himself but also represents the community at large. The story continues on through section five where the narrator describes what happens after Emily dies. The story...
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...William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is among his most famous short stories because of the interesting method of storytelling it employs. Faulkner uses a non-linear plot structure in this story, as opposed to the more often used, more simplified linear plot structure of most fiction. “A linear plot begins at point A, progresses through events which build towards a climax, and then finally reaches point B” (Malone). In contrast, “a non-linear plot typically presents the audience with multiple paths from point A to point B” (Malone). In other words, non-linear plot structures consist of back-and-forth storytelling, or flashbacks. Because of this non-conventional plot structure, “A Rose for Emily” has been described as an “emotionally complex and chronologically confusing narrative” (Petry 53). However, the story has also been cited as “one of Faulkner’s most carefully constructed stories” (Everett 165). The effectiveness of the disordered chronology can be likened to the preciseness of an equation. As Faulkner misdirected his readers through the use of flashbacks, he revealed Miss Emily’s disoriented mental state in her dealings with the passage of time. Faulkner efficiently complicates the narrative situation by opening “A Rose for Emily” with the death of the main character. The first sentence captures the reader’s attention immediately, evoking a collective sympathy for the main character: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral” (Faulkner...
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...A Rose for Emily A symbol is a person, character or a object in a story used to represent an idea. In the short story, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the symbols reinforce the themes of tradition vs. progress, decay and the passage of time, and love that is not returned. Emily Grierson, her father, Colonel Grierson and Colonel Sartoris, now deceased, represent the Old South. They contrast with the new middle class that is represented by the new Board of Alderman, coming to collect disputed taxes. Homer Barron also symbolizes change and the middle class of society. The themes of change and decay are seen through Emily's stubborn ways and her deteriorating mental and physical character as well as through her possessions and through her relationships. Emily is one of the last "traces" left of the Old South. In fact, Emily is deceased at the beginning of the story and the story is a flashback of her tragic life. Emily's house represents Emily's changing lifestyle, while indirectly representing the Old South. Both Emily and the house were once bright, beautiful and dignified, symbols of the Old Order. Her father was overly protective of Emily, keeping her in the house, while the world outside was changing rapidly. "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 a select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached...
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...A Rose for Emily Outline A Rose For Emily outline: Introduction 1. The Literature piece of “a Rose for Emily” it’s clear that change is essential in a persons life where Emily is an example of it where she stayed in the past pre-civil war self. Faulkner would agree that the past should stay in the past. 2. Thesis- In “A Rose For Emily” there are examples of several types of conflict from having to do with Emily’s own self-depression and anxiety, her disconnection with the community, also there is symbolism of the characters that are not accepted in her community- Homer Barron and Tobe. Body A. self vs. self a. Lonely, yearning for her dead dad b. Mental, insecurity c. Kept in a still place in her house, enclosed d. Killing Homer Barron and keeping the weeding stage in her room due that Homer Barron didn’t want to marry her so she killed him. B. Person vs. community conflict a. New South- community with taxes, judgment, evolving and when the middle class starts. b. Old south- confederate, old, dad c. The town doubts Emily when they see her buying the arsenic they are suspicious and when they smell the bad odor they sprinkle lime instaed of actually going straight to her about the issue. d. The town did not accept Emily and Homer’s e. “Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 79) f. “the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example...
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...Roberta Jones Mr. Hickman English 1600 22 October 2012 A Rose for Emily A Rose for Emily is about Miss Emily who is the main character in a story written by William Faulkner. Miss Emily is a proud aristocratic whose story is staged sometime during the Civil War somewhere in the south. Miss Emily has a strong southern up bringing which ultimately leads to her demise and mental break down. During this period in the South Miss Emily’s is expected to be married and not being so was socially unacceptable. Southern society encouraged this and believed that to be happy it was necessary for one to be married, or be considered an old maid. Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” is an example of classical Southern literature because it has all the important things that ruled Southern culture of that time period family, community, religion, time and place. Miss Emily’s father was one who was compelled to bring her up with all the southern social values and controlled all that she did and whom she would court and what she would wear. Emily’s was regarded as her father’s property like the house in which they both lived. The house is as an example of the lavish expense and show of the wealth as well as the visitors and clothes. Miss Emily believed herself better than most and her father felt no suitor was good enough for his daughter the Grierson family represented the elite and spoiled. Because of this snobbery Miss Emily never married and eventually became a relic of Southern gentility...
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...300 December 10, 2014 A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner captures the life of a wealthy woman coping with life after the death of a loved one. Death is an indescribable feeling that can cause pain, anger, and sorrow for almost everyone. Early on in the story, Emily’s father passes away leaving her with all of these emotions concealed on the inside. After her father’s death Emily was left alone to grieve which caused her to react to his death in an unusual manner eventually leading to a state of depression. Emily barricades herself in her home away from the outside world for a long period of time trying to cope with her loss, but it seems as if life has moved on without her. Once she emerges from her home, it is like she is trapped in the past. Emily no longer has a sense of place and time. Emily finally finds happiness in a man by the name of Homer, but because of her family’s status in the community it causes a rift between Emily and herself on whether to keep him around or not. This caused Emily to go into a deeper depression, hiding from the world once again. Although death is a reoccurring theme in the story, it is not the only thing that has critics striving to understand the story even further. For starters, the title of the story has one scholar by the name of Laura Getty extremely interested because Faulkner does not come right out and say why he titled this story “A Rose for Emily.” It is almost as if one has...
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...A Rose for Emily: 1.) The irony of the “long strand of iron-gray hair” is in reference to a rat. Earlier on in the story, Miss Emily refused to say what the arsenic was to be used for, but the druggist labeled it as “for rats”. So for Miss Emily to use the toxic drug on him but at the same time placing a rat hair by him, it creates a sense of irony. 2.) The townspeople are the unspoken narrator. 3.) The main character in “A Rose for Emily” is Miss Emily, if the story would have been in her point of view, we would not have found out about what happened after she died. 4.) The smell mentioned in the beginning is definitely a form foreshadowing because the story states that the smell was gone after a week or two. Also, when Miss Emily buys the arsenic and refuses to state what she needed it for, it gave the feeling that she was not using it on rats. 5.) Miss Emily has outgrown her time. The settings around her are starting to move faster and she does not keep up. Her house needs work and gas pumps are starting to become the new neighbors. 6.) Miss Emily is considered part of the towns past growing up in the south while Homer is a Yankee that has a shady past. 7.) I do find humor in the end because it seems like no matter what happened, she still cared about him. Yes she killed him but she took care of his dead body, almost as if she was obsessed with him. 8.) I do not think Miss Emily would be conserved a “murderous madwoman” to the author...
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...A Rose for Emily Author: William Faulkner Plot: The story is broken down in 5 sections. In section I, the narrator recalls the time of Emily Grierson’s death and how the entire town attended her funeral in her home, which no stranger had entered for more than ten years. Colonel Sartoris, the town’s previous mayor, had suspended Emily’s tax responsibilities to the town after her father’s death, justifying the action by claiming that Mr. Grierson had once lent the community a significant sum. As new town leaders take over, they make unsuccessful attempts to get Emily to resume payments. When members of the Board of Aldermen pay her a visit, in the dusty and antiquated parlor, Emily reasserts the fact that she is not required to pay taxes in Jefferson and that the officials should talk to Colonel Sartoris about the matter. However, at that point he has been dead for almost a decade. She asks her servant, Tobe, to show the men out. Section II: the narrator describes a time thirty years earlier when Emily resists another official inquiry on behalf of the town leaders, when the townspeople detect a powerful odor emanating from her property. Her father has just died, and Emily has been abandoned by the man whom the townsfolk believed Emily was to marry. As complaints mount, Judge Stevens, the mayor at the time, decides to have lime sprinkled along the foundation of the Grierson home in the middle of the night. Within a couple of weeks, the odor subsides, but the townspeople begin...
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...Roberta Jones Mr. Hickman English 1600 22 October 2012 A Rose for Emily A Rose for Emily is about Miss Emily who is the main character in a story written by William Faulkner. Miss Emily is a proud aristocratic whose story is staged sometime during the Civil War somewhere in the south. Miss Emily has a strong southern up bringing which ultimately leads to her demise and mental break down. During this period in the South Miss Emily’s is expected to be married and not being so was socially unacceptable. Southern society encouraged this and believed that to be happy it was necessary for one to be married, or be considered an old maid. Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily†is an example of classical Southern literature because it has all the important things that ruled Southern culture of that time period family, community, religion, time and place. Miss Emily’s father was one who was compelled to bring her up with all the southern social values and controlled all that she did and whom she would court and what she would wear. Emily’s was regarded as her father’s property like the house in which they both lived. The house is as an example of the lavish expense and show of the wealth as well as the visitors and clothes. Miss Emily believed herself better than most and her father felt no suitor was good enough for his daughter the Grierson family represented the elite and spoiled. Because of this snobbery Miss Emily never married and eventually became a relic of Southern...
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