...1. William Faulkner’s gothic short story, “A Rose for Emily,” depends extremely on foreshadowing. This short story is about a women named Emily how has difficult time of letting go of the past, such as letting go of her boyfriend/soon to be boyfriend Homer. The most obvious example of foreshadowing occurs at the beginning of part two when Faulkner uses the horrendous smell throughout the story to indicate Homer’s fate. In the first sentence of part two states, “just as she has vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell,” for thirty years Emily has held a decaying body in a bedroom and the smell carried out throughout the town (Faulkner 222). The second occurrence of foreshadowing occurs when the two ladies offer their support...
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...All in all, William Faulkner paints this picture in our minds through a relationship. Not just any ordinary couple, but a couple with two power who symbolize the North and South. Miss Emily the South and Homer Barron the North. Two strong willed characters that be painted as them in a story where everyone can understand. The North stripped the South of all of it’s glory. Just like Homer Barron stripped Miss Emily of her pure innocence she once held. Faulkner clarifies the South no longer has it’s honor, like it used too. “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner, indicates more than a story of an old women of the south. Faulkner’s interpretation illustrates how the Southern culture has disappeared, in other words, died. Due to the fact that the South was defeated by the North, the South is no longer prosperous after the Civil War. Faulkner develops the...
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...“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” - Martin Luther King. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, he shows his theme of oppression through Mrs. Emily Grierson. Oppression is the state of being subject to any unjust treatment or control. Many women struggled with oppression while others have learned to handle it. With oppression, women back then and now are being denied their human right to be equal. Ms. Grierson has been oppressed so many times throughout her life by her father, the society she lives in, and eventually, by her fiance, who takes her father's role as the dominant influence in her life. Faulkner used Grierson to show oppression and how oppressed women were back in the...
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...In the short story, “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner presents many examples of symbolism. Symbolism is when the author uses an object or a reference to add deeper meaning to the story. William uses symbols that only the reader may be able interpret the true meaning. Williams begins the story with the funeral of Emily Grierson, the main character. The story uses Emily Grierson’s life as an analogy of the south after the Civil War. Willam uses Emily’s house, hair, and most importantly her rose as symbols to illustrate downfall in the south. Emily’s house represents her outlook as time progress and she becomes deeper in sadness. Miss Emily’s house was once beautiful and white. It was decorated to perfected satisfaction, and it set on the most beautiful street. It was perfect, a dream house to say at the least. Then, slowly it became an “eyesore among eyesores”(96). Miss Emily changed in the same ways as her house. She then too became an eyesore. She had once been a white, slender, and gorgeous woman. Through time she becomes “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water with eyes lost in the fatty ridges of her face” (96). During Miss Emily’s death she was related to an “fallen monument,” stating that she was once something beautiful. With time she grew old and impoverished. These same changes from affluence to impoverishment...
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...“The Sorrowful Southerner” “They rose when she entered – a small, fat woman in black with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head.” ((Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, edited by Michael Meyer, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 78.) Accordingly, William Faulkner flawlessly describes Miss Emily in the story “A Rose for Emily” as a wealthy, southern woman with a duty to stand against the North during the Civil War era. Accompanied by her Negro, Miss Emily is curiously watched by the townspeople due to her mysterious behavior. Following this, the end of Miss Emily’s life is when her dark secrets become exposed...
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...ridiculed and pitied by the community, in this case an example of this would be in the short story “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner. Faulkner examines the expectations of Southern values on women. Faulkner also reveals a concerned community that fails to understand the complexities of the main character,...
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...Faulkner uses theme in his short story “A Rose for Emily”? William Falkner used Theme by displaying tradition and change, death, how these thing impact the character, Emily in the short story. Tradition and change was used in the short story to show the transformation of Emily life unfolded over time. Death was to signify by say for instance all thing that used to be there, but gradually was not there. Both of these are to be link together with Emily life struggle, and how she was really was until her death. The transformation of Tradition and Change show in the story was the south, the customs, and the ideas that the town’s people had before and after the war. The old south people customs that they went by was who had the most Statues. The Statues the old south went by the group or family that had the most authority and power. This is what the old south was built a pone. The people in the town held this custom until after the war. When the war was over people from the north came down to the south and the custom went away. The new custom the people from the north brought down whoever a high paying job. In the story Emily family was part of the old south, which change her life because it was very different from what she when throw until this point. Emily father was a powerful man before...
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...Andrew Costroff ENG 102 Faulkner and American Literature Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner is commonly considered one of America’s most creative and inspiring novelists. Influenced by authors such as Phil Stone, Sherwood Anderson, and James Joyce, Faulkner’s works center on themes like racism, sexuality, and social decline that was taking place in the 1920’s and 30’s in the South. At the core of his stories and novels are symbols of decay, like Miss Emily in “A Rose for Emily”, and Southern pride, like in “The Sound and the Fury”. His experimental use of techniques, such as stream-of-consciousness and multiple narrators, make his work challenging to read, but nonetheless unique. Many of Faulkner's writings are set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional area reflecting his native Lafayette County, which played a major role in shaping one of the world’s most artistic imaginations. William Faulkner (he actually added the u later) was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi. He was named after his great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, the “Old Colonel” who often appears in William’s stories. As a young boy, he would often listen to stories told to him by his family, particularly his mother Maud and his grandmother Lelia – both of which were well-educated and excellent readers. These included stories of the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, slavery, and the Falkner family. Considering this, it is easy to see how themes of racism, sexuality, and battles of...
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...William Faulkner once said, “Given a choice between grief and nothing, I'd choose grief” (Brainyquote). He further explains why he’d do this in “A Rose for Emily”; although the story is not about him, he details the loneliness and selfishness of a poor woman, Miss Emily. Miss Emily is unable to grip the idea of death and suffers great deals of denial. After the death of her father, the townspeople expected her to be in a state of grief but alas she is not. Instead she proceeds to say that her father is very well with her, alive. William Faulkner’s idea of grieving is clear in this story because he shows his audience that it is better to accept death than to ignore it through the accounts of Miss Emily’s journey. William Faulkner’s story takes place in the South, during a time period of racial discrimination and major political change. By using reader response criticism, a reader can analyze “A Rose for Emily” through the aspects of the secret held within the story, race found through anthropology, and gender found through anthropology. To begin with, one can analyze “A Rose for Emily” by examining the underlying hidden message found within the story. The hidden message that William Faulkner tried to convey in his story was the themes of death and change. Death looms through the story from the beginning right on through to the end as the narrator begins describing the beginning of Miss Emily’s funeral. Miss Emily herself chooses not to accept the fate of death when her extremely...
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...Comparative Literature Paper Selfishness and revenge are woven through “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner like a fine silk thread, supporting the theme of death in each. In the short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the cause of death is never obviously revealed but lightly hinted upon Emily as the cause. “The Cask of Amontillado,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, the cause of death is revealed but no one knew the cause of Fortunato’s disappearance. These stories contain many differences as well as similarities ranging from imagery, symbolism, theme, and tone. The recognizable commonality of the two is the theme of death. Each of these stories portrays death, or murder, as a result of vengeance, revenge and betrayal. “The Cask of Amontillado” deals with the death of Fortunato and “A Rose for Emily” deals with the death of Homer and Emily. William Faulkner never admits that Emily is the cause of Homer’s death but gives the audience clues that suggest Emily was indeed responsible. Emily’s death seemed to be of natural causes (Faulkner, 1931, p 531). Edgar Allan Poe, in “The Cask of Amontillado” tells the audience of Montresor’s plot of revenge and murder of Fortunato. Betrayal and revenge are obvious throughout both stories. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily first betrayed Homer after he did not take her for his wife after the whole town saw the two of them together. In “The Cask of Amontillado”...
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...My nomination for best short story will be “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The reason I selected this is my interest in the Civil War era. This short story is intriguing by the use of changing the chronological order to hold the reader’s attention. The story is broken into five sections and each section has the reader wondering what Ms. Emily Grierson has done. The use of Homer Barron schemes the reader into believing that the two had fallen in love with each other, even though in the end, Homer was poisoned by Emily. The setting of the short story is the historical Mississippi southern town after the civil war. Emily is the protagonist of the story, while Homer is the antagonist. Homer is a northerner or outsider and is seen in the town as someone trying to take over the town. The third element is the point of view, which is the ghostly view of the narrator of the story (Klien, 2007). The use of the characters, historical setting and point of view provide the reader interest of what the plot will...
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...disease, nightmares, and death. Although in some stories, it also explores unmentionable topics such as murder, suicide, and incest. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a story of a spinster woman who has killed her lover and lain for years beside his decaying body. The story deals with a murder caused by possessive love, and it elucidates the face of death which results in repulsion and compassion. “A Rose for Emily” represents Southern Gothic literature through descriptions of Emily, her house, necrophilia, and the theme of death. To begin with, the narrator portrays Emily Grierson as a once prominent member of the community. However, after the death of her father, she is pitied and often irritating, demanding to live life on her own terms. In the beginning of the story, the author describes her as looking “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, [look] like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough” (Faulkner 53). Being isolated from the outside world since her father died and Homer Barron, her lover, went missing, Emily becomes a muted and mysterious figure. She begins to enforce her own sense of law and conduct, such as when she refuses to pay her taxes or state her purpose for buying the poison. Lu Ying Qian of Baidu Library states that Emily “was an unrealistic stubborn woman” (Qian 6). She continued to ignore the law, refuse to pay taxes, and not dispose of the dead...
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...representation of the nature of death and all that it entails. This is no less true in southern gothic writing and in the writings of William Faulkner. Published on April 30, 1930 in a major magazine at the time, Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” showcases the life of Ms. Emily Grierson, a local townswoman, and is captured in a mysterious and eventually horrific context that allows the reader to understand the sadness and morbid side of death. The story is a set in a southern context that Faulkner knew all too well and contains implications of contrasts between northern and southern society. Faulkner uses many different elements in this work to portray death in its entire grotesque and horrifying splendor. Particularly, Faulkner uses two certain elements to accomplish this task. Faulkner successfully conveys the theme of the power of death in “A Rose for Emily” by incorporating the use of the literary elements of foreshadowing and narrative voice. Faulkner’s use of foreshadowing works to reveal the theme of death in this work rather well. The story is divided into five different passages, each detailing a progression towards death – the end of Emily Grierson’s life. Just by listening to Faulkner’s tone in the first sentence and throughout the rest of the work, the reader can easily determine there is a definite presence of foreshadowing: “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...
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...Professor English 1B 03 March 2014 Faulkner’s Use of Southern Gothic and Mississippi Faulkner might have well been named as one of the most influential American writers of the South while some critics despised his work. William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897 (“William Faulkner Bio”). His love for poetry early on helped shape his writing style. Faulkner became an accomplished writer producing novels, short stories, poetry, and even dabbled in screen work media. As a Novel Prize laureate, he spent most of his life in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Many of his fictional stories take place in Yoknapatawpha County, a place he created based on the setting in Lafayette. As a native of Mississippi, the American South’s culture had a big influence on him. His inspiration for writing came from his grandfather (Cruz). He not only loved his grandfather but wanted to be just like him. His passion for literature sent him on a journey to the University of Mississippi. While attending school, he worked for The Scream writing comic strips. (Cruz). Faulkner traveled a lot with his father while he was younger. Like most, he had strong Southern values and pride. He seemed to have a different stance on equality and the issues of inequality taking place. Faulkner encouraged equality amongst the citizens. His literature uses several situations where people of race, gender, or class are discriminated against (Cruz). Faulkner’s ability to write seemed to be influenced...
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...Writing about Literature COM1102 10 October 2015 "A ROSE FOR EMILY" Visual vs. Reading William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a short gothic horror story that has also been adapted into a short film. Both story and film have been largely debated, with a plethora of opinions. Faulkner’s lack of normal chronology and situation-triggered memories generates a story that has many interpretations among its readers, but surprises everyone at the end. When asked about the title of his story, Faulkner said," [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute . . . to a woman you would hand a rose." (Faulkner, William 1966 ;) He gave a humble explanation, for such a complex story. The film portrays the story straight forward, and leaves nothing left to the imagination. Death and transformation are the main theme in Faulkner’s short story, being a sign of the crumbling of the Old South after their military defeat by the North, as Emily’s suggested necrophilia echoes the desire to hang on to the past and its traditions. Through flashbacks and foreshadowing, Faulkner addresses the struggle of traditional versus progress in the city of Jefferson. The south being a region bound by history and tradition, class and social influence, Emily represents, to generations before and after her, old...
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