A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner - 1780 Words

In 1930, William Faulkner wrote a five-part story entitled â€Å"A Rose for Emily† that follows the life of a young woman named Miss Emily Grierson. Faulkner sets his story in the Old South, soon after the ending of America’s Civil War, and represents the decaying values of the Confederacy (Kirszner Mandell, 2013a, p. 244). One of these values which the text portrays quite often in â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, is the patriarchal custom of society viewing men as having more importance than their female counterparts. Through a very shallow reading of Faulkner’s text, a reader might observe the seeming independence of Miss Grierson; however, to delve deeper into the text itself reveals that nearly every aspect of Emily’s life, and the description†¦show more content†¦Sequentially, the succeeding occurrence of foreshadowing appears in section three, when Miss Grierson seeks out â€Å"the best kind [of poison]† that the druggist sells, and s hortly after the narrator reveals that Homer â€Å"was not a marrying man† (Falkner, 2013, 248). The last incidence, that to some readers may have been the confirming revelation to their hypothesis, is the disappearance of Homer Barron entirely—last spotted by a neighbor entering the Grierson front door (Faulkner, 2013, p.249). At the conclusion of the story, all of these cases of foreshadowing amount to the revelation that Barron was entombed within Emily’s house after he decided not to marry her, and was poisoned with Arsenic by Miss Emily herself (Faulkner, 2013, pp. 248-250). However, the plot twist that was not foreshadowed, was the eerie detail that she had been sleeping with his corpse all these years (Faulkner, 2013, p. 250). A surface-level reader might conclude that because Miss Grierson has lived most of her life as a single woman, preceded in death by her father, she is a strong and independent female—free from the patriarchy that afflicted post-Civil War America. However, to take a feminist perspective upon the text â€Å"A Rose for Emily† reveals a much different conclusion. To begin our feminist criticism of â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, it is imperative to note that a male by the name of William Faulkner authored the text. Faulkner himself lived during the Civil War period in theShow MoreRelatedA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner923 Words   |  4 PagesA Rose for Emily; A Tale of The Old South William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897 but lived most of his life in Oxford, a small town nearby. After dropping out of high school then briefly joining the Canadian Air Force, he returned home and completed three terms at the University of Mississippi (Fulton 27). During his early twenties Faulkner spent time in New Orleans and Europe before returning to Oxford and publishing his first book of poems. In 1929 he married Estelle FranklinRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1729 Words   |  7 PagesJune 24, 2015 â€Å"A Rose for Emily† In every neighborhood there is always that one house that is a mystery to everyone. A house that everyone wants to know about, but nobody can seem to be able to dig up any answers. It’s the type of place that you would take any opportunity or excuse to get to explore. The littler that is known, the more the curiosity increases about this mysterious place or person. In the short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner, this mysterious person is Emily Grierson, andRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner949 Words   |  4 PagesIn William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily† it is clear how Emily’s gender affects how the individuals in the town perceive her. Emily’s gender particularly affects how men understand her. Throughout the whole piece Emily is seen as a helpless individual who is lonely and has suffered losses throughout her life. When the reader reaches the end of the story the actions that Emily has taken is unexpected because of the way she is perceived by the narrator. In the beginning of the story, when the wholeRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1577 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"A Sarah Markins Dr. Bibby ENG 107 February 11, 2015 â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, written by William Faulkner in 1931, follows a series of peculiar events in Miss Emily Griersons life. Written in third person limited, Faulkner utilizes flashbacks to tell of the period between the death of Emily’s father and her own passing. Split into five short sections, the story starts out with the townspeople of Jefferson remembering Emily’s legacy and how each new generation ofRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1552 Words   |  7 PagesRyan Dunn Mrs. Williams English 11 March 11, 2016 In the short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner, the reader is given a glimpse of the internal conflict of the main character, living in the past, and the involvement of an over involved society causing the reader to look into the consciousness of an individual haunted by a past and lack of a future. The story is set in a post-Civil War town in the South. He is able to give the reader a glimpse of the practices and attitudes that had unitedRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1507 Words   |  7 Pages1897, William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi. He stands as one of the most preeminent American writers of the twentieth century. His literary reputation included poetry, novels, short stories, and screenplays. Faulkner won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature. â€Å"A Rose for Emily† is a short fascinating story written by William Faulkner and it was his first short story published in a national m agazine. The story involved an old woman named Emily GriersonRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner883 Words   |  4 PagesIn the timeless classic, â€Å"A rose for Emily† by William Faulkner we are introduced to Emily Grierson, a matured sheltered southern woman; born to a proud, aristocratic family presumably during the American Civil War. Through out the short story William Faulkner uses many literary devices such as symbolism, metaphors and allegory to play with â€Å"time† and how time reflects upon his main character Emily Grierson. Emily being one who denies the ability to see time for what it is linear and unchangeableRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1270 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Faulkner’s short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† thoroughly examines the life of a strange woman name Emily Grierson who lives in the town of Jefferson. If we examine â€Å"A Rose for Emily† in terms of formalist criticism, we see that the story dramatizes through setting, plot, characterization, and symbolism on how Miss Emily’s life is controlled by a possessive love she had for her father and lover. William Faulkner uses Emily’s life as the protagonist to examine from a formalist aspect. In orderRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner1277 Words   |  6 PagesMiss Emily Grierson, the main character in the strange short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† written by William Faulkner. It would be best to examine her in a mental capacity as well as the circumstances that may affect her. Throughout the story, Miss Emily’s unpredictable and eccentric behavior becomes unusual, and the reader, like the townspeople in the story, is left to speculate how Miss Emily has spent years living and sleeping with the body of Homer Barron. An important quote from the story was thatRead MoreA Rose For Emily By William Faulkner931 Words   |  4 PagesShort Stories A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner. This story takes place in Faulkner s fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in Yoknapatawpha County. Young Goodman Brown is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This story takes place during the 17th century and discusses the Puritan belief that all of humanity exists in a state of corruption, except those who are fortunately born into a state of grace. In â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† Emily’s house is a commemoration