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A Rose for Emily
A Rose for Emily Essay
Title: The Jealous Townspeople
I. Thesis Statement: A Rose for Emily is a story of the envy harbored by the citizens in reaction to
Miss Emily's pride, reclusiveness, and heritage.
II. A. Topic Sentence: Miss Emily's heritage is the first and most important reason the town's people
were desirous of her.
1. Supporting Sentence: Miss Grierson was born into a prominent family the residents of her town
recognized as being an old and distinguished family. 2. Supporting Sentence: In section one of the
story, the people who lived among Emily described her as, "a hereditary obligation upon the town."
3. Supporting Sentence: When Mr. Grierson died the town's people felt as though she had...show
more content...
Emily's family was well known to everyone in that area. At one point in time, the Grierson family
may have been wealthy. The families past wealth and illustrious heritage would be enviable to
anyone who grew up less than rich or with odd family members. The fact that people wanted to
have a family like that of Miss Emily's served as a foundation for the jealousy of the people who
lived near her. In section one of the story, the town's people described Miss Grierson as a
hereditary obligation. The description of Miss Emily as a hereditary obligation can be perceived
in two different ways. The first suggested meaning of the phrase could be that since The Grierson
Family had been so distinguished in the past, people pay respect to Emily out of reverence for her
family. The second suggested meaning of the phrase could be that the people of the town, where our
main character lived, seen Emily as an obligation because of the taxes that she did not pay. The use
of hereditary in the second suggested meaning alludes to the fact that until Emily passed away;
each surviving generation would have to support her in a way, because she failed to pay her taxes.
The last example of how our main character's heritage created feelings of envy among the residents
in her town is the statement made after Mr. Grierson's death. When Mr. Grierson passed away, the
narrator of our story recalls that Emily seemed "humanized", and relished the fact that she would
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"A Rose for Emily" is a wonderful short story written by William Faulkner. It begins with at the
end of Miss Emily's life and told from an unknown person who most probably would be the voice
of the town. Emily Grierson is a protagonist in this story and the life of her used as an allegory
about the changes of a South town in Jefferson after the civil war, early 1900's. Beginning from
the title, William Faulkner uses symbolism such as house, Miss Emily as a "monument ", her hair,
Homer Barron, and even Emily's "rose" to expresses the passing of time and the changes. The
central theme of the story is decay in the town, the house, and in Miss Emily herself. It shows the
way in which we all grow old and decay and there is nothing permanent...show more content...
Furthermore, Miss Emily's hair is one of the symbols, shortly after her father's death Emily cuts
her hair that could possibly symbolize the freedom for her as breaking away from her father's control
"When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl..." (212). Also, as Emily
grows older her hair changes into "iron–gray, like the hair of an active man" (214). That hair colour
changing symbolizes the time, we realize time first by Emily's hair, and then her hair has turned "a
vigorous iron–gray" (214) when she disappears into her house. In Faulkner's story Homer Barron
obviously represents the present, the formation, and the new ways. When he arrives to the town for
the construction Emily was already around 30–34 years old, well past her time according to that
time and he was the next generation. Also, probably he might be her future life. Homer Barron
was Northerner "...a Yankee..." (212) and north is known as its easy adaptation for changes but
South is known for traditional. He does not seem to a man who like to settle in one place as
Emily was. Besides the story's other symbols, the "rose" itself is the most important symbol and
the title of the story is not coincidence. It is not suggest just a rose flower, but rather a symbol of
the Homer and the father's love for her, town's love and admiration for her, and also foreshadows
her eventual destruction. The rose in the title symbolizes the absent of love which is a

A Rose for Emily
Literary Analysis for "A Rose for Emily"
Sometimes a Rose is Not a Rose:
A Literary Analysis of "A Rose for Emily"
In the short story "A Rose for Emily", written by William Faulkner, the negative impact of Emily's
upbringing by an overprotective father, leads to incredible pattern in her life and the obvious mental
illness that takes over as she not so graciously ages. While written in five sections, the first and last
section is written in present time, and the three middle sections in past tense. To set the stage for
Emily's drastic transformation from young girl to elderly woman, Faulkner uses characterization,
setting and narration to show Emily's lost state of mind and her desire to find and keep love at all
cost as....show more content...
The setting of the story takes place in Faulkner's make believe city of Yoknapatawpha,
Mississippi. In a house that was once owned by the late Elder Grierson. When the townspeople
finally enter the room upstairs that "no one had seen in forty years" (Faulkner, Section 5), they are
stunned by the condition of Emily's once grandeur house. Furthermore, the house that once set on
the "most select street" (Faulkner, Section 1) was now surrounded by garages, cotton gins and was
the only house left on the street. Although, once described as "a big, squarish frame house that had
once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies" (Harris), it is apparent
that along with the family name, the family home had been on a downward spiral for many years.
Although the story is told in first person, the narrator of the story is never named but it appears that
the story could be told by any of the townspeople. It has been said that the narrators "function is to be
a window pane or mirror upon the life of Miss Emily Grierson" (Sullivan). The narrator often uses a
negative attitude toward both women and the African American race, furthermore making many
statements in the short story that would not be acceptable in our society today. From "the female
blacks in this town are not allowed out on the streets without aprons" (Faulkner, Section 1) to "it's
probably just a snake or rat

A Rose For Emily
A Rose For Emily
In the TV show Private Practice, a spin–off of Grey's Anatomy, Sam runs some specific tests on one
of his very ill patients who was an alcoholic, he doesn't seem to have anything wrong with him
according to all tests that were coming back normal. Until finally they ran a drug test oh him and
later discovered that the patient had ingested Coprine. Coprine makes you feel sick when you drink
alcohol. It turned out that the mother was poisoning her alcoholic son to get him to stop drinking. A
similar concept can be seen in the short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. "A Rose for
Emily" is about a woman named Emily who turns out to be possibly insane, this conclusion can be
made because of the characters, plot, and...show more content...
The author explains Miss Emily's appearance when she was alive. The author stated, "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. Her skeleton was
small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was
obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that
pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal
pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated
their errand." Miss Emily's appearance wasn't that appealing. People respected her to a certain
extent but deep down inside everyone thought she was a bit crazy. Her mental breakdown, which
was caused by her father's passing and her then sweetheart leaving her, took a toll on her
appearance. The author states, "She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was
cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church
windows–sort of tragic and serene." This means that after the tragic events she had faced, she
decided to changed herself. Her hair was shorter which made her look peaceful and tragic. It was
pretty clear to some of the town

"A Rose for Emily" Essay examples
Stuck in the past in "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner Change causes a person to do things out of the
norm. It is common for people to fear change. Most people although afraid will accept the changes
and adapt to it. Others will control that change unwilling to adhere to the new and unfamiliar way of
things. Many are stuck in the past, in the traditions that guide their lives. Emily Grierson is a product
of the Old South, rich in traditions and set in her ways. The New south means change; traditions are
lost and replaced with new customs. Even though afraid of change Emily will control the changes
in her life, the loss of her father, the respect of the town, and even the reality of her own life in "A
Rose for Emily" by Faulkner.
I....show more content...
It is common for people to fear change. Most people although afraid will accept the changes and
adapt to it. Others will control that change unwilling to adhere to the new and unfamiliar way of
things. Many are stuck in the past, in the traditions that guide their lives. Emily Grierson is a
product of the Old South, rich in traditions and set in her ways. The New south means change;
traditions are lost and replaced with new customs. Even though afraid of change Emily will
control the changes in her life, the loss of her father, the respect of the town, and even the reality
of her own life in "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner. Initially after the loss of her father Emily
Grierson refuses to let go of him and the influence he has over her in "A Rose for Emily". Emily's
father was a big part of her existence he was the only man in her life. For years he had ran off
suitor that had called upon Emily. Once he was gone it is hard for her to adapt to life without
him. She refuses to believe that he is dead telling the ladies of the town "that her father was not
dead" (101). She had been very close to her father and without him her live would not be the same.
She never leaves the house she stays secluded from the town. By remaining alone she will not have
to face the fact that any change has taken place.
Above all Emily thinks that her name means something to the town, losing the respect of the town's
people

вЂњA Rose for EmilyвЂќ Essay
Samuel Martin
Instructor Waszak
LIT 100
December 7, 2014
"A Rose for Emily": Explain what we learn about Miss Emily's character in the story (not just what
she does, but what kind of person she is). Use specific evidence found in the story to support your
conclusions. Be alert to the possibility that the narrator who reveals this evidence to us might have
certain biases of his/her/their own.
In the poem "A Rose for Emily", William Faulkner stated that "another sad and tragic manifestation
of man's condition [is] in which he dreams and hopes, in which he is in conflict with himself or with
his environment or with others" (Faulkner 79–80). In "A Rose for Emily," a young girl, Emily
Grierson, faces a rather tragic life and undergoes...show more content...
In her killing of Homer, she is holding onto the past– she is attempting to hold on to the relationship
that she and Homer once had, or she wished that she had. She keeps his corpse lying in bed next to
her, which is implied when it was "noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head"
and a "long strand of iron–gray hair" (78). Emily's inability to let go of the past has been
exemplified in the examples of her refusal to pay taxes and her murdering of Homer. However, the
true cause of her inability to let go of the past lies in her conflict with in herself.
Faulkner wrote "A Rose for Emily" with the intent to focus on the tragedy of man's inner conflict, as
well as outer. The two examples given are perfect in demonstrating these two types of conflicts. In
the first, Emily is in conflict with her surroundings, in which the town officials are trying to tax her.
In the second, Emily is in conflict with herself. She "knew that you do not murder people. She had
been trained that you do not take a lover. You marry, you don't take a lover" (80). Emily tries to
embrace the tradition and background of getting married, having a family, and being in love.
However, these aspirations soon caused her to break down when Homer was going to leave. These
conflicts, most importantly the one within herself, strongly impacted Emily to be unable to let go of
the past. Over all, in "A Rose for

A Rose For Emily Essay
There are many ways to look at a work of art. Many people look at abstract paintings and laugh
critically at them, denying that they are art at all. While other people can look at the same
paintings and find beauty within them that others could not. This goes for every art form, it's why
why some movie can get a 100% rating and a 10% rating at the same time by two different critics.
In literature, criticism is centered around the value, and what defines the value of a literary work.
With some critics saying literatures value is determined by the effect it has on the reader, while
other say value is determined by the moral and political implications the literary work has. There are
many different forms of literary criticism, all judging works...show more content...
Looking at this story on a base level you can determine that Emily Grierson is a woman who
needs to have control on her own life at all costs. She shuts out the entire town she lives in, as
well as anybody who might have an influence on her, and even goes so far as to kill Homer
Barron when he refuses to marry her, in order to have the ultimate control over her
relationship.The average reader would respond to what Emily did with a bit of disgust.
Considering her actions as vulgar like many of the townspeople from the story likely thought.
However, there are many of ways to look at this story. A psychoanalytical reader might feel
sympathy for Emily as they would determine her actions were a result neurosis and depression
brought on by the rough childhood inflicted upon her by her father. A Feminist critic would look at it
entirely differently though. Judith Fetterly states that the reason for her actions is that the
patriarchal she lived installed the notion "that men and women are made for each other". Yet in a
patriarchal society at the same time there is a "massive differentiation of everything according to
sex, one sees that in reality a sexist culture is one in which men and women are not simply
incompatible but murderously so.... Emily murders Homer Barron because she must get a man at
any cost" (The Resisting Reader: A feminist Approach to AmericanFiction,

A Rose for Emily Essay example
A Rose for Emily tells the tale of a lonely woman named Emily Grierson and the events that occur
since her father died up and up until her death. The unique thing about this story is that it isn't told
in chronological order. Faulkner transitions from the past to the present all throughout the story.
The events being out of order make the story more interesting and it also creates suspense. The
audience might be confused at times but at the end of the story everything adds up and makes
sense. I think that if Faulkner had told it in chronological order it would have been boring and
predictable. The story is divided into five sections. The first section says that Miss Emily has died
and the whole town goes to her funeral. The...show more content...
Emily and Homer grow closer and the townspeople notice their relationship. They start to gossip
and bad mouth them because it's embarrassing to her family that Emily is dating a man from a
lower social class than her. Tired of being ridiculed by the whole town, Emily goes to a drugstore
to buy arsenic. The druggist says, "if that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you
are going to use it for." (Faulkner 213), but Emily didn't say anything. All throughout the story,
Faulkner writes in a way that makes us feel sympathy for Emily. For example, at the end of the story
we find out that she didn't really commit suicide with the arsenic she bought. When I was reading
the third section, I really felt bad for Emily because I thought that she was going to commit
suicide. Her life seemed pretty horrible. Her father died so she was pretty much all alone and then
when she finally found love, the town wouldn't stop ridiculing her. So it made sense to me that
she had reasons to kill herself. Faulkner's out of order events tricked us into thinking she bought
the arsenic for herself. In a way, this made the story more interesting because when I was reading
that paragraph, I was really interested in it. Even the townspeople assume that she is going to kill
herself so they call a Baptist minister to personally speak with Emily. The minister tried his best to
help but he couldn't so his wife writes to Emily's two cousins that live in

Rose For Emily
In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" the story of an eccentric southern aristocrat
from the view of the community she lives in. the story opens with the death of the main character,
Miss Emily Grierson. Faulkner described Miss Emily's life circumstances through a series of flash
backs. Faulkner explains his story is an example of a person having their hopes and aspirations for
their life dashed over time, and only later to realize how through poor decision making, they have
broken every value and belief they hold, then proceeding to punish themselves indefinitely.
Brooks and Warren begin by approaching the story from the psychological mindset of Miss Emily.
They point out without finding the meaning behind Miss Emily's actions, the story is merely a
story of abnormal psychology. By being able to understand where the motives came from for Miss
Emily's actions the reader is much more able to see that Miss Emily was not just a mentally
disturbed individual with no real cause for her condition. The idea that Miss Emily refuses to submit
to the group mentality of...show more content...
Fetterley contends that the story is that of a male dominated past and future, and a woman who is
oppressed and victimized by her society systems. In life, Miss Emily's father had been able to keep
her as a possession and control her life. In his death, the community of Jefferson stepped into that
role. Miss Emily was more considered as an object than a person to most everyone her entire life.
Fetterley points out the real wrong done to Miss Emily was in making her a "Miss". In the act of
making Emily a lady certain characteristics and beliefs are immediately associated with Miss
Emily. It is these beliefs of what a lady is and does that allows Miss Emily to murder Homer with
poison bought at the drug store without so much as a raised eyebrow. The thought of a lady
committing murder never crosses the community's

A Rose for Emily–Essay The short story A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner first comes off as
a disturbing story. When you realize that Miss Emily Grierson, who is the main character in this
story, kills the man she's though to be in love with, all you can really think is that she's crazy. I
think the conflict in the story is Miss Emily not being able to find love. With her father not giving
her a chance to date, thinking that there was no one good enough for her. Then, the only man she
has been able to love dies, which is her father. Once she has fallen "in love", she murders her lover.
Miss Emily's necessity for love has caused her to be unable to distinguish fantasy with reality. Miss
Emily's father though that no man was worthy...show more content...
Once Miss Emily's father died, she didn't want to let go. She had no one to love and lover her
back. The only love and compassion she knew was her fathers. With him leaving this world
entirely, I think she didn't want to believe he was dead. She wanted to hold on as much as she
could. "She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days... Just as they were
about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly." Again, Miss
Emily's necessity for love made her unconscious of the real world, wanting to hold on to
something that was not there. When everyone had though Miss Emily had found love, he
disappears. She seemed to be very happy with him. They would ride around town in a Buggy. His
name was Homer Barron. In the story it doesn't imply that they were an actual couple. As we
discussed in class Homer might even have been homosexual. If this or anything else was the cases
were Homer couldn't be with Miss Emily her desperation for that companion made her do an
outrageous passionate act. She murders him to keep him with her forever. I think she thinks she
has finally found someone she doesn't want to let go. She feels like she needs this and doesn't
realize that it is out of this world. She doesn't recognize that she has lost her mind. By not only
living but sleeping with a dead corpse. Miss

Desperation for love arising from detachment can lead to extreme measures and destructive actions
as exhibited by the tumultuous relationships of Miss Emily in William Faulkner's "A Rose for
Emily" (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense,
9th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2006] 556). Miss Emily is confined from society for the majority of
her life by her father, so after he has died, she longs for relations that ironically her longing destroys.
The despondency and obsession exuded throughout the story portray the predicament at hand. Miss
Emily's relationship with her father is a key factor in the development of her isolation. As she is
growing up, he will not let anybody around his daughter,...show more content...
When Miss Emily finds somebody, though, it quickly pushes her to desperation. Her relationship
with Homer Barron is a result of the life and death of her father. Ironically, he is a northern,
roughneck Yankee, the exact opposite of any connection a Grierson would consider.
Unsuspectingly, Emily is attracted to him, which is an oddity itself considering her lack of
personality and his obvious charisma, for "whenever you [hear] a lot of laughing...Homer Barron
[will] be in the center of the group" (560). He is also the first man to show an interest in her
without her father alive to scare him off. The town is doubtful that the pair will remain together,
but Emily's attachments are extreme, as seen when she would not surrender her father's body.
The circumstance exhibits how her feelings are greatly intensified towards Homer. However, he
is "not a marrying man" (561). When it appears as though he will leave her, she kills him with
poison. While seemingly the opposite effect of love, killing Homer is quite in line with her
obsession. If he is dead and she keeps Homer all to herself, Emily will never lose him; he can
never leave her. Other such details that express her extreme attachments appear as she buys him
clothes and toiletries before they are even considered married. There is also the revelation at the
end of the story that she has been keeping his body for over thirty years and sleeping with it, clearly
demonstrating her overt desperation

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