A Rose for Emily Analysis "A Rose Rose for Emily" is narrated in the first-person plural from the perspective of the town. It utilizes the plural "we," indicating that the narrator is a collective rather than an individual.
Faulner uses foreshadowing to prepare the reader for the !ig reveal at the end of the story story.. ome e#amples of foreshadowing include Emily !uying the arsenic and Emily refusing to acnowledge anyone$s death.
%here are many motifs in "A Rose for Emily," including the repeated references to Emily$s funeral, the cemetery, the law, ta#es, corpses, doors, and hair.
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!he e"traordinary degree to which the young Faulkner managed to compress into this, his #irst published story, many o# the elements that came to be characteristic o# his #iction is the e##ect o# his unusual use o# the #irst$person point o# %iew and his control o# the moti#s that #low #rom it.
&y con#ining himsel# to the pronoun 'we,( the narrator gi%es the reader the impression that the whole town is bearing witness to the beha%ior o# a heroine, about whom they ha%e ambi%alent attitudes, ambiguously e"pressed. !he ambiguity deri%es in part #rom the community)s lack o# access to #acts, stimulating the narrator to draw on his own and the communal imagination to #ill out the picture, creating a collage o# images. !he narration gi%es the impression o# coming out o# a communal consciousness, creating the e##ect o# a peculiar omniscience. *n entire no%el could be de%eloped #rom the material compressed into this short story.
+s the narrator telling the story in the southern oral tradition or is he or she writing it !o ask basic -uestions about this unusual collecti%e mode o# narrationwho, what, where, when, and whyis to stir up many possibilities. !he oral mode seems most appropriate, but the style, consisting o# such phrases as 'di##ident deprecation,( suggests the written mode.
* pattern o# moti#s that interact, contrasting with or paralleling one another, sometimes symbolically, symbolically, sometimes ironically, #lows naturally #rom the reser%oir o# communal elements in the narrator)s saturated consciousness as he tells the story/ the #uneral, the cemetery, the garages, cars, cotton gins, ta"es, the law, the market basket and other elements o# black e"istence, the house, its #ront and back doors, its cellar and upper rooms, the window where mily sits, the idol image that becomes a #allen monument, images that
e%oke the Ci%il 1ar, images o# gold, o# decay, the color yellow, dust, shadows, corpses and bodies like corpses, the smells, the breaking down o# doors, the poison, and the images o# hair.
!o lend greater impact to the surprise ending and to achie%e greater artistic unity and intensity o# e##ect, Faulkner uses other de%ices/ #oreshadowing, re%ersal, and repetition. 2ost o# the moti#s, spaced e##ecti%ely throughout, are repeated at least three times, enabling the reader to respond at any gi%en point to all the elements simultaneously.
+mitators o# the surprise$ending de%ice, made #amous in modern times by . 4enry, ha%e gi%en that de%ice a bad name by using it mechanically to pro%oke a super#icial thrill. +n raising the surprise$ending de%ice to the le%el o# comple" art, Faulkner achie%es a double impact/ '!he man himsel# lay on the bed( is shock enough, 5usti#ied by what has gone be#ore, but 'the long strand o# iron$gray hair,( the charged image that ends the story, shocks the reader into a sudden, intuiti%e ree"periencing and reappraisal o# the stream o# images, bringing order and meaning to the pattern o# moti#s.
Historical Context print Print
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The South after the Civil War !he 6econstruction a#ter the Ci%il 1ar had a pro#ound and humbling e##ect on Southern society. !he South)s outdated plantation economy, based so long upon sla%e labor, was de%astated by emancipation. 7orthern opportunists, known as 88carpet$baggers,)) came in dro%es to take ad%antage o# the economic chaos. Some Southern aristocrats #ound themsel%es working the land alongside tenant #armers and #ormer sla%es. Faulkner came #rom a #amily that once owned a plantation. !he history o# his #amily and o# the South in general inspired Faulkner)s imagination.
!he short stories and no%els Faulkner wrote about 9oknapatawpha County combine to create an epic, mythical history o# this era. Da%id 2inter, in his biography William Faulkner: His Life and Work , notes that as a teenager, Faulkner was known #or being obser%ational to the point o# oddness/ 88Sometimes he 5oined the old men o# "#ord on the town s-uare : there he sat or stood motionless, -uiet, as though held #ast by some inner scene or some inner sense o# himsel#.)) +t was in this manner that Faulkner soaked up the legends o# his region. 4e heard Ci%il 1ar stories #rom the old %eterans, hunting stories #rom his #ather, stories o# his great$grand#ather)s heroic e"ploits #rom his grand#ather, and #ables about the animals in the #orest told by 2ammy Caroline &arr, an e"$sla%e who watched o%er him when he was a small boy. !he stories he heard, along with his e"periences in "#ord during his own li#etime, greatly in#orm the scope o# his work.
88* 6ose #or mily,)) in a #ew pages, co%ers appro"imately three$-uarters o# a century. !he birth o# mily Grierson takes place sometime around the Ci%il 1ar. 4er death takes place sometime in the late ;<=0s or early ;<30sthat is, sometime around the year Faulkner wrote the story. &ecause Faulkner came #rom a #amily with an aristocratic bearing and associated with other similar #amilies, he was #amiliar with the arrogance o# characters like the Griersons. Some o# these people continued to beha%e as i# they were still pri%ileged plantation owners although their wealth was gone. 4owe%er, Faulkner spent much o# his time
obser%ing ordinary townspeople as well, and this is why he was able to capture the %oice o# the common people o# >e##erson in the character o# the narrator.
!he narrator in 88* 6ose #or mily)) notes a change in the character o# his town when >e##erson)s &oard o# *ldermen attempts to collect mily)s ta"es. riginally, the town was go%erned by men o# the old South like Colonel Sartoris and >udge Ste%ens. 2en like this operated under a code o# chi%alry that was e"tremely protecti%e o# white women. !hus, Colonel Sartoris is unable to allow the town to ta" a poor spinster, and >udge Ste%ens is unable to con#ront mily about the smell coming #rom her house. *s each generation passes the torch, howe%er, the newer generations are #urther and #urther away #rom the anti-uated social mores o# their #orebears. !he men who try to collect mily)s ta"es don)t operate under the same code o# conduct as their grand#athers and great$grand#athers did. mily is not a 88damsel in distress)) to these men? she is a nuisance, a hindrance to progress. Faulkner was %ery interested in this con#lict between nineteenth and twentieth$century Southern society. !he old Southern #amilies o# his no%els, such as the Compsons in !he Sound and the Fury, ultimately collapse under the weight o# their histories. +n 88* 6ose #or mily,)) mily Grierson is certainly a character trapped in her genteel past, although she literally has a 88skeleton in the closet.))
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2iss mily met 4omer &aron, a #oreman with a construction company, when her hometown was #irst getting pa%ed streets. 4er #ather had already died but, not be#ore dri%ing away her eligible suitors. *s rumors circulate about her possible marriage to a 9ankee, 4omer lea%es town abruptly. During his absence, 2iss mily buys rat poison.
1hen 4omer returns, the townspeople see him enter 2iss mily)s house but not lea%e. nly when she dies do the townspeople disco%er his corpse on a bed in her house and, ne"t to it, a strand o# 2iss mily)s hair.
!his Gothic plot makes serious points about woman)s place in society. !hroughout the story, the reader is aware that these e%ents are taking place during a time o# transition/ !he town is #inally getting sidewalks and mailbo"es. 2ore important, %alues are changing. !he older magistrates, #or e"ample, looked on 2iss mily paternally and re#used to collect ta"es #rom her? the newer ones try, unsuccess#ully, to do so.
Caught in these changing times, 2iss mily is trapped in her role as genteel spinster. 1ithout a husband, her li#e will ha%e no meaning. She tries to gi%e lessons in painting china but cannot #ind pupils #or this out$o#$ date hobby and #inally discontinues them. +# 4omer is thinking o# abandoning her, as his departure implies, one can understand her desire to clutch at any sort o# union, e%en a marriage in death.
!he theme is de%eloped through an e"ceptionally well$cra#ted story. !old #rom a third$person plural point o# %iew, it re%eals the reactions o# the town to 2iss mily. *s this 'we( narrator shi#ts allegiance$$now critici@ing 2iss mily, now sympathi@ing with her$$the reader sees the trap in which she is caught, and the
e"tensi%e but unobtrusi%e #oreshadowing prepares the reader #or the story)s #inal re%elation without detracting #rom its #orce.
Literary Style print Print
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Flashback and Foreshadowin Flashback and #oreshadowing are two o#ten used literary de%ices that utili@e time in order to produce a desired e##ect. Flashbacks are used to present action that occurs be#ore the beginning o# a story? #oreshadowing creates e"pectation #or action that has not yet happened. Faulkner uses both de%ices in 88* 6ose #or mily.)) !he story is told by the narrator through a series o# non$se-uential #lashbacks. !he narrator begins the story by describing the scene o# mily)s #uneral? this description, howe%er, is actually a #lashback because the story ends with the narrator)s memory o# the town)s disco%ery o# the corpse in the Grierson home a#ter mily)s #uneral. !hroughout the story, the narrator #lashes back a nd #orth through %arious e%ents in the li#e and times o# mily Grierson and the town o# >e##erson. ach piece o# the story told by the narrator prompts another piece o# the story, regardless o# chronology. For e"ample, the narrator recalls mily)s #uneral, which leads him to remember when Colonel Sartoris relie%ed her o# ta"es. !his o# course leads to the story o# the aldermen trying to collect mily)s ta"es a#ter the death o# the Colonel. !he narrati%e thus works much in the same hapha@ard manner as human memory does.
!he narrator #oreshadows the grisly disco%ery at the end o# the story with se%eral scenes. First, when the aldermen attempt to collect mily)s ta"es, her house is described as decrepit, almost a mausoleum. mily hersel# is compared to a drowned corpse. !hen, in section two, the stench that emanates #rom the Grierson house is most certainly one o# death. *nother power#ul e"ample o# #oreshadowing comes when mily re#uses to let anyone take the body o# her #ather a#ter his death until she relents a#ter three days. 1hen mily #inally has access to another corpse, she 5ealously guards it #or o%er #orty yearsA
!oint of "iew !he point o# %iew in '* 6ose #or mily( is uni-ue. !he story is told by an unnamed narrator in the #irst$ person collecti%e. ne might e%en argue that the narrator is the main character. !here are hints as to the age, race, gender, and class o# the narrator, but an identity is ne%er actually re%ealed. +saac 6odman notes in The Faulkner Journal that the critical consensus remains that the narrator speaks #or his community. B6odman, howe%er, goes on to present a con%incing argument that the narrator may be a loner or eccentric o# some kind speaking #rom 88ironic detachment.)) 6egardless o# identity, the narrator pro%es to be a cle%er, humorous, and sympathetic storyteller. 4e is cle%er because o# the way he pieces the story together to build to a shocking clima". 4is humor is e%ident in his almost whimsical tone throughout what most would consider to be a morbid tale. Finally, the narrator is sympathetic to both mily and the town o# >e##erson. !his is demonstrated in his pity #or mily and in his understanding that the town)s reactions are dri%en by circumstances beyond its control B882iss mily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care? a sort o# hereditary obligation upon the town)).
Settin 88* 6ose #or mily)) is set in Faulkner)s mythical county, 9oknapatawpha, 2ississippi. !he town o# >e##erson is the county seat o# 9oknapatawpha. +n William Faulkner: His Life and Work , Da%id 2inter
writes, 882ore than any ma5or *merican writer o# our time, including 6obert Frost Faulkner is associated with a region. 4e is our great pro%incial.)) >e##erson and 9oknapatawpha County are based upon the real city o# "#ord and a#ayette County in 2ississippi, where Faulkner spent most o# his li#e. nce he established this #ictional, yet #amiliar, setting, he was able to tap his creati%ity to in%ent a history #or 9oknapatawpha and populate the county with color#ul characters like mily Grierson and Colonel Sartoris. !he land and its history e"ert a great in#luence o%er many o# Faulkner)s characters. mily is no e"ception? she is trapped in >e##erson)s past.
Structure !he best o# Faulkners #iction is characteri@ed by the cra#tsmanship o# its structure. !he Sound and the Fury and *s + ay Dying are both e"amples o# daring e"perimentation with point o# %iew and time in the no%el. 4e wrote 88* 6ose #or mily)) during the same period he worked on those no%els. !he story mo%es seamlessly back and #orth in time through almost #i#ty years in its #i%e sections. ach episode in the li#e o# mily and the history o# >e##erson is ob%iously interconnected, yet the clues aren)t gi%en in chronological order. !hus, the #inal scene is power#ul because the narrator does not tell the story in a straight#orward, beginning$to$end #ashion. !his is why the story is e%en more entertaining and enlightening when read #or the second time.
When was "A Rose for Emily" published? print Print
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1illiam Faulkners B;E<$;<= short story H* 6ose #or milyH was originally published in the *pril 30, ;<30 edition o# The Forum, a widely$read *merican maga@ine #ounded in ;EEI. +t was the #irst story Faulkner published in a national maga@ine, and is set in 9oknapatawpha County, the #ictional county #eatured in many o# Faulkners other no%els and stories. Don#t $iss%
J Summary
What is the order of eents in "A Rose for Emily" by William !aulner? print Print
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ne o# the things that makes 1illiam Faulkner)s '* 6ose #or mily( intriguing and memorable is its enigmatic plot. %ents are not related in linear order? rather, the story tra%els back and #orth in time. !he reader is yanked in and out o# spaces and across years, making mily)s crime hard to immediately discern.
1hile the plot can be a #un pu@@le, it can also be #rustratingly di##icult to #ollow at times. 4ere is a list o# what occurs in the story in chronological order/ ;.
mily)s #ather dies
=.
Colonel Sartoris pays mily)s ta"es
3.
Colonel Sartoris dies
K.
4omer comes to town
I.
mily purchases arsenic
.
4omer goes missing
.
* smell emerges and becomes stronger
E.
*ldermen try to collect ta"es #rom mily
<.
mily dies and 4omers body is disco%ered
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J Summary
What are the conflicts in "A Rose for Emily"? print Print
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*ll literature in%ol%es con#lict o# some kind. 1ithout con#lict, there is not much o# a story. !here are #our types o# con#lict. 2ost works will in%ol%e more than one. +n '* 6ose #or mily,( 1illiam Faulkner employs all #our. !he types o# con#lict are/ ;.
2anL %. 2an
=.
2an %. 7ature
3.
2an %. Society
K.
2an %. Sel#.
L7ote/ '2an( re#ers to both men and women.
;. 2an %. 2an
!here are two primary man %. man con#licts in the story.
mily %. 4er Father
mily)s #ather deliberately keep his daughter single by chasing away all her suitors/ 7one o# the young men were -uite good enough #or 2iss mily and such. 1e had long thought o# them as a tableau, 2iss mily a slender #igure in white in the background, her #ather a spraddled silhouette in the #oreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two o# them #ramed by the back$#lung #ront door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased e"actly, but %indicated? e%en with insanity in the #amily she wouldnt ha%e turned down all o# her chances i# they had really materiali@ed B++.=I. mily %. 4omer
!here are both class and social con#licts between mily and 4omer. mily is o# Southern aristocracy, while 4omer is a day laborer. mily is desperate #or marriage, while 4omer is not ready to settle down. So the ne"t day we all said, 'She will kill hersel#(? and we said it would be the best thing. 1hen she had #irst begun to be seen with 4omer &arron, we had said, 'She will marry him.( !hen we said, 'She will persuade him yet,( because 4omer himsel# had remarkedhe liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the lks) Clubthat he was not a marrying man B+M.K3. =. 2an %. Society
1hen an indi%idual)s %alues and needs con#lict with society)s %alues and needs, con#lict results. !here are three types o# 'man %. society( con#licts in '* 6ose #or mily.(
mily %. *ldermen
1hen mily)s #ather was ali%e, he paid the property ta"es on their home? he arranged #or his #riend, Colonel Sartoris, to continue paying the ta"es a#ter his passing on behal# o# his daughter. *#ter the colonel)s death, the younger generation was no longer interested in maintaining their 'hereditary obligation.( For her part, mily #eels no sense o# duty to pay the ta"es hersel#. 1hen the ne"t generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatis#action. n the #irst o# the year they mailed her a ta" notice. February came, and there was no reply. !hey wrote her a #ormal letter, asking her to call at the sheri##s o##ice at her con%enience. * week later the mayor wrote her himsel#, o##ering to call or to send his car #or her, and recei%ed in reply a note on paper o# an archaic shape, in a thin, #lowing calligraphy in #aded ink, to the e##ect that she no longer went out at all. !he ta" notice was also enclosed, without comment B+.K. mily %s. Public *cceptability
!here are two areas o# mily)s pri%ate li#e encroaching on the public, and the public #inds her choices unacceptable.
!he #irst is her outings with 4omer. !he town %iews her suitor as beneath her/ *t #irst we were glad that 2iss mily would ha%e an interest, because the ladies all said, '# course a Grierson would not think seriously o# a 7ortherner, a day laborer.( &ut there were still others, older people,
who said that e%en grie# could not cause a real lady to #orget noblesse obligewithout calling it noblesse oblige. !hey 5ust said, 'Poor mily. 4er kins#olk should come to her.( She had some kin in *labama? but years ago her #ather had #allen out with them o%er the estate o# old lady 1yatt, the cra@y woman, and there was no communication between the two #amilies. !hey had not e%en been represented at the #uneral B+++.3;. !he second is the smell that begins wa#ting #rom her home and becomes increasingly intolerable/ !he ne"t day he recei%ed two more complaints, one #rom a man who came in di##ident deprecation. '1e really must do something about it, >udge. +d be the last one in the world to bother 2iss mily, but we)%e got to do something.( !hat night the &oard o# *ldermen met$$three graybeards and one younger man, a member o# the rising generation. '+t)s simple enough,( he said. 'Send her word to ha%e her place cleaned up. Gi%e her a certain time to do it in, and i# she don)t . . .( 'Dammit, sir,( >udge Ste%ens said, 'will you accuse a lady to her #ace o# smelling bad( So the ne"t night, a#ter midnight, #our men crossed 2iss milys lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sni##ing along the base o# the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one o# them per#ormed a regular sowing motion with his hand out o# a sack slung #rom his shoulder. !hey broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings B++.=;$=K. 3. 2an %. 7ature
*t the turn o# the twentieth century, an unmarried woman past the age o# thirty had %ery #ew chances o# e%er #inding a husband. *ging is not helping milys prospects, and whate%er beauty she may ha%e had is #ading #ast. 4ere is a description o# her appearance when the aldermen pay her a %isit/ !hey rose when she entereda small, #at woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and %anishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. 4er skeleton was small and spare? perhaps that was why what would ha%e been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and o# that pallid hue. 4er eyes, lost in the #atty ridges o# her #ace, looked like two small pieces o# coal pressed into a lump o# dough as they mo%ed #rom one #ace to another while the %isitors stated their errand B+.. K. 2an %. 4imsel#
For mily, the entire story is one large internal con#lict. She has suitors and seems interested, but her #ather chases them away. She must e"perience some con#lict when she dates 4omer, a man well beneath her social station. !he most ob%ious con#lict she has is whether to let the man with whom she has #allen in lo%e go or keep him with her. Fore%er. !he man himsel# lay in the bed. For a long while we 5ust stood there, looking down at the pro#ound and #leshless grin. !he body had apparently once lain in the attitude o# an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts lo%e, that con-uers e%en the grimace o# lo%e, had cuckolded him. 1hat was le#t o# him, rotted beneath what was le#t o# the nightshirt, had become ine"tricable #rom the bed in which he lay? and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that e%en coating o# the patient and biding dust. !hen we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation o# a head. ne o# us li#ted something #rom it, and leaning #orward, that #aint and in%isible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand o# iron$ gray hair.
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J !hemes and 2eanings
Where is there symbolism in "A Rose for Emily"? print Print
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Symbolism is a literary de%ice in which a writer uses a concrete ob5ect to represent an abstract idea. 1hile not all writers use symbolism, Faulkner has chosen to employ symbolism in at least se%en di##erent ways in '* 6ose #or mily.(
;. Dust/ Dust can be symbolic o# many things/ neglect, aging, things that are o%erlooked, andN or the biblical concept o# ashes to ashes, dust to dust. !here are se%en di##erent mentions o# dust throughout the story. 4ere is an e"ample o# those instances/ +t smelled o# dust and disusea close, dank smell. !he 7egro led them into the parlor. +t was #urnished in hea%y, leather$co%ered #urniture. 1hen the 7egro opened the blinds o# one window, they could see that the leather was cracked? and when they sat down, a #aint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun$ray. n a tarnished gilt easel be#ore the #ireplace stood a crayon portrait o# 2iss mily)s #ather B+.I. =. 6atN Snake/ &oth o# these animals are associated with conni%ing and dishonesty. !he druggist o##ers mily 'rat( poison. '+ want some poison,( she said to the druggist. She was o%er thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a #ace the #lesh o# which was strained across the temples and about the eye$sockets as you imagine a lighthouse$keeper)s #ace ought to look. '+ want some poison,( she said. H9es, 2iss mily. 1hat kind For rats and such +d recom( B+++.33$3K ater, the townspeople begin looking #or the source o# the terrible smell emanating #rom mily)s home/ +ts probably 5ust a snake or a rat that nigger o# hers killed in the yard. +ll speak to him about it B++.=0. 3. +ron/ this metal is associated with being cold and in#le"ible. mily)s hair is described as 'iron gray.( 1hen we ne"t saw 2iss mily, she had grown #at and her hair was turning gray. During the ne"t #ew year s it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an e%en pepper$and$salt iron$gray, when it ceased turning. Op to the day o# her death at se%enty$#our it was still that %igorous iron$gray, like the hair o# an acti%e man B+M.KE. K. &lack/ !he color black is associated with death and #unerals, but it also has a more abstract meaning o# being psychologically 'dead.(
mily is described as 'a small, #at woman in black( and she has 'cold, haughty black eyes( B+., +++.3K.
I. Closed houses or rooms/ !here is a psychological component to doors shutting and rooms being sealed o##. 4ere are two e"amples o# 'closing( in the story/ !he 7egro man went in and out with the market basket, but the #ront door remained closed B+M.K. From that time on her #ront door remained closed B+M.K<. . &arron/ 4omer)s last name is '&arron.( +# the %owel is changed to an 'e,( his name can take on a new meaning. +# something is 'barren,( it cannot bear #ruit. !here#ore, the relationship was doomed be#ore it began. 4is #irst name may also be a clue as to his nature? perhaps this 4omer has something in common with the ancient Greek master in that they both spin stories.
. 6ose/ !here is no 'rose( in '* 6ose #or mily.( Osing this symbolic #lower in the title may con5ure up some abstract meanings, including lo%e but also, due to its strong scent, may hint at death. !he tradition o# bringing #lowers to a #uneral comes #rom the need to co%er the smell o# decay. Don#t $iss%
J !hemes and 2eanings
What is !aulner#s primary metaphor in "A Rose for Emily"? print Print
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* metaphor is a literary de%ice in which a writer compares two things that seem to ha%e nothing in common but actually do ha%e some similarities. !he metaphor Faulkner uses most o#ten compares mily to a '#allen monument.(
+n H* 6ose #or mily,H the pre$Ci%il 1ar aristocracy is #ading. !he old homes are #alling into decay and repairs are being neglected. !he old ways are being ignored and replaced with new %alues.
ikewise, mily is aging. 4er slight beauty is gone. 7o one in the new generation is interested in maintaining the 'hereditary obligation with which they ha%e been bestowedH to pay milys ta"es on her behal#. 1hile Faulkner only uses the words '#allen monument( once, the entire story re%ol%es around this essential metaphor/ 1hen 2iss mily Grierson died, our whole town went to her #uneral/ the men through a sort o# respect#ul a##ection #or a #allen monument, the women mostly out o# curiosity to see the inside o# her house, which no one sa%e an old man$ser%anta combined gardener and cookhad seen in at least ten years. +t was a big, s-uarish #rame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the hea%ily lightsome style o# the se%enties, set on what had once been our most select street. &ut garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated e%en the august names o# that neighborhood? only 2iss milys house was le#t, li#ting its stubborn and co-uettish decay abo%e the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumpsan eyesore among eyesores. . .
*li%e, 2iss mily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care? a sort o# hereditary obligation upon the town, dating #rom that day in ;E
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2iss mily)s story is certainly bi@arre, suspense#ul, and mysterious enough to engage the reader)s attention #ully. She is a grotes-ue, southern gothic character whose neurotic or psychotic beha%ior in her relationships with her #ather, her lo%er, and her black ser%ant may elicit many Freudian interpretations. For e"ample, her a##air with 4omer &arron may be seen as a middle$aged woman)s belated rebellion against her repressi%e #ather and against the town)s burdensome e"pectations. !hat 1illiam Faulkner intended her story to ha%e a much larger dimension is suggested by his choice o# an unnamed citi@en o# >e##erson to tell it.
!he narrator ne%er speaks or writes as an indi%idual, ne%er uses the pronoun '+,( always speaks as 'we.( *s representati%e o# the townspeople, the narrator #eels a compulsion to tell the story o# a woman who represents something important to the community. &lack %oices are e"cluded #rom this collecti%e %oice as it speaks out o# old and new generations. Colonel Sartoris)s antebellum generation is succeeded by one with 'modern ideas(/ '!hus, she passed #rom generation to generation.(
%en though 2iss mily was a child during the Ci%il 1ar, she represents to generations past and present the old Deep South o# the Delta cotton$plantation aristocracy. She is a %isible holdo%er into the modern South o# a bygone era o# romance, chi%alry, and the ost Cause. %en this new South, stri%ing #or a prosperity based on 7orthern technology, cannot #ully accept the decay o# antebellum culture and ideals. arly, the narrator in%okes such concepts as tradition, duty, hereditary obligation, and custom, suggesting a perpetuation in the community consciousness o# those old %alues. !he community)s sense o# time is predominantly chronological, but it is also like mily)s, the con#used, psychological time sense o# memory. ike many women o# the de#eated upper class in the Deep South, 2iss mily withdraws #rom the chronological time o# reality into the timelessness o# illusion.
2iss mily is then symbolic o# the religion o# southernness that sur%i%ed military de#eat and material destruction. !he children o# Colonel Sartoris)s generation are sent to learn china$painting #rom 2iss mily in 'the same spirit that they were sent to church.( +t is because 'we( see her as resembling 'those angels in colored church windows( that her a##air with a 9ankee makes her 'a bad e"ample to the young people.(
Gi%en the #act that the 9ankee colonel who made the deepest raid into 6ebel territory was named Grierson, Faulkner may ha%e intended mily)s #amily name to be ironic. !he insanity o# clinging to e"posed illusions is suggested by the #act that 2iss mily)s great$aunt went 'cra@y( and that 2iss mily later appears 'cra@y( to the townspeople. +ronically, e%en within aristocratic #amilies there is di%ision? her #ather #ell out with *labama kinsmen o%er the great$aunt)s estate.
+mmediately a#ter the narrator re#ers to 2iss mily as being like an 'idol( and to her great$aunt as 'cra@y,( Faulkner presents this image, symbolic o# the aristocracy/ '1e had long thought o# them as a tableau, 2iss mily a slender #igure in white in the background, her #ather a spraddled silhouette in the #oreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two o# them #ramed by the back$#lung #ront door.( 4er #ather)s re5ection o# her suitors is like the de#eated aristocracy)s re5ection o# new methods o# creating a #uture. mily)s re#usal to accept the #act o# her #ather)s death suggests the re#usal o# some aristocrats to accept the death o# the South e%en when #aced with the e%idence o# its corpse. Per%ersely, 'She would ha%e to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.( 4owe%er, the modern generations insist on burying the decaying corpse o# the past.
2iss mily preser%es all the dead, in memory i# not literally. 'See Colonel Sartoris,( she tells the new town #athers, as i# he were ali%e. !he townspeople are like 2iss mily in that they persist in preser%ing her 'dignity( as the last representati%e o# the ld South Bher death ends the Grierson line? a#ter she is dead, the narrator preser%es her in this story. !he rose is a symbol o# the age o# romance in which the aristocracy were obsessed with delusions o# grandeur, pure women being a symbol o# the ideal in e%ery phase o# li#e. Perhaps the narrator o##ers this story as a 'rose( #or mily. *s a lady might press a rose between the pages o# a history o# the South, she keeps her own personal rose, her lo%er, preser%ed in the bridal chamber where a rose color per%ades e%erything. 2iss mily)s rose is ironically symbolic because her lo%er was a modern 9ankee, whose laughter drew the townspeople to him and whose corpse has grinned 'pro#oundly( #or #orty years, as i# he, or 2iss mily, had played a 5oke on all o# them. Don#t $iss%
J 1hat are the con#licts in H* 6ose #or milyH
J 1here is there symbolism in H* 6ose #or milyH
J 1hat is Faulkners primary metaphor in H* 6ose #or milyH
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Death Death is pre%alent, both literally and #igurati%ely, in 88* 6ose #or mily.)) Fi%e actual deaths are discussed or mentioned in passing, and there are ob%ious re#erences to death throughout the story. !he story begins in section one with the narrator)s recollections o# mily)s #uneral. 4e reminisces that it is mily)s #ather)s death that prompts Colonel Sartoris to remit her ta"es 88into perpetuity.)) !his leads to the story o# the aldermen attempting to collect ta"es #rom mily. !he narrator)s description o# mily is that o# a drowned woman/ 88She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and o# that pallid hue.)) ne o# the reasons the aldermen are bold enough to try to collect mily)s ta"es is that Colonel Sartoris has been dead #or a decade. # course, this doesn)t discourage milyshe e"pects the men to discuss the matter with
him anyway. 1hen the narrator returns to the sub5ect o# the death o# mily)s #ather, he re%eals that mily at #irst denies that he is dead. She keeps his body #or three days be#ore she #inally breaks down and allows her #ather to be buried. !his scene #oreshadows the grisly disco%ery at the end o# the story. !he narrator also mentions the madness and death o# old lady 1yatt, mily)s great$aunt. Finally, the disco%ery o# a long strand o# iron$gray hair lying on a pillow ne"t to the moldy corpse entombed in mily)s boudoir suggests that mily is a necrophiliac Bliterally, 88one who lo%es the dead)).
The Decline of the &ld South ne o# the ma5or themes in Faulkner)s #iction is the decline o# the ld South a#ter the Ci%il 1ar. !here are many e"amples o# this theme in 88* 6ose #or mily.)) &e#ore the Ci%il 1ar, Southern society was composed o# landed gentry, merchants, tenant #armers, and sla%es. !he aristocratic men o# this period had an unspoken code o# chi%alry, and women were the innocent, pure guardians o# morality. For e"ample, Colonel Sartoris concocts an elaborate story to spare mily)s #eelings when he remits her ta"es? the narrator states, 88nly a man o# Colonel Sartoris)s generation and thought could ha%e in%ented the storyQ, and only a woman could ha%e belie%ed it.)) 1hen the smell de%elops around the Grierson house, a younger man suggests that mily should be con#ronted with it. >udge Ste%ens, who is #rom the same generation as the Colonel, asks him, 88Dammit, sir : will you accuse a lady to her #ace o# smelling bad)) +t is also noted that mily)s #ather is #rom this same generation, an arrogant Southern aristocrat who belie%es that no man is good enough #or his daughter.
4owe%er, post$Ci%il 1ar society in the South was radically di##erent. *t one time, the Grierson home was in one o# the #inest neighborhoods in >e##erson? by the time o# mily)s death, 88garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated e%en the august names o# that neighborhood.)) !he generation that #ollows Colonel Sartoris is not swayed by his old Southern code o# honor. !his is why the twentieth$century >e##erson &oard o# *ldermen attempts to collect mily)s ta"es a decade a#ter the Colonel)s death. !he reaction to the 9ankee 4omer &arron, also ser%es to delineate the di##erence between the generations. !he younger generation #inds it easier to accept 4omer, while the older #olks #ind his relationship with a woman born to old Southern gentility unacceptable. mily)s china$painting lessons also show the change in Southern society. 4er pupils are the daughters and grand$daughters o# Colonel Sartoris)s contemporaries. 4owe%er, the narrator notes that 88the painting pupils grew up and #ell away and did not send their children to her with bo"es o# color and tedious brushes and pictures cut #rom the ladies) maga@ines.)) Finally, mily)s dark secret might ser%e as a metaphor #or the general decadence o# the ld South.
Community vs' (solation !he odd relationship between the town o# >e##erson and mily is a recurrent theme in 88* 6ose #or mily.)) *t her #uneral, the narrator notes that mily has been 88a tradition, a duty, and a care? a sort o# hereditary obligation upon the town.)) 4owe%er, mily has %ery little to do with the townspeople during her li#e. 4er #ather pre%ents her #rom dating anyone because he doesn)t belie%e any o# the men in >e##erson are good enough #or her, and a#ter his death, mily continues to isolate hersel# #rom the rest o# the community #or the better part o# her li#e. !he only notable e"ceptions to her isolation are her Sunday rides with 4omer &arron, her shopping trips #or arsenic and men)s clothing, and the china$painting lessons she gi%es to the young women o# the town #or a #ew years. !hese e"ceptions only ser%e to show how alienated mily is #rom the rest o# >e##erson.
*lthough mily is indi##erent to the town, the town seems to be almost obsessed with her. !he reaction >e##erson has to her relationship with 4omer &arron e"empli#ies this obsession. !he ladies o# >e##erson are morti#ied because they think the relationship is 88a disgrace to the town and a bad e"ample to the young people.)) !he older people dislike the relationship because they think it is bad #orm #or a Southern woman to associate with a 9ankee. !he narrator pities mily and secretly hopes that she will outsmart her cousins and marry 4omer. !hese %arious reactions demonstrate an interesting con#lict. %en though mily %iews hersel#
as separate #rom the community, the community still embraces her. !hey %iew her as 88an idol in a niche : passed #rom generation to generationdear, inescapable, imper%ious, tran-uil, and per%erse.))
(e#t)*haracters'revious)*hapter ummaries
A Rose for Emily )omework )el* +uestions
+n Faulkners H* 6ose #or mily,H why has no one suspected mily o# the murder o# 4omer &arron
!he townspeople do, indeed, suspect something a#oul a#ter milys #ather died and a#ter Hher sweetheart went away.H 1hen one o# milys neighbors complains in Part ++ o# H* 6ose #or...
+n the story H* 6ose #or mily,H is it signi#icant that mily is the last Grierson 1hy or why...
For similar reasons to those posted abo%e, + would also say the answer is yes. milys status as the last in a #amily line is important to the meaning o# the story. *s the world changes around...
Discuss the symbolism o# mily, the 7egro manser%ant and the house she li%ed in H* 6ose #or...
!&, !4 2*7S6M*7!. !he *#rican$*merican manser%ant symboli@es the sla%ery o# the ante$bellum ld South. 4e ser%es mily #aith#ully until her death? a#terward, he disappears and is ne%er seen...
"plain Faulkners techni-ue in HplacingH a gray hair on 2iss milys bed in H* 6ose #or...
+n 1illiam Faulkners Southern Gothic short story H* 6ose #or milyH, the narrator Bin the #orm o# the H%oices o# the towns#olkH had been hinting at something mysterious that must ha%e taken place...
* 6ose #or mily/ Feminist 1orkCan one consider H* 6ose #or milyH a #eminist work...
milys only empowering act is in poisoning 4omer &arron? she claims him in death as she has claimed her #ather and an anti-uated system in which she has been dominated. mily chooses only at the...
+omewor +elp A Rose for Emily
1hat is the e"position, clima", rising action, #alling action, and resolution o# H* 6ose #or milyH 1e do not necessarily ha%e to consider the story in chronological order in order to assess these elements. +n #act, the story is not presented to us in chronological order, so + would argue that we ought to honor the order o# e%ents in which we do get the story when analy@ing it. *s a result, descriptions o# 2iss milys #uneral, the towns #eelings about her during her li#e, and her ta"es are all e"position.
!he rising action begins with the description o# the smell that once emanated #rom 2iss milys home, thirty years prior to the ta" con#lict and 5ust two years or so a#ter her #athers death. 7e"t, we learn about her #athers belie# when mily was young that no one was good enough #or her. !hen he dies, lea%ing her all alone, something that she is clearly uncom#ortable with because she hoards his body #or days be#ore allowing people to take it away and bury it. !his is also an important instance o# rising action because milys odd treatment o# the dead is a clue to understanding the storys clima". mily gets sick, reco%ers, meets 4omer &arron, buys arsenic, re#uses to tell the druggist what she needs it #or, and buys wedding gi#ts #or 4omer, be#ore he disappears into her home #or good, ne%er to be seen again/ !his all #alls under the characteri@ation o# rising action, as is the description o# her Hiron$grayH hair.
Finally, mily dies, and a#ter her #uneral, townspeople know that the door to one room upstairs Hwould ha%e to be #orced open.H +t had not been opened #or some #orty years. +n the storys clima", there is the H%iolence o# breaking down the doorH and the disco%ery o# 4omer &arrons decayed body, surrounded by his bridal suit and the gi#ts 2iss mily purchased #or him. !his is the moment o# the most tension in the story/ we learn that she has hoarded 4omers body 5ust as she did her #athers.
+n the storys #alling action, the narrator describes 4omers body, its attitude, and #inal posture, as well as the #act that it has essentially rotted so much that it Hhad become ine"tricable #rom the bed in which he lay.H +n the storys resolution, we learn that a long piece o# milys easily identi#iable Bas a result o# the earlier description in the rising action hair is #ound on the pillow beside 4omers. *t this point, what we might ha%e suspected is con#irmed/ mily murdered 4omer in order to pre%ent him #rom e%er lea%ing her, as he apparently brie#ly did when her aw#ul #amily came to %isit at the re-uest o# the towns#olk.
&ecome a #an o# #a%oritethings. B1hats this like dislike
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troutmiller R )ih School Teacher R ,-evel ./ Educator Posted on >anuary ;E, =00< at ;=/3I *2
!his story is told almost backwards with its use o# #lashbacks. So the way to e"amine its plot sections is also backwards. !he e"position o# the story would be when the author introduces her #ather and we see his personality and her background. 1e know the characters in%ol%ed and the con#lict. mily is too good #or any man, according to her #ather, so he keeps her #rom datingNmarrying. !hen he dies, which is another con#lict #or her$$being alone. !his carries on throughout the story. She does not want to be le#t.
!he rising action in%ol%es most o# the rest o# the storyline including the towns attitude towards her and her #ling with 4omer. %en the part where she buys the arsenic and the house smells something aw#ul. !he town e%en spreads lime around the house to help keep the smell down.
!he clima" is not until the last #ew lines o# the story when we #ind 4omers body and one o# her gray hairs on the pillow ne"t to his corpse. 1e reali@e that she had poisoned him so he wouldnt lea%e, Band that was the aw#ul smell earlier and that she has been lying with him e%er since.
!he #alling action is about a decade be#ore she dies when they try to get her ta" money #rom her. She holds them o##, though. *nd the resolution then is the really at the beginning when she is introduced at her own #uneral.
