Category: A Rose For Emily

Introduction

Pieces of literature written in the XX century may dramatically vary as the world had been promptly changing during that period, having gone through two World Wars, traumas of totalitarian regimes, anticolonial movements, and other traumatic experiences. Nevertheless, some themes appear to be timeless, and solitariness in all its forms is one of them. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin demonstrate how different the narrative on a common theme can be, considering the characters, the expressive means applied and the messages translated.

Main body

To begin with, one shall draw their attention to what the narrators are like in pieces. On the one hand, there is a question of whether “A Rose for Emily” narrator represents the perspective of the city that tells the story. The reader does not know to which sex they might belong to and can only guess that the narrator is an aged person who observes Emily’s entire life. Probably, they might belong to the local authorities as they refer to the group that came to discuss the tax issue with Emily as “we.” However, one might also notice the fact that the people in town do not seem to share the affection expressed by the narrator throughout the story until the very end when a horrible event is uncovered. The narrator is as sympathetic as respectful towards Emily. They admire the way she manages to get the poison or to vanquish the city council members. Hence, the narrator appears to be an unnamed part of the community different from the latter as they do not condemn either of her actions and treat Emily with respect.

On the other hand, the narrator of “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas” seems to be the person distant from the city and described events. As if they once visited Omelas or heard of the place from somebody else, or, more lifelike, they invent the story as they write it. In a way, the narrator serves as a guide in the made-up city that seems utopian until the readers find out about the child suffering in the basement and guaranteeing the happiness of everybody else in Omelas. The narrator does not openly express sympathy and does not criticize the citizens for their moral choice. However, the dilemma posed by the story is as evident as the heroic nature of the ones “who walk away.” In a word, though seeming unreliable, the narrator appears to be the only ridge between Le Grain’s world and readers.

Speaking of the characters, the nature of their solitude seems quite different. As for Emily and the position she finds herself, one may think she enjoys more freedom to choose her lifestyle. Hence, the isolation she practices seems to be the result of her will in comparison to the child from “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas.” Nevertheless, the narrator seems to be sympathetic to Emily partially cause her father pushed her to her solitude (Faulkner 1). They convince the reader that she suffers from her loneliness as only a desperate person can kill the loved one in order to keep them close. There is also an opinion that Emily locked herself out of shame for being abandoned by the fiancé, but that is not a free will. “A Rose for Emily” is a rather tragic title that demonstrates how little the main character had in her life. Therefore, it would be unfair to claim that Emily’s solitude is an independent decision. Instead, a series of unfortunate circumstances and social conventions pushed her to the life she lived.

As for “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas,” the narrator seemingly presents the situation more univocally. There is hardly a more unethical action than locking a child in a dark and dirty room alone for the sake of everybody else’s happiness. The infant is an evident victim of the situation. They are not anything more, as the reader does not find out anything about their character: the narrator emphasizes that it is not essential by giving unclear details like “it could be a boy or a girl” (Le Guin 3). However, what some readers may forget is that the child is not the only lonely personage of the story. As the title says, the narrator means to draw their readers’ attention to “those who walk away” from the city. The ones who choose to give up the perfect life of Omelas after finding out the price of this happiness. Hence, while the lonely child is a martyr, those who leave Omelas and choose solitude are the heroes for the narrator.

Another point to be made is that places appear to be another expressive means that both Faulkner and Le Guin apply in their texts. As for “A Rose for Emily,” its narrator sees Emily’s room for the first time after her death. They describe the place as the following: “a thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of a faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man’s toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured” (Faulkner 6). Providing the readers with all these details, the narrator translates the creepy, dark, and yet strangely peaceful atmosphere of the room. That is precisely what they need to prepare the audience for the main twist of the story – discovering the body. In other words, the description of Emily’s room becomes the final detail that explains the narrator’s attitude towards the main character as well as uncovers her personality to the readers’ eyes.

What Le Guin does is the construction of dichotomy between the never-ending Festival of Summer in Omelas and the filthy basement where the child spends its time: “in a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings” (Le Guin 3). On the one hand, there is music on the streets, naked cheerful children, and horses wearing no gear (Le Guin 1). On the other, the narrator creates the image of the darkest and saddest place in the world that has only one locked door and no windows (Le Guin 3). One can imagine that the child is almost blind as “a little light seeps in dustily between cracks in the boards, secondhand from a cobwebbed window somewhere across the cellar” (Le Guin 3). Hence, the description of the location serves the construction of conflict between the utopian Omelas and the dark basement where the child lives.

Finally, it is important to compare to messages translated by the narrators. “A Rose for Emily” had multiple motives, and solitude is seen as a means chosen by Emily to overcome a tragedy. The narrator seems to translate the conviction that any loss and unhappiness. As for “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas,” it poses a more general ethical question among its readers who are supposed to realize that Omelas, while seeming unrealistic is the world the humanity has always lived in. The narrator invites their reader to make the moral choice once again; however, they also evidently glorify the ones who refuse to be happy for the price of a child’s life. Hence, these two stories, despite being united by a common theme, develop different discussions on solitude.

Conclusion

To conclude, “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner and “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Le Guin are pieces devoted to one of the timeless problems of loneliness. Narrators in both stories are not active participants of the events, but this seems to be one of the few common traits shared by the works. If the narrator in Faulkner’s story represents a sympathetic part of the local community observing the life of Emily’s, the one telling the story of Omelas simply makes it up. They construct problems different in their nature, showing that solitude may be a result of one’s passiveness like in Emily’s case, a sacrifice like it was with the child or a heroic act as it is described when individuals leave from Omelas. Nevertheless, both narrators apply the location description in order to strengthen the atmosphere or the conflict. Finally, the messages communicated are quite different, yet, both deep and trilling.

Works Cited

Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Biblioteka, 2020. Web.

Le Guin, Ursula K. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” Semantics Scholar, Web.

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is one of the most famous novels of the author. There is hardly a novel in the literature, which has so many opposite meanings as A Rose for Emily. In spite the fact that the novel has been written in 1930, the debates concerning the true message of the novel still exist. Practically every literary critic has its own vision and perception of the novel. Among the great variety of the different opinions it is possible to distinguish several major issues for the novels understanding.

There are those who apt to think that the main motive of the novel is the theme of the time. Others assert that the novel is overfilled with symbols, and in order to understand the true meaning of it the basic knowledge of American history is necessary. There are also the researches who consider this novel to be the typical example of the horror story without any additional meaning.

As for me this novel causes different feelings. On the one hand, it repels by its difficult theme. But at the same time it attracts by its way of presentation and by the literary mastery of the author, who has succeeded in creation the specific gothic atmosphere that catches the readers attention from the very beginning of the narration.

The story begins with the announcement of the death of the old maid Emily Grierson. Then the narrator describes all the Emily’s bonehead actions making a reader believe in her insanity. The thing that focuses a readers attention is the chronological irregularity of the narration. The novel is logically divided into five chapters describing the certain period of Emilys life. Such a stylistic device used by the author is not occasional.

The author describes the changes of the generations in the town and the changes of the town authorities. But apart from the changes in Emilys appearance, the time has no impact on her. To be more exact, she denies the existence of the time. She lives with her father in their inner world separated from the existing reality. After her fathers death, Emily behaves as nothing has happened. Only in several days after the death, her father was buried.

All the modern innovations, all the changes are denied by Emily. She does not accept the new local authorities. All the changes of her abandoned house are inadmissible for her. Even the emergency of the mail delivery system is denied by Emily. She refused it. In all the situations, opposing herself to the surrounding environment, she wins the struggle against the society. Citizens of the town feel shy facing with the old-fashioned aristocratic lady. She denies them, as well as she denies the time. The only thing that is impossible for overcoming is the death. In her attempts to stop the time, Emily kills her fiancée in order to keep him forever in her house.

The author uses the different stylistic means and devices to underline the main theme of the novel. First of all, it is the specific form of the narration. There is no the concrete narrator in the novel. By using the generalized we, which can be applied to any inhabitant of the town, the author distinguishes between Emily and the surrounding society. The novel is also full of symbols. The Emilys abandoned house with its old-fashioned architecture contradicts the surrounding reality. The Emily’s silent servant fulfilling day by day his dull obligations without any changes in his daily routine. During the Emilys conversation with the local deputation, the author pays attention to such the minor detail as her invisible watch on the gold chain that measures the time of her life. The dust that covers everything in Emilys house is also symbolic.

Faulkner gives a contradictory image to Emily. It is rather difficult to answer who is she – the idol and the monument of the past, or the living corpse and the murderer. The circumstances of her tragedy are unknown. However, she is dead and the author shows the readers that it is impossible to defeat the time and the death just denying them.

The end of the novel impressed me greatly. Faulkner gives one more symbol, the detail, which is of a great importance for the understanding of the whole novel. “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-grey hair” (Faulkner para. 63). Emily had been sleeping near the corpse of her fiancée during all her life, rejecting the time and the death and completely losing her mind.

Works Cited

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner 2015. Web.

Introduction

In his examination of the story “A Rose for Emily,” Garrison (1979) presents an entirely different method of examination as compared to previous critiques of the story wherein he focuses on the way in which the narrator tells the story and the implications of the method by which it was done. Garrison (1979) presents the notion that the story is a “critique of the kind of narrative art that naively assumes the possibility of an omniscient presentation of the truth and, in that naiveté, fails to see the encroaching contours of its bias” (Garrison, 1979). In other words, the main purpose of the story was to reveal how concepts related to truth and time can never be fully understood in truly objective terms resulting in a certain degree of observational bias and error in the retelling of the story. The inherent problem though is that the argument of Jones centers around the story being a critique against the attitudes of the omniscient presentation of truth, but it ignores the setting, the characters and the society in which the events take place and as such is an inherently flawed and limited method of examination.

Summary

Garrison (1979) begins his argument by first presenting one of the initial scenes within the short story involving the death of Ms. Emily and the arrival of the various townsfolk to her house. He points out the way in which the narrator utilizes a method of external categorization to refer to the citizenry (i.e., “the men” and “the women”) while at the same time implying a certain degree of deficiency in their response to the death of Ms. Emily. Garrison (1979) mentions that the narrator’s apparent aloofness, wherein he grants himself a special status among those present, indicates a thought process that believes that he is above the deficiencies that others display. In this initial examination, the author of the article even goes so far as to mention that the various references to time that are scattered throughout certain points in the story are stated in such a way by the narrator that it shows that he is comfortably orientation in his concept of time and that he is free from making any uncertainties about his ability to recount and elaborate on what has happened within the story. Garrison (1979) states that this is indicative of the narrator’s confidence that the memories he possesses are not affected by the passage of time.

It is at this point that Garrison presents the notion that the narrator plays a more central role in the story than initially realized. It could be that the story of Ms. Emily is, in fact, a story about that narrator and what he does or does not learn throughout several points in the story until it finally culminates in the last part of the story explaining the presence of the “long strand of gray hair.” Thus, from this perspective, Garrison makes the assumption that the narrator is an individual who thinks that the way in which he tells the story is in no way different from the way other people would have said it. This point of view by the narrator, unfortunately, does not take into consideration the prolific amount of assumptions that are seen throughout the story. When looking at the ending, it becomes immediately apparent that the full story was not known to the narrator at all, with many of the assumptions made actually being false. It is based on this that Garrison (1979) presents the notion that the story is about the concept of truth and how it can and cannot be known and told through truly objective means (Garrison, 1979).

Analysis

In examining the initial assumptions of Garrison (1979), it was determined that the various assumptions in the story were actually hints developed by the author to help solidify the concept that not all that is being narrated is the actual truth. For example, there were numerous assumptions made by the author regarding the smell that was present in Ms. Emily’s home, and there were even more assumptions regarding the relationship between Ms. Emily and Homer. Not only that, when examining the story in detail, but it also becomes immediately apparent that there was an insufficient explanation regarding the disappearance of Homer, which was supposedly connected to the fact that the streets were already finished. When examining the ending of the story, it becomes clear that Homer was in fact poisoned to death and that the origin of the mysterious smell was, in fact, his decaying corpse, however, when examining the narration of the narrator it does not become obvious in the least that Ms. Emily would have been capable of such actions based on the way she was portrayed. It should also be noted that there are numerous hidden details throughout the story that were never truly clarified.

These consist of the nature of the relationship between Ms. Emily and the Yankee, the reasoning behind her apparent use of poison in order to kill him, as well as the general knowledge of her Negro attendant regarding the events that happened within the house. When taking such missing details into consideration, it becomes all the more apparent that when the narrator was telling the story, there were vast inconsistencies between what was assumed and what actually happened. Garrison (1979) builds upon this by pointing out that the narrator, at times lacks a sufficient understanding of the context of the events presented (i.e. Ms. Emily buying arsenic for “rats” when it was in fact used to kill the Yankee). There was also a distinct lack of sufficient emotional connection on the part of the narrator with other characters within the story. This was evidenced by the fact that the narrator neglected to take into consideration the level of anxiety, depression and loneliness that Ms. Emily apparently felt during her time alone. There was no elaboration on the effects of not being able to connect with her other family members due to an old grudge and it was also not mentioned how incredibly lonely it must have been to be all alone within her home with no one to talk to, no one to love her and no one to care for her. It is these and other such details that Garrison (1979) explains is missing from the main bulk of the story which further solidifies his argument that the story is a means for the author to display how concepts related to truth and time can never be fully understood in truly objective terms resulting in a certain degree of observational bias and error in the retelling of the story.

Response

What Garrison fails to take into consideration though is that the narrator could just be that, merely a narrator, with the main purpose of the story actually being related to the concept of honor, pride and the perception of society being similar to a prison of iron bars and stone walls which traps people into a particular way of acting which in effect makes them lose their freedom. Ms. Emily’s loss of freedom can be characterized by her pride, her heritage and the image of being the last of the Grierson’s within their town as being aspects of her as a person. As it can be seen within the story, Ms. Emily can be described as aloof, prideful, haughty and considering herself far above others within the town. Such an attitude alienated her from making friends with the other women within the town. Not only that, it eliminated the possibility of suitors from successfully wooing her. Even when her father’s death left her nothing but the house she lived in she still continued to maintain the attitude of superiority that isolated her from others within her area. Based on the ending of the book, where it was shown that Ms. Emily had actually killed her suitor to keep him with her, it can be seen that she was a person that was desperate for love and companionship. In the end, she let her pride and the perception of the people around her act as a prison against being able to gain the love and affection she desperately craved.

Evidence of this can be seen in this part of the story: “the body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace”. When reading this part of the story it becomes immediately obvious that Ms. Emily continued to lie with this corpse even till her dying days. This was due to the way in which she let her pride and her arrogance prevent those she considered “inferior” from associating with her which in the end left her alone and depressed. This can actually be considered one of the themes of the story “A Rose for Emily” where the author attempts to show the effects of letting one’s pride and the perception of others dictate your actions. It must also be noted that the setting itself was during the era after the civil war wherein the perception of others played a crucial role in societal interaction. This supports the assumption that the themes and events indicated within the story are a lesson related to how the views of others and our desire to live up to those views at times creates a prison to trap us into a particular way of interacting and dealing with others as well as living our own life.

Conclusion

While the argument of Garrison is quite interesting, it delves into a concept that fails to take into consideration the other elements of the story such as the characters, the society at the time and the setting itself. The argument of Jones centers around the story being a critique against the attitudes of the omniscient presentation of truth, but its sheer lack of sufficient examination and its focus on the narrator makes it an inherently flawed and limited method of examination.

Reference List

Garrison Jr., J. M. (1979). ‘Bought flowers’ in ‘a rose for Emily’. Studies In Short Fiction, 16(4), 341.

First published in 1930 in the now defunct magazine The Forum, “A Rose for Emily” is a short story by the 20^th century American author William Faulkner. The story revolves around Emily Grierson, a woman of the mid to late 19^th century American south, a few decades following the end of the Civil War (Asmarani 24). As Faulkner sets the story, apparently the Griersons belong to the aristocratic elites of the Antebellum era in the south, but after the war, the family faces financial crises and disintegrates as members fight over the remaining properties. Arguably, Emily’s actions and choices in life are wrong and in contrast to the social expectations because of the impact her overly controlling and manipulative father had on her early upbringing.

Emily is the protagonist in the story, but her actions do not either make her a hero or a villain as is the case in many stories. Rather, she leads a seclusive and reclusive life after the death of her highly controlling father and disownment by her only lover who is unnamed in the story (Huang 202). Apparently, her actions are strange and would be considered signs of mental health problems in the modern times. However, the townspeople rarely interfere with her life and behaviors. Emily’s choices in life are bizarre and uncommon, but it arguable that they are directly influenced by the impact of her father’s excessive control over her life and relationships, which might have had severe long-term psychological impacts.

In normal circumstances, a person starts making important decisions in life in early adulthood, especially after schooling. It is during this period that people make decisions to work, enter into relationships, marry, and take other interests that will shape their life and future (Khrais 28). In the 19^th century America, especially in the South, people at this age were expected to start working or running businesses and get married (Asmarani 26). However, Emily Grierson makes a strange decision at this time in life. Throughout her childhood, teenage, and early adulthood, she is always in company of her father. From a psychological point of view, one would note that the manipulative nature of the father affected Emily’s ability to form intimate relationships in her early adulthood life.

In turn, Emily decides to stick to this life as long as she does not confront or disappoint her father. Faulkner portrays Emily as a highly submissive woman, but only to her father. In addition, unlike other people at her age, Emily does not start working and appears to depend on her father for support despite her age (Bai, Zhang, and Li 611). Apart from Mr. Grierson, no other close relative is mentioned, which suggests that she might have been his only daughter. It may also explain why he decides to keep her close to him by banning all men from her life and refusing to allow her the freedom of choice.

Emily starts making life decisions for herself quite later compared to other members of her community. The father dies abruptly when she is about 30, an event that greatly affects her (Faulkner). It appears that she had not expected such an event and there were no plans on how she would survive alone. She seems not to accept the fact that the father, keeping the body for three days hoping that he would arise (Bai, Zhang, and Li 611). This choice is rather strange in a society that is highly religious with strict rules on how manage a similar situation. As the only family member, Emily was supposed to announce the death to the community members, enter into a mourning period, obtain moral and material support from other people in the city, and finally respectfully lay the father to his grave. However, her decision is against this tradition because she does not even mourn and bans people from coming to comfort and support her during the period (Zhang and Zhou 709). It takes the effort of doctors and community leaders to convince Emily to allow the burial of her father’s body (Asmarani 28). It appears that she does not have any other person in life apart from her father, thus the decision to avoid let him go. Again, this decision emanates from the father’s controlling and manipulative behavior when he was alive.

After the father’s death, Emily decides to lead a seclusive life and does not want to relate with other people in the town. For most people, this would have been an opportunity to try other relationships in life to fill the gap the father has left. In particular, the society expected her to find a suitor and eventually wed and settle down. However, this is not the case because she remained in her house, rarely appearing in public (Kirchdorfer 145). At one time, she only teaches young people about China arts in a class she sets in the lower room of her house. However, she closes down the room and is never seen again in public when students are no longer coming to her class (Zhang and Li 988). The choice of remaining secluded is probably a long-term impact of her father’s treatment during his lifetime.

As a means of retaining her life a secret, Emily’s choice of a helper is a black man named Tobe whose work is to obtain supplies from the market and take care of the home. The choice is rather strategic because at the time, black people were still treated as second-class citizens and would be controlled by their employers. With Tobe, it was possible for Emily to control his behavior and make sure that he did not talk to anyone in the town or reveal any of her secrets (Kirchdorfer 146). Tobe acted as a royal servant and neither interfered with her life nor talk about it outside. Even after her death, Tobe does not talk to anyone, but disappears from city to avoid revealing Emily’s secrets.

Even when an opportunity to find a suitor and settle down comes her way, Emily’s choice of relationship and marriage is rather awkward. The appearance and presence of Homer Barron in the town is a relief to many people who are worried of Emily’s life choices. At last, she has fond someone who she can relate with, given that Barron is a northerner and is not aware of Emily’s past life. Because of her father’s actions, it is possible that Emily must have no interest in local men (Kirchdorfer 146). This is why she is interested in marrying Barron and even goes further to purchase wedding items for him in preparation for marriage. To many people in the southern society, the expectation was that a public wedding would happen and everyone would witness (Khrais 28). However, she makes another rare choice. Probably feeling that Barron would abandon her, Emily decides that the best way would be to keep him permanently close to her. That is why she makes the choice of poisoning Barron and keeping the body in her bed as long as she lives.

Apparently, Emily’s experience as a child and in early adulthood in the hands of the manipulative father led to her choices of law and conduct. Indeed, she has created her own logic of law and conduct, which puts her in contradicting position with the town’s laws and order. First, she sticks to the idea that her father was not supposed to pay taxes to the city throughout his life because the former mayor had remitted levies on him (Bai, Zhang, and Li 612). The narrator says that the decision for Colonel Sartoris to remit Mr. Grierson’s taxes was because he had lent the city a huge sum of money sometimes before. Emily uses this as an excuse to avoid paying taxes as she believes that the decision by the mayor also applies to her, long after the father is dead.

Consequently, she does not reply to any letter from the city leaders and when they decide to physically demand for taxes, she refers them to Sartoris. It is not known whether she is aware that Mayor Sartoris had died a decade before (Feng 86). Again, Emily’s choice of law and conduct applies even after death of an individual as it is seen when she asks the men to go and consult Sartoris, keeping her father’s body with her, and staying for years with the dead body of Barron.

In conclusion, the protagonist in this short story makes choices that seem to emanate from a psychological problem. In the modern times, a person who behaves like Emily would be considered having a mental issue, which is most likely due to trauma following her father’s death. Also, it is possible that the choices and behaviors that Emily demonstrates result from the manipulative behavior of Mr. Grierson, which made the daughter lose interest in forming relationships with other people in her society.

Works Cited

Asmarani, Ratna. “The Stunted Identity of Emily Grierson in A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner.” Culturalistics: Journal of Cultural, Literary, and Linguistic Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2017, pp. 23-30. Web.

Bai, Xiaojun, Xiaotong Zhang, and Yihui Li. “An Analysis of Emily’s Characters in A Rose for Emily from the Perspective of Narration.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 11, no. 4. 2020, pp. 611-615. Web.

Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Web.

Feng, Shiying. “Fallen Monument: A Marxist Analysis of William Faulkner’sa Rose for Emily.” International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology, vol. 3, no. 3, 2021, pp. 85-87. Web.

Huang, Yan. “An Analysis on Rose in A Rose for Emily.” Journal of Social Science Studies, vo. 6, no. 2, 2019, pp. 202-205. Web.

Khrais, Sura M. “Rereading’A Rose for Emily’from the Perspective of Wolfgang Iser’s Reader Response Theory.” International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, vol. 5, no. 3, 2017, pp. 28-31. Web.

Kirchdorfer, Ulf. “Weak Men in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily.” The Explicator, vol. 75, no. 3, 2017, pp. 145-147. Web.

Zhang, Lu-ying, and Xu Zhou. “Analysis of A Rose for Emily From the Perspective of Trauma Theory.” Journal of Literature and Art Studies, vol. 12, no. 7, 2022, pp. 707-711.

Zhang, Xiaotong, and Yihui Li. “A Comparative Analysis of the Causes of the Heroine’s Tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and A Rose for Emily.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 10, no. 8, 2020, pp. 988-992. Web.

Gender norms are present in every society throughout history and affect people’s behavior and expectations. Every society prescribes certain roles for both men and women, and they have to follow them or risk judgment and criticism. It is entirely natural that the theme of gender has a strong role not only in social relations, but also in culture and, specifically, literature. There are many different topics in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and gender is one of them.

The plot of the story follows the life and death of a Southern woman Emily Grierson, mostly in the period after the Civil War. The main event of the plot is her attempted relationship with Homer Barron, a Northern wage-worker, and his fate after his disappearance one day is the main mystery until the end of the story. In this paper, I will explore how Faulkner portrays the issues of gender in “A Rose for Emily. Social norms prescribed to women and men are a central theme in the story, and the close reading suggests that Emily violates some of these norms because she considers herself better than the others.

From the very beginning, the story demonstrates that gender issues and gender roles will play a significant role in its progress. Many remarks point to things expected or required from either men or women in the small Southern town of Jefferson. For example, the author writes about different motivations for men and women to visit Emily’s house after she dies. According to Faulkner, men did what they did to her house because of “respectful affection for a fallen monument” (1).

On the other hand, women came to Emily’s home “mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house” (Faulkner 1). In this passage, the author shows that it is obvious to the narrator that men and women have different motivations. In Curry’s words, “gender motivation splits between respect and curiosity” (1). Another example is that colonel Sartoris, a former mayor of Jefferson, was most famous for issuing an edict “that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron” (Faulkner 1). Gender is a theme in the story that constantly appears from the first lines.

Emily Grierson is the main character in “A Rose for Emily,” and she is a single woman from a respectable Southern family. She is described as “a small, fat woman” with grey hair and aristocratic arrogance (Faulkner 2). When the narrator refers to Emily, the respect for her name and her family is usually obvious in the text. At one point, the story tells that Griersons was one of the “august names” (Faulkner 1) of Jefferson.

One should not interpret it literally in the sense that Griersons were royalty, but it goes to show that Emily’s family was always important and respected by townsmen. Another example is that, when the narrator tells about the smell coming from Emily’s house, the “gross, teeming world” is put against “high and mighty Griersons” (Faulkner 2). Emily’s family is very respectable and well-known in Jefferson, and Emily is its last living member and takes this respect for granted.

Emily has lived with her father until his death, and the narrator describes him as a very strict person with impossibly high standards. In fact, Emily’s father was so demanding that he never permitted her to marry anyone who tried by “warding off unacceptable suitors with a whip in his hand” (Allen 686). From inspecting this passage, I can say that Emily’s father likely viewed her as too good and precious to give her away to anyone at all.

In his eyes, Emily was so much better than any man Jefferson had to offer that there was simply no way that anyone in town would be good enough for her in marriage. The text also shows that Emily loved her father very much, and he was probably the most important person for her in life. When he died, she denied the fact and insisted he was alive for three days straight before finally letting the townspeople dispose of the body (Faulkner 3). Based on that, we can see that Emily, who respected her father so much, accepted his belief that she was better than everyone else in Jefferson.

The people in town have their own ideas about gender and expect Emily to be an example of what it means to be a Southern woman. There are many instances in the story when this becomes obvious, but one of the most significant ones is when a bad smell starts coming out of her house. When a younger member of the Board of Aldermen suggests simply asking Emily to clean her house up, the older members disagree.

Their motivation is that it would be impolite to “accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad” (Faulkner 3). It is known that gender relations in a society are based on the norms created for women and men. It is as Curry says: “in a pure and public patriarchy, no language exists to address the foul smell exuding from a woman’s house” (3). The townspeople cannot ask Emily to stop the smell because they cannot even publicly admit that anything related to a lady may have a bad odor. Emily is important for Jefferson because she is a Southern lady and plays this gender role.

Although Jefferson respects Emily and her family, the townspeople also criticize Emily when they think her behavior is inappropriate for a woman of her position and social status. When Emily starts seeing Homer Barron, a wage worker from the North, the people in the town are initially calm about it. Everyone in Jefferson believes that “a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer” (Faulkner 4).

The townspeople expect Emily to follow her gender role as an aristocratic Southern woman. It is especially important for them after the Civil War because they want the South “to vindicate its integrity and cultural identity by projecting its inviolable and unvanquishable values on females” (Lee 69). In the eyes of the people of Jefferson, Emily has to be a shining example of feminine virtue and embody everything good there is about a Southern woman. This gender role is what society prescribes to and expects of Emily.

However, Emily is not inclined to follow the expectations of society that are related to her gender. She continues seeing Homer even though the older people say that “even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige” (Faulkner 4). Even though the others insist that her behavior is “a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young,” she pays no attention to accusations (Faulkner 5). By openly spending her time with a Northern man of inferior social status, Emily becomes a fallen woman in the eyes of the townsfolk. This fall makes her not a manifestation of the best feminine qualities but a “scapegoat onto whom all the sins and defeatism of the South [are] transferred” (Lee 70).

However, Emily does not care and even denounces the preacher who comes to convince her that her behavior is wrong (Faulkner 4). She goes against the gender role that is expected of her and pays ho attention to the opinions of others. Emily simply considers herself so much better than the rest of the townspeople and does not feel that their ideas of gender apply to her.

Apart from the general population of Jefferson, there is also another party whose ideas of gender do not coincide with those of Emily. Homer Barron, Emily’s love interest and the only man she openly dates in the course of the entire story is that party. At one point in the plot, the narrator mentions that Homer had openly declared that he was “not a marrying man” (Faulkner 5). Just like Emily, Homer has a gender role of his own, and this is the role of a merry bachelor. Even though he likes ladies, he would not seriously consider marrying any of his sweethearts and forswearing his freedom and all the opportunities that go with it. This attitude eventually puts him at odds with Emily because, as far as she is concerned, the only fitting conclusion to a romance is marriage.

However, as the story shows, Emily does not pay more attention to Homer’s ideas of gender than to those of the townspeople. After Homer’s unwillingness to enter serious relationships becomes common knowledge, the town begins to discuss whether Emily will yet manage to persuade Homer to marry her or will kill herself in despair (Faulkner 5). However, she finds a completely different decision that also demonstrates how little she cares for Homer’s opinion about what is fitting for a man of his station and what is not. After buying arsenic in the local drugstore, Emily poisons her love interest and spends the next few decades alongside his decaying corpse.

By doing so, Emily imposes her will upon Homer: despite his dislike of commitments, he spends dozens of years with the same woman. Thus, in the central plot twist, Emily demonstrates once again that she considers herself to be above other people’s ideas of gender and does not care if she violates them.

After inspecting the theme of gender in Falkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” I can conclude that the main character vies herself as superior to everyone in her town. The story makes it clear from the very beginning that gender is an important theme, and the narrator emphasizes that men and women should act differently and have different motivations. The people of Jefferson respect Emily’s family and Emily herself and expect her to fulfill the gender role of an exemplary Southern lady.

However, Emily has her own ideas about how to act and behave regardless of what the townspeople think. She starts seeing Homer Barron, regardless of how the people of Jefferson expect her to behave according to her status and gender. She also forces Homer to stay with her, albeit as a decaying corpse, despite his unwillingness to marry her. This utter disregard toward other people’s notions of gender likely happens because Emily considers herself to be superior to everyone, just as her father taught her when he denied all suitors.

Works Cited

Allen, Dennis W. “Horror and Perverse Delight: Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’.” Fiction Studies, vol. 30, no. 4, 1984, pp. 685-696.

Curry, Renee R. “Gender and Authorial Limitation in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1994. Class Handout.

Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Class Handout.

Lee, Yongwa. “Emily’s Desperate and Murderous Fight: The Tragic Manifestation of the Condition of Women in the Postbellum South.” British and American Fiction, vol. 18, no. 2, 2011, pp. 67-88.

Introduction

Several works of American literature reflect different aspects of human experience throughout history. Other literary works may have one idea or theme throughout the book, while others combine several themes together.

Writers use different literary devices to express their massages and capture the attention of their readers. This essay shall focus on death as an inescapable human experience.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

In a short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce presents the death of the most pivotal character, Peyton Farquhar. Peyton denies reality of death as a way of postponing it. He goes into a dream whereby he escapes away from death when the weight of his body snaps the rope. Peyton also swims to a safe ground under heavy gunfire where he returns to his farm.

This is rather a short dream, but to Peyton, it takes several hours when he is escaping from reality and enemies. Bierce notes that we should embrace death since it is an inevitable part of human existence instead of escaping from it. He considers death a dignitary, which should be received by formal manifestation of respect, even by those familiar with him. Peyton had even tried to destroy a bridge in order to stop his capture.

Death is inevitable. It finally comes. Peyton mind wondered from fantasy to reality. He thought of his wife, kids and his plantation. He then felt a stunning blow, a blinding white light, and then darkness and silence. Peyton was finally dead. His dead body swung beneath the timber of the bridge.

Bierce uses several stylistic devices to capture the theme of death in his short story. He uses foreshadowing technique (Casson, 2000). This shows how Peyton escaped death when the noose around his neck snapped. He then swims to safety amidst heavy gunfire. This escape is a dream. At the end of the story, the narrator reveals Peyton’s death, which happens almost instantly.

Bierce uses dream to present human beings attempt to escape death. This is dream within a dream device (Sylvan, William & Cain, 2007). Peyton dreams that he has escaped the union forces. He further moves into a daydream where he sees the beauty of nature and freedom. This is a fantasy of human beings to think that they can postpone their death.

The author also employs the use of irony. Peyton has slaves in bondage, which are his source livelihood. Ironically, he ends up in bondage. Peyton learns that bondage is scary just like death. He discovers that and attempts to escape from it the same way he tries to escape death. Bondage and death are alike.

“A Rose for Emily”

William Faulkner is a writer best known for his exploration of moral aspects of history. In this short story, “A Rose for Emily”, he presents the changing times and death. Faulkner presents death in the story through death-haunted life of Emily. Emily dies a slow death.

The story compares her to drowned person who has been in the water for too long and has turned pale. The narrator also refers to Emily as a spare skeleton to imply that she is already dead but still on her feet.

Emily tries to deny death. She is constantly in a bizarre relationship to dead bodies of her previous lovers. She refuses to accept death by clinging to her late father’s body only to end up giving it reluctantly.

Emily also refuses to acknowledge the death of Homer, though she was responsible for his death. She kills Homer so that she can permanently have him. Homer’s body is lifeless, which make them far apart. Emily is trying to join life and death.

Finally, Emily dies. The residences of Jefferson have a chance to access her house. The house is just as mysterious as the owner. Mystery and death are both scary. We should accept the mysteries as part of life. Like Emily, everybody has secrets. We act in mysterious ways we can neither understand nor explain just like Emily.

William Faulkner uses death as a symbol of passing times (Sylvan, William & Cain, 2010). Emily represents the Old South. Upon her death, the remnants of the Old South also die likewise to the old men in uniforms who are about to die.

People fear death. Jefferson townspeople do not want to lose the history of the past, but the townspeople must accept changing traditions and embrace modernity.

The gold head of Emily’s cane, tarnished toilet, and Homer’s corpse represent deteriorating age and, finally death. The author also symbolizes death through the use of dust.

The author associates Homer’s dead body with dust in the house to symbolize death. It creates a horrible scene in the house. Dust creates an atmosphere of mysteries surrounding Emily’s life. Mysteries surrounding Emily’s life and house symbolize death.

Conclusion

The authors of the two short stories demonstrate that death will always triumph no matter how hard we try to escape it. Death comes to people in different ways: slow or fast. Peyton Farquhar meets his death through hangman by the bridge but tries to escape this through fantasy while Emily dies a slow death. People should simply embrace deaths and mysteries as an aspect of human life experience.

References

Casson, A. (2000). English Literature and Composition. Indianapolis: Cliffs Notes.

Sylvan, B., William, B., & Cain, W. (2010). Literature for Composition: Reading and Writing Arguments about Essays, Stories, Poems, and Plays (9th Edition). London: Longman.

Sylvan, B., William, B., & Cain, William. (2007). An Introduction to Literature. London: Longman.

The character of Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, leaves the reader in dilemma as to whether Emily is the protagonist or the antagonist. Faulkner uses an unknown narrator reveal to the reader a woman who has mixed character traits. So complex is her character that the reader is left wondering who the real Emily is. Emily is a recluse, out of choice and fate.

Despite her reclusion, Emily is a monumental unmovable figure who can be pitiful yet irritating at times. She also portrays other contrasting characters such as stubborn yet gullible thus attracting the description, the eccentric woman. Thus Emily’s character plays an important role in the development of the plot as well as the story.

Emily is a monumental figure imposed upon the town by Col Sartoris. Col Sartoris had withdrawn her obligation towards the town to pay tax and as such making her a dependent of the town therefore making her “a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town….” (Faulkner 47). Privileges such as being exempted to pay tax are only a reserve of the most honorable citizens of any land. The reader expects Emily to show gratitude to the town’s people and as such be more agreeable and open to them.

However, Emily chooses to live in seclusion, irritatingly demanding to live by her own rules and often refusing to obey the societal norms. When she opts to marry Homer’s without making proper wedding plans, this anger and irritates the town’s people. So much were people irritated by this scandalous affair that they at one time thought that she was crazy (Faulkner 52).

Faulkner also presents Emily as both the protagonist yet and an antagonist. As protagonist Emily is seen as the good person who has attracts the love and honor of the town’s people. When she dies every one in the town attend her funeral. Mostly, the men did so out of thoughtful affection for her (Faulkner 47). This means that despite her irritating behavior people still found it appropriate to show love and respect to her.

Despite the affection she attracts from people, Emily is also seen as the antagonist, the character who goes against the grain and general expectation. Despite her reclusive behavior, the town’s people do knot expect her to be a murdereress, let alone to the person she is intimate with. When she orders for poison, people think that she would kills herself but ends up killing Homer her lover (Faulkner 55). This adds to her eccentricism.

Emily is also presented a stubborn yet gullible woman. Her gullibility is seen in the fact that her father is able to totally control her entire life. He refuses all attempts to marry her and treats the men who approach her with a lot of disdain. Her father exerted so much control over her that the reader is tempted to think that this was the possible cause of her reclusiveness.

Yet still Emily was a stubborn woman and no one could convince her easily to do anything. Even in the face of grief and loss she stubbornly refused to show any emotion (Faulkner 52). This further confuses the reader further as to her true identity, and thus support the claim that she very much the eccentric woman.

Emily behavior leave no doubt that she is s peculiar character. Most of the things that she does are the opposite of expectation. However, she still attracts pity from the reader as well as the town’s people. Thus she still can be seen as a normal human being struggling with common human weaknesses.

Works Cited

Faulkner, William. “A rose for Emily.” Selected Short Stories. New York: Modern Library. 1993. Print

Introduction

Non fiction essays refer to the literatures that are based on real and actual facts. These are literatures pertaining to reality that has either existed before or currently exists. They involve real people, things, places, events, and writing. Non fictional essays are informative based on factual information. They include history, journals and autobiographies. Fictional essays refer to the literatures that are imaginary and have been invented by an author or a narrator. These literatures involve the creative writing that is unreal and has been made up. Fictional essays are mostly for entertainment purposes. They include myths, fictional novels, fairy tales, and films.

A Rose for Emily Fiction Essay Analysis

Emily Grierson is the fictitious main character who passed on in the story. She does not represent anyone who has ever existed before in the past or who currently exists. The story is also not an autobiography or a journal of an actual person. This is illustrated by the statement “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral…” (A Rose for Emily, p. 542). This is just a narration but not an actual autobiography of Miss Emily Grierson. It also has made up names such as Colonel Sartoris, Homer Barron, and Judge Stevens who are also fictitious characters. “A neighbor, a woman, complained to the major, Judge Stevens…” (A Rose for Emily, p. 544). This story has been invented by the author or narrator. It does not depict any real person, place, or event. The author or narrator of the story does not imply any historical affiliations in the essay. This is illustrated by the quote “See Colonel Sartoris. Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years…” (A Rose for Emily, p. 544). The narrator simply writes about his or her opinions and beliefs concerning Emily Grierson and her hometown. “When the town got free postal delivery Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten…” (A Rose for Emily, p. 551). The story is basically a myth which is hence classified as fiction.

Letter of John Rolfe Non Fiction Essay Analysis

This is a nonfiction article about an actual letter from John Rolfe to the governor, Sir Thomas Dale in 1614. The original Elizabethan English that is has been used by John Rolfe in the letter shows that it is an authentic literature because it is the true lingo which was used at that time. “To persevere wherein I never had more neede, nor (till now) could ever imagine to have bin moved with the like occasion.” (Virtual Jamestown, p. 1). It is also informative because it describes John Rolfe and his relationship with God; “…in discharging of my dutie to God, and to your selfe, to whose gracious providence I humbly submit my selfe…which I beseech God to graunte, for his deere Sonne Christ Jesus his sake…” (Virtual Jamestown, p. 3). An illustration to explain that this is nonfiction is the fact that it states, “This is a copy of the gentleman’s letters to Sir Thomas Dale.

The gentleman is John Rolfe and he married Pocahontas, Powhatan’s daughter. He also states the reasons moving him there unto.” (Virtual Jamestown, p. 1). John Rolfe and Sir Thomas Dale are also in the history books in America who once lived within a temporal time frame; hence this is a non fictional literature. John Rolfe was an actual person who was one of the original inhabitants from England to North America. He was born in 1585 and passed on in 1622 depicting that indeed he truly existed in history. He is attributed with the foremost triumphant tobacco farming as an export plantation in the Colony of Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale was an actual person who once existed in history. He was an English marine commander and the deputy superintendent of the Virginia County in the year 1611. Virginia County is an actual place that exists as well and this further portrays that it is nonfictional. He passed on in August 1619 which is an actual year in history. Pocahontas is also a woman who once existed and was John Rolfe’s wife. This is illustrated by ‘The marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe’ (Virtual Jamestown, p. 1). Therefore, the characters in this literature were actually real people who existed within a real time frame in history and hence it is a non fictional article.

Conclusion

A Rose for Emily is a fictional essay while The Letter of John Rolfe is a nonfiction literature due to the analysis of how to categorize them. Fiction is made out of nonexistent things and in contrast, nonfiction is made up of reality. Nonfiction is a prosaic piece of work, whereas fiction explicates on one’s imagination. Fiction is more metaphoric and simulated while nonfiction is straightforward. Nonfiction is natural and authentic because it is concerned with events that had actually taken place. Fiction is a manifestation of the author’s creativity. Fiction is more detailed and expressive while nonfiction is precise to ascertain a fact. Simplicity, candidness and precision are most significant in nonfiction literature. Fiction lets the imagination to emerge to the audience or readers and they can have their own analysis.

Gothic romance is concerned with various desolate settings, grotesque and mysterious events, and themes of death, solitude, and alienation. In Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” the author builds upon the use of such elements as terror and suspense to a culmination in which it is revealed that the main character, Emily, poisoned her loved one and has been sleeping and cuddling with his corpse for more than forty years. The desire of the protagonist to physically remain with the man is referred to as necrophilia, which is an erotic attraction to dead bodies. Necrophilia, therefore, is a component of the gothic genre, which implies combining two seemingly different literary aspects, such as horror and romance.

The necrophilic relationship between Emily Grierson and the long-deceased Homer Barron that the author implies offers more than a sensational ending to a disturbing story written in the gothic genre. It allows readers to go deeper into the understanding of sexuality and the ways in which it can warp under the conditions that seem unfavorable to an individual. As stated by Freud, there is a sharp distinction and opposition between the sexual and ego-related instincts, with the latter impelling toward death and the former striving for life.

The conflict between the two forces is crucial for artistic creation and human existence in general, while necrophilia is a state of confusion between the forces on the part of its practitioner. In the story, the reader can share the experience of necrophilia and explore the components of decay by observing Emily who plays a dual part as both the subject and the object of necrophilia.

The gothic genre can be traced to the main idea of the story, that death cannot be stopped. Customs and traditions deteriorate and get forgotten while people pass away. Emily, however, agrees to the state of affairs under her own terms and breaks the barrier between life and death, clinging to the warped fabric of consciousness. Even the protagonist’s appearance is described as similar to that of a corpse, with her face likened to a strained flag and her body as a corpse “long submerged in motionless water” (Faulkner 9).

Despite being old, Miss Emily denies the death of her social order by denying the power of death itself. In her forceful attempts to cling on to someone who has been gone for many years, her neurotic necrophilia of Emily represents both the romantic and the tragic sides of the gothic genre. Therefore, by making death something that belongs to her, by twisting it as she pleases and embedding it into her personal life, Emily lives her own reality that she perceives as acceptable. The tomb smells that shroud her house is evidence of the story’s not only psychological horror but also physical and romantic.

“A Rose for Emily” is a hallmark of gothic fiction as exemplified in its title that offers antiquated courtesy to an antiquated woman, a gift of a rose given in both pity and praise. Besides the mental terrors and bleak settings inherent to the gothic fiction tradition, the style in which the story is written adds its own peculiar grotesqueness that cannot be confused for anything else. Faulkner presents horror for the purpose of exploring the forgotten characteristics of humanity that can be both great and morbid.

Work Cited

Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Random House, 2012.

In Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Emily is depicted as a high class, southern belle that once upon a time was a beautiful young woman who had several male suitors. She comes from a family of wealth and status within her community. However, due to the overprotective and isolated behaviors of her father, she grows into a lonely, old, and bitter woman that refuses to follow law and order (Hsu and Ya-huei 87). This story is written in a non-chronological order because the author wants the readers to get the feel of what Emily went through by taking us back through her past, while also keeping us in tune with her present. Thus, it fluctuates between the two time dimensions and eventually brings the readers to the astonishing conclusion. Such non-chronological order keeps the readers in constant suspense of what will happen next and ultimately helps to resolve a puzzle at the very end of the narration.

In the beginning of the story, Faulkner describes a scene where everyone has congregated at Emily’s house for her funeral. The men came to show a “respectful affection for a fallen monument” (Faulkner 1), while the women arrived “out of curiosity” (Faulkner 1) just to see what was inside of her home. Then the narration quickly switches to Emily’s past, where the author describes how she “vanquished” (Faulkner 2) the deputies that knocked upon her door to collect the taxes she owed. A woman of such a high caliber and status that she was, she did not accept the changes that were made since the passing of her father. She quickly dismisses them and tells them to review the city records and “see Colonel Satoris” (Faulkner 2) who told her why she was exempt.

Throughout the story, Emily’s former wealth and status make her believe that she is entitled to certain privileges and that her perceived dispensation made her immune from the laws and rules that apply to others. She is far from the realities which everyone else faces, and people around town whisper and speak about her in an ill-mannered way. She is oblivious to this fact, and as Faulkner describes it in the third part of the story, she still carries “her head high enough” (Faulkner 3) even when others believe that she is “fallen” (Faulkner 3). However, even with all that she isn’t happy because she is a complete loner. She has never got married or had children, and the only prospect of getting into intimate relationship with a man is when she meets a day laborer named Homer Barron

The times in the story – past and present – coexist and influence each other. Faulkner first introduces Homer to the audience in the part of the story when the author mentions the contractors beginning the work on paving the sidewalks. Homer was one of the workers for the construction company. He was the foreman of the group, and the young townspeople got enjoyment when he used to “cuss the riggers” (Faulkner 3). At some point, people “began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons” (Faulkner 3) spending time together as if they were forming some relationship. However, in the course of the third part of the story, Faulkner quickly shifts from Miss Emily and Homer conjuring up some form of a relationship to discussing her purchasing the poison. She asks the druggist for “the best you have” (Faulkner 3) and decides to get some arsenic. This fact leaves the readers in a bewildered state of mind because they now begin to wonder what she plans on doing with the arsenic.

Still, in part three of the story, the townspeople began to whisper about the relationship between Miss Emily and Homer. Some even felt bad for her because a woman of her status “would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer” (Faulkner 3). However, when one moves on to read the fourth part of the story, one sees how the author jumps back and forth as now the people are whispering about the two of them possibly getting married. The plot twist in the idea of them getting married is when the reader finds out that Homer is, in fact, a homosexual and has no interest in women. The audience has to keep up with the time changes so that they don’t get confused as to what part of the time they’re reading about. The shift in time can become challenging, but the author manages to reel the readers back in by mentioning the new circumstances which explain the time dimensions.

The townspeople began to discuss how Miss Emily had made purchases to include a male’s toilet, and she had been to the jeweler’s. When Homer Baron was no longer seen on the streets, they assumed that the two had been married. The people were majorly disappointed because they assumed that a lady like Miss Emily would have had a big elaborate wedding that they could have attended, but instead it seemed as though she quietly got married and there was no fuss made at all.

The townsfolk supposed that when they no longer saw Homer around the streets, he was simply at home tending to his new wife. But then the story jumps ahead yet again to Miss Emily being a grey-haired, old, fat woman, and the audience is left without any timeframe of what happened between the time they supposedly got married and the point when “she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray” (Faulkner 4). She reached the age of seventy-four and died. It is not until we move on to the fifth part of the story that we realize what happened to Homer and Miss Emily’s relationship.

In the fifth part of the story, we are at the present day, where the townspeople have gathered at Miss Emily’s funeral. It is the same timeframe that the reader is introduced to in the first part of the story. Everyone is curious about the contents of her house, especially one room which is locked. However, they waited patiently until Miss Emily was “decently in the ground” (Faulkner 5) before they began nosing around her house. What they find is shocking to the reader because it discloses the mystery of what happened to Homer and Miss Emily’s relationship. They find a bed with an imprint of a corpse in it, or what was actually left of the corpse. The body was that of Homer. The reader now realizes that Miss Emily had poisoned Homer and kept his remains inside her house for all of those years. Thus, the time twist becomes clear in the very end: the author incorporated frequent changes between the past and the present to get the readers more interested in the story’s resolution.

Works cited

Hsu, Chenghsun, and Ya-huei Wang. “The Fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian Analysis of A Rose for Emily.” Kata, vol. 16, no. 2, 2014, pp. 87-92.

Annotated Bibliography

The primary source for the essay was “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner.

The secondary source was the article “The fall of Emily Grierson: A Jungian analysis of A rose for Emily” by Hsu and Ya-huei. The article is valuable for my analysis as it examines the causes of Emily’s conduct and shows how her world got destroyed under the influence of these causes. The authors consider Emily’s father as the most negative issue impacting Emily. They study her character with the help of a psychological approach.

The article is an academically credible source as it appears in a peer-reviewed journal and its authors have scholarly degrees.