Category: A Rose For Emily

In William Faulkner’s A Rose For Emily, a unique narrator has been used. An unnamed narrator serves us in the story with Jefferson’s people’s voice, a collective voice. It is not certain whether is a man or a woman. By doing this William Faulkner hides his narrator behind the pronoun “we”. At the last, the narrator says “Already we knew it” about Homer Barron’s body. Actually, the narrator is not a collective person, just a single person I think. This is just a technique to indicate her or his own thoughts as the whole townspeople’s thoughts. The point of view is also a bit different. It seems to be the third person of view because the town’s people already know all about Emily’s life, despite her secret and lonely life. If Miss Emily wrote the story, she would have given more detail and we probably know the reasons why she did, for instance, whether or not she killed Homer Barron. But with the third person point of view, we do have not enough information about the details. We just get a judgemental view where we can only draw conclusions. If the Tobe who is described in the story as a negro servant man were to tell the story, the truth might also come out. Because he lives with Emily in the same house, he might be able to tell us what actually happened there. The style of the chronological order is the best part of this story. It makes readers as if they unraveling the murder.

In the short story The Wall, the main character Pablo Ibietta is the narrator of the story. He tells the story from the first point of view. When he is sentenced to death and is sent to the cell his thoughts and manner of tellings facilitate understanding how it feels to be face to face with death with his perspective. He also honestly narrates to us how his cell mates Juan, Tom, and even the Belgian doctor is feeling. “Do people suffer—very long?” asked Juan to the Belgian doctor. Then the narrator Pablo says “He was terribly afraid of suffering… As for me, I hardly thought about it anymore and it certainly was not fear of suffering that made me perspire.” He truly makes inferences about Juan’s feelings and what he thinks about them.

The narration of the film should be considered a bit different from the stories. Unlike the stories, there is no narrator in the movie of course. But the writer of The Judgement of Nuremberg tells the story objectively. Not only the writer but also the director and characters play crucial roles in the film. The tirades of each Ernst Janning, Herr Rolfe, and the american prosecutor are amazing. Honestly, Herr Rolfe’s speech cajoled me for a moment and led me to think about “I must believe it” What if he is right, they were really unaware of what is happening in their country. However, the prosecutor and his videos shown in the courtroom are also dreadful and make me think those who caused this and remain silent must be punished without any doubt. This dilemma takes place until the end of the film. The reason is not what is right or what is wrong, the reason is the narration of the characters in the film. The specialty of the characters after the movie ended, was the only thing that affects me.

Consequently, the reason I choose these short stories with respect to “Judgement at Nuremberg” is different from each other. When considering The Wall, there is a trial also and it helps me to understand the time before the Nuremberg Judgement. There is a link between the trial in “The Wall” and “Judgement at Nuremberg”. In the movie, it is mentioned that the defendants who are formerly a judge made some sentences to people unjustly and without interrogation. Just like on the wall. These political trials are very similar to one another and it really affected me. The other one “A Rose For Emily” affected me from a different view. Generally, the time and the period impress me because this society is in a change and their attitudes about slavery, and seeing themselves as superior are also, within this period, making the comparison between the Nuremberg people and Jefferson’s people easier. Besides the similarity between those periods, Erns Janning’s speech is also the reason that takes me to “A Rose for Emily”, he says “I am aware. I am aware! My counsel would have you believe we were not aware of the concentration camps. Not aware. Where were we? Where were we when Hitler began shrieking his hate in Reichstag? Where were we when our neighbors were being dragged out in the middle of the night to Dachau?! Where were we when every village in Germany has a railroad terminal where cattle cars were filled with children being carried out to their extermination? Where were we when they cried out in the night to us? Deaf, dumb, blind!!” Just like a second-class man Homer Barron’s disappearing.

Introduction

William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” are two classic short stories that explore dark themes and delve into the minds of their complex characters. While the settings and plots differ, there are striking similarities between these two literary works. This essay will compare and contrast “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado” by examining their themes of obsession, manipulation, and revenge.

Theme of Obsession

Both stories center around characters who harbor deep obsessions that lead to destructive behavior. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily Grierson becomes fixated on preserving the memory of her deceased lover, Homer Barron, resulting in her inability to let go of the past. Similarly, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor becomes consumed by his desire for revenge against Fortunato, leading him to meticulously plan and execute his sinister plot. The theme of obsession drives the narratives of both stories and highlights the psychological turmoil experienced by the protagonists.

Manipulation and Control

Another similarity between the two stories is the theme of manipulation and control. In “A Rose for Emily,” the townspeople manipulate Emily by gossiping about her and prying into her personal life. They exert control over her by dictating societal norms and expectations, ultimately isolating her from the community. Similarly, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor manipulates Fortunato’s pride and love for wine to lure him into his catacombs. Montresor cunningly exploits Fortunato’s weaknesses to gain control over him, ultimately leading to his downfall. The themes of manipulation and control highlight the power dynamics at play in both stories.

Revenge and Betrayal

The theme of revenge is prevalent in both “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily seeks revenge against the townspeople who judge and criticize her by committing a heinous act. Her action can be seen as a twisted form of retaliation against the betrayal she feels from the community. Similarly, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor seeks revenge against Fortunato for an undisclosed insult. The notion of betrayal fuels Montresor’s desire for vengeance, leading him to execute his plan with calculated precision. The themes of revenge and betrayal emphasize the dark and destructive nature of human impulses.

Symbolism and Gothic Elements

Both stories employ symbolism and gothic elements to enhance their themes and create an atmosphere of unease. In “A Rose for Emily,” the decaying mansion symbolizes the decline of the old South and the fading glory of the Grierson family. The locked room containing Homer’s corpse serves as a symbol of Emily’s refusal to accept change and her desire to cling to the past. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the catacombs represent the depths of Montresor’s twisted mind and the dark, sinister nature of his revenge. The use of symbolism and gothic elements adds depth and complexity to the narratives, immersing readers in a world of psychological turmoil and decay.

Conclusion

Despite their different settings and plots, “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado” share several striking similarities. Both stories explore themes of obsession, manipulation, and revenge, delving into the dark and complex depths of human nature. Through their vivid characters, symbolism, and gothic elements, Faulkner and Poe create unsettling narratives that leave readers questioning the boundaries of morality and the consequences of unchecked desires. These timeless works serve as reminders of the profound impact of obsession and the destructive power of revenge.

William Faulkner in “A Rose for Emily” conveys the message that there is always more than meets the eye. Faulkner assembles a story in which Miss Emily, an aristocratic elderly woman, is isolated from the townspeople around her. By using a first-person point of view of the townspeople, Faulkner establishes a reliable yet external narrator to reveal Emily’s life was not as simple as it seemed.

At the beginning of the story, Faulkner reveals the narrator is a member of the town’s community by stating, “Our whole town went to her funeral”. One can further assume the narrator’s older age due to the various flashbacks of events in Miss Emily’s life. The narrator states, “when the next generation, with its more modern ideas”, verifying they were part of the older generation along with Emily and Colonel Sartoris. The narrator’s age provides the reader with crucial background information including how Miss Emily’s father would scare away all potential suitors to 1894 when Colonel Sartoris “remitted her taxes”. The reader gains the narrator’s first-hand knowledge of Emily’s life, aiding in the explanation of her actions throughout the story. By describing her life as a witness, the narrator establishes reliability. With a reliable narrator, the reader can trust the events described in the story. But even with various convincing signs of trouble, the townspeople seem to not put the clues together until they discover the decayed body of Homer in Emily’s home.

The first-person pronoun “we” utilized throughout the story reveals the narrator represents a part of the community’s views and opinions of Miss Emily. The townspeople’s perceptions of her life vary; some feel pity, disapproval, contentment, or indifference. The narrator tends to express the more optimistic and sympathetic views of the townspeople. Faulkner strays from using “we” with negatively connotated perceptions, commonly applying “they” to show opinions that differ from the narrator’s. In the beginning, “they” is used to represent the new generation who wanted to start taxing Emily. As the story continued, “they” represented other groups who tended to be against her. For example, when Miss Emily began seeing Homer the narrator states, “We were glad Miss Emily would have an interest” In contrast “they” stated, “even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige”. Whereas some felt happy for the lonely woman and others were dismayed, this example discredits the notion that the narrator’s point of view alone represented the entire town. The contrast of the pronouns “we” and “they” further prove the narrator’s perceptions biased. The reader can’t assume the narrator knows Miss Emily personally, nor knew her thoughts and feelings she had during the events described. The narrator only represents a group of outsiders who viewed Miss Emiy’s life neutrally, only watching from afar.

Throughout “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner strategically decides to hinder the narrator’s omniscience. Rather than the main character’s point of view, an external view allows the story of the dead woman’s life to unfold as a mystery. The reader only learns what the townspeople knew about Miss Emily, and thus misses out on the woman’s inner thoughts and feelings. This gap of knowledge keeps the story suspenseful and engaging. Readers are left second guessing themselves when Miss Emily buys “rat poison” preceding the lines, “A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron”. The townspeople apprehend most of the events that developed during Miss Emily’s life, however, they lack personal insight. In the end, Miss Emily’s secrets are revealed flooding the reader with shock. Leaving the reader bewildered with various questions, Faulkner’s use of an outsider’s point of view produced a mysterious and ghastly ending to the story. Nevertheless, the reader and even the townspeople question why Miss Emily killed Homer, and why she kept his body and lay with him for decades, along with a plethora of indisputable questions.

Miss Emily’s covert room embodied her secret life; no one entered and she never left. Through the employment of an older, representative, and first-person point of view narrator, Faulkner dramatized the unveiling of Miss Emily’s secrets to highlight the blindfold placed over humanity’s eyes. One may think they know everything, but even with facts, knowledge, and signs, there is always more than meets the eye.

In the past, there was much debate over gender equality since it had never existed before. Over the last several decades, there have been significant changes in many organizations and the broader society as people struggle for gender equality. Connecting to symbolism, setting, characterization, as well as seclusion from society by the dominant masculine characters, the pair combines many contrasts and parallels in their creative works. Both tales revolve around female characters that are surrounded by male characters, who ultimately lead to them losing their minds. The female characters are faced with unique struggles in each book because of the varied situations they find themselves in.

The key difference between these two stories is that one is told from the first-person point of view, while the other is told from a third-person point of view. As with ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ the first-person perspective is used, while in ‘A Rose for Emily,’ the third-person perspective is used. In ‘A Rose for Emily,’ the short tale speaks of many losses, such as gossip, loneliness, and conflict, whereas in ‘The Yellow Paper,’ the narrative is only a biography illustrating women’s struggles for personal power in an oppressive setting.

Both tales portray female characters as bearing the burden of maintaining their appearance and their position in a high society placed on them by males. Stories about women with mental illness are both similar in that they feature women who are emotionally and psychologically unstable. Gothic, psychotic, and gloomy genres are both included in the tales. Every time we read the part about the decaying body of forty-year-old homer baron and find gray hair believed to have fallen from Emily close to the corpse already, we encounter a kind of terror and gothic (Faulkner, 35-36).

In the short tales, Emily as well as the narrator both confront problems related to their identities. Both occur in different environments, but both women are basically imprisoned in their homes. Both ladies live in quite different locations. She’s youthful at first in ‘A Rose for Emily,’ ending and her being an elderly lady. ‘Yellow Wallpaper,’ when she is a middle-aged lady, concentrates on the narrator, taking place over just a few months. Both tales offer distinct perspectives on the ladies, as ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is written in the first person and ‘A Rose for Emily.’ However, it is shown that in some respects, the lives of these women are identical but in other ways distinct.

Another interesting point to notice inside the yellow wallpaper is that it illustrates the gothic genre, which is relevant to the way the heroine is spiraling out of control as she withdraws from society in her quiet chamber. There are a wide variety of designs on the wallpaper, including bulging eyeballs, people, and even strands of mushrooms (Gilman, 311). There are significant patterns in nature that shift as the moonlight shines on them (Gilman, 311).

Like Faulkner, Gillman utilizes the gothic aspects of the home in which he lives in order to reflect his character’s character. In the tale ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ Gillman incorporated numerous Gothic themes. From the start of the tale is shown the house the spouse leases for the summertime as well as the nearby environment. It is a remote area 3 miles from the settlement; this is an isolated site. It was a royal house and acquired a gothic look as if the fantasies haunted it. The home has a beautiful garden, sunny pastures, old-fashioned flowers, damaged green buildings, and overgrown roses that imply a dark brown appearance. The garden includes deep-shaded trees, plus gothic aspects. The slow-turning sunshine oddly dimmed the dirty yellow of the wallpaper; it is a repulsive, even disgusting yellow and dull but gloomy orange. The circles on the wall, the shut windows, and the closed bed all contribute to the continued gloomy mood.

We live in a world where, despite feminist movements and women occupying many positions of authority, males dominate. Women no longer put up with men’s 19th-century notions of life, regardless of their upbringing. Men’s domination led to the demise of the women in these short tales. Once you compare “The Yellow Wallpaper” with the other story, you’ll see that it is better.

Work Cited

1. Faulkner, William, John Carradine, and Anjelica Huston. A rose for Emily. Paderborn, De: Verlag F. Schöningh, 1958.
2. Song, Zijiao. ‘Transitivity Analysis of A Rose for Emily.’ Theory

‘Love is like a wild-rose briar; friendship is like the holly-tree. The holly tree is dark when the rose briar blooms, but which one will bloom most constantly?’ In ‘A Rose for Emily’, William Faulkner utilizes a neurotic intrigue to recount to a tale about the fundamental character Miss Emily Grierson by enlightening us regarding her family and how her dad’s demise affected her when she was a kid. Another way he utilizes an obsessive intrigue is he discloses to us how individuals think about her and the manner in which that individuals converse with her all through the story.

‘A Rose for Emily’ is about a lady named Miss Emily Grierson, who depended vigorously on the care of her father. At the point when her dad passed away, she does not accept her father’s death. Her father’s demise leaves her poor, makes her have a psychological breakdown, and after that she goes to her home with an unknown disease. The individuals in this story don’t care for Miss Emily Grierson on the grounds that she is from an aristocratic family, which is a family that is in the high society and has numerous benefits, for example, medieval or lawful benefits. In this story, when Emily is informed that she needs to pay taxes she doesn’t comprehend and declines to. At some point, Homer Barron and his group of workers come to town to manufacture walkways. Emily looks into Homer regardless of the dissatisfaction with the townspeople, who contend that he is too-low class for Emily. Emily gets some arsenic however will not clarify why. A long time later, when Emily passes on, the townspeople discover a man’s skeleton in her bed. It’s emphatically inferred that this skeleton is Homer Barron. This is on the grounds that Homer had circumvented spreading bits of gossip that Emily had laid down with him. You could never have a Grierson lay down with somebody like Homer Barron on the grounds that he is in the lower to middle-class, however she is in the high society and they could never have relations with somebody outside of their group.

The principle subject in ‘A Rose for Emily is Isolation. ‘Emily wouldn’t you be able to see, there’s no other option for you. There’s adoring all over, however none for you.’ This statement is essentially saying that Miss Emily Grierson will never discover love. This is on the grounds that no one loves her for the reasons expressed already. This causes Emily to feel alone and extremely secluded from every other person. William Faulkner says that Emily’s dad is ‘an approaching possessive figure, a figure of all out control and predominance’. This would separate them from the remainder of society socially, monetarily, and ethically. Emily is likewise sincerely separated from society, as she can’t discover love in her town. She has had never discovered love, aside from one time and afterward she killed him when he attempted to leave since she didn’t need him to ever leave, so she killed him with toxic substance, so they can be as one until the end of time.

The central symbol of this story is a rose. Red roses are usually associated with romantic love and yellow roses are usually associated with friendships. Homer Barron was the rose for Emily. He was the only person she had become friends and he is the only person she had ever grown to love. This was because people viewed her as haughty and scornful. They did not like her because she was an upper-class citizen, but they did not really even know Emily. Roses are also a symbol of timelessness. Emily wanted her “rose” to last forever, which is why she poisoned Homer Barron. She wanted him to stay with him forever, so when he tried to leave her, she killed him so that he could not leave. To her, this meant that she had finally found her true love and that they would be together forever, which made her happy. A few weeks later, she died, and the neighbors discovered that Homer Barron was also in her house, dead. They had finally figured out what that putrid smell was that was making them queasy.

In conclusion, this story was about a woman who lost her father, and in turn lost everything.

The relationship Emily Grierson has with Homer Barron is also an example of how she rebels against society. Homer Barron is a Northerner. Emily is a southern belle. Homer is a man of the working class. Emily is rich and built on the legacy of her family. She is a prominent figure in her town while Homer is an outsider. Barron was also a man of darker complexion. These two types of people are supposed to stay separated. The women of the town say, “Of course, a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer” (124). This shows how it is not the way society worked in this time period. After all, the South was still recovering from, and most certainly had not forgotten, the events of the Civil War.

Gender Roles

The traditional gender role for a woman in this era requires them to be silent as well as submissive. They are always kept in check. After her father dies, Emily rejects this ideal and becomes its parody. She sees this as an opportunity to seize control of her own life, something a woman never does. Emily Grierson assumes the gender role of a man. She becomes a strong character and does what she wants. She takes control of both the things and the people around her. She does things that women aren’t seen as capable of doing. An example of this is on page 121 when she refuses to pay her taxes. Emily completely dismisses the tax collectors and refuses to even recognize or validate their authority. She continuously repeats “See Colonel Sartoris” and “I have no taxes in Jefferson”. Not only does she refuse to pay the men, she doesn’t dignify their presence with her attention. Another example is on pages 125 and 126 when she buys the poison. The clerk asks her what it is for, but she does not tell him, giving the impression she is up to no good. Faulkner describes how Emily intimidates the druggist, saying “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted up in order to look him an eye for an eye until he looked away and went got the arsenic” (126). This is also an example of how she is taking the role of a man by being forceful and intimidating. Later in the story, we learn that poison was used to kill Homer Barron. Taking a person’s life or showing violence is not seen as something a woman is capable of doing because women are “supposed” to be frail and clean. They are not supposed to get their hands dirty both figuratively and literally. Grierson does both.

In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner gives us a perfect example of a female character who defies the societal norms and conventions of that time period. Emily Grierson takes on the gender role of a man. She does the exact opposite of what the traditional woman is expected to do by taking control of her life, intimidating others, refusing to acknowledge them, being independent, and ultimately committing the act of murder.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner are gothic fiction short stories that feature defiant female protagonists living in isolated ‘haunted house’ settings and use the tragic experiences of their protagonists to advance discourses against male dominance over women, the treatment of women with mental illness. “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses the oppression of women in society more explicitly than “A Rose for Emily” however, both stories are symbolic of women’s resistance during first-wave feminism from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century through speaking and acting against patriarchal oppression.

Jane from “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Emily from “A Rose for Emily” are the female protagonists of their stories. Jane and Emily are symbolic characters and represent women in the nineteenth century who were subject to gender roles under patriarchal oppression, lacked socio-economic independence, and did not have voices of their own. Gendered beliefs about women, as well as women’s silence, influenced how they were treated by the healthcare system. “Female mental health problems were generally viewed as pathological and were believed to be caused by their sexual organs. Hysteria, the ‘daughter’s disease,’ was common, and believed to be caused by aberrations in the reproductive system” (Floyd 1).

Mental illness is a common theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily.” In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane suffers from postpartum depression and is prescribed a “rest cure.” Jane’s husband and brother refer to her illness as a “slight hysterical tendency.” Jane is aware that her condition is worse than that, but she cannot speak out for herself in opposition to the men. She says, “What is one to do?” (Gilman 571) referring to her silence and involuntary complacency. “So [she has to take] tonics, and journeys, and air and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until [she is] well again” (Gilman 571). Jane is confined to a single room in the house and has a mental illness that leads her to hallucinate, so she uses writing as a coping mechanism. In “A Rose for Emily,” Faulkner hints that Emily has a mental illness because there is “insanity in [her] family,” as well as from her refusal to dispose of her father’s body after his death (Faulkner 661). At the end of the story and prior to Emily’s death, it is discovered that she has necrophilia and has been sleeping with her lover’s corpse for years.

Isolation is also a common theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily.” Social isolation is a dangerous phenomenon that can lead to loneliness, social anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. The social isolation of women is also a tool used in the patriarchal oppression of women. This can be seen in the lives of Jane and Emily who are isolated by the dominant male figures and are driven to madness as a result. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane’s husband refuses to allow visit her cousins (Gilman 576) while in “A Rose for Emily,” Emily lived with her father who drove Emily’s suitors away, so after his death, “she had nothing left” (Faulkner 661).

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is narrated from the first-person point of view of the main character, Jane, while “A Rose for Emily” is narrated from the collective first-person point of view of Emily’s townspeople. While “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a journal account of Jane’s experiences, Emily’s story is told in a series of nonchronological flashbacks. These narrative differences impact Jane and Emily’s voices in their stories. In addition, the narrative differences influence views of the stories as ‘feminist’. Jane’s narration of her own story gives her a voice that Emily does not have. Jane is vocal about how she disagrees with the treatment prescribed to her, but she has to remain complacent because “[her husband, John] is very careful and loving […], he takes all care from [her] and [she] feels ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman 572). However, she defies him and acts out by continuing to write despite being ordered not to. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily’s voice is only present in her dialogues with the tax collectors and the druggist. She says short sentences in a direct tone and does not give room for people to oppose her. Despite not having her own voice in her story, Emily is able to act out through her necrophilia. By killing Homer Barron instead of herself, she defies the expectation that “she will kill herself” (Faulkner 662). Because of this, Gina Herring describes Emily, not as a madwoman, but “as a force to be reckoned with” (215). Herring also says:

Because the Southern male establishment, represented by the apparently benign narrator of the story, patronizes and pities her, Miss Emily is able to use her prescribed role as a ‘lady’ to undermine the patriarchal power structure. According to Judith Fetterley, ‘Faulkner’s story is an analysis of how men’s attitudes toward women turn back upon themselves; it is a demonstration of the thesis that it is impossible to oppress without in turn being oppressed, it is impossible to kill without creating the conditions for your own murder’ (35). (215).

In this way, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is explicitly feminist, and “A Rose for Emily” is implicitly feminist and can be viewed through a feminist lens.

The author’s genders and attachment to their characters play significant roles in their ability to represent their characters and challenge the patriarchal oppression of women. Gilman is a female author who uses her female protagonist, “Jane” in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to tell her own story and challenge the rest cure prescribed to her when she “suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia” and “came so near to the borderline of utter mental ruin” (Gilman 265). She says [the story] was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked (265). “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an exaggerated expression of Gilman’s own experience, “with its embellishments and additions to carry out the ideal (I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations)” (Gilman 265). Gilman’s connection to Jane enables the effective representation of the character and opposition to the poor medical given to women with mental illness. Faulkner is a male author and “adopts a bisexual narrative voice” (Renee 392). Unlike Gilman, Faulkner has not gone through the same experiences as his character, so he cannot fully represent her experiences. “Emily thus remains present and absent simultaneously – present when Faulkner’s words and the narrator’s scenarios capture her, absent when the words cannot penetrate beyond the door leading to her actions.” (Curry 392).

The titles of both stories are also symbolic elements. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbol of the oppressive patriarchy and the woman in the wallpaper reflects Jane. “Jane is the woman who fought her way out from behind the oppressive bars of the outside pattern” (Suess 95). When the woman escapes from the wallpaper she says, “I’ve got out at last, […] in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can’t put me back.” “A Rose for Emily” can be viewed as a gesture from Faulkner to his character. The “rose” is a symbol of the love she was deprived of in her lifetime. In her story, Emily is referred to as ‘crazy’ whereas she is a woman suffering from an undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. Like Jane, Emily is one representation of a wider spectrum of women who suffered from mental health issues in silence throughout their lives as a result of male oppression. With this, Faulkner’s gesture to Emily can also be viewed as a gesture to women in general.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily” are stories that actively challenge the treatment of women. Gilman and Faulkner use their characters as reflections of the socio-economic situation of women with mental illness as a result of patriarchal oppression. Both stories emphasize a need for women to have a voice, as well as the ability to act out in resistance to the patriarchy.

In ‘A Rose for Emily,’ William Faulkner recounts the tale of an old and forlorn woman stuck in her very own period of time. Her controlling dad kicked the bucket approximately thirty years back, and she has never entirely discovered her very own ground. Her home has turned into the ugliest-looking home on the once most select road in the city. Already rich and white with looked-over overhangs, it was presently infringed with residue and rot. The individuals in Miss Emily’s city tattle about her and pity her lost soul. She before long starts dating a youthful single man by the name of Homer Barron, who is a piece of the development organization clearing walkways on her road. They start taking carriage rides together, and townspeople talk more, and pity, Miss Emily, more. Things change rapidly, however, as Miss Emily is seen less with Homer, and is seen obtaining arsenic from the neighborhood medication store. In the long run, no, more is seen of Homer, and Miss Emily kicks the bucket at age seventy-four. After Miss Emily’s passing the townspeople break down her upstairs room that had been fixed closed for somewhere in the range of forty years, they locate Homer’s dead rotting body, an engraving of another body adjacent to it, and a solitary dark strand of hair. ‘A Rose for Emily’ recounts the account of custom versus non-customary and old versus new, which is exposed through the story’s plot, characters, and setting.

Right at the start of the story, clearly, it will be about old versus new. The author starts by portraying Miss Emily’s home, which was once lavish, as currently old and dusty. ‘It was a major, squarish edge house that had once been white [Now] a blemish among blemishes’ (Faulkner 146). The house itself represents custom, it has matured, and as opposed to moving alongside the remaking of the South, it has remained the equivalent. As the story talks about Miss Emily’s past, clearly, her family is very much regarded in the town. To such an extent that when she strolls into a room, individuals are relied upon to ascend in adoration of her. Miss Emily is the older woman that everybody has sympathy for. Her dad, who protected her without a doubt along these lines, had once contributed a considerable aggregate of cash to the possess, excusing Miss Emily of any future assessment installments. Once more, the commonplace subject of old versus new emerges when Miss Emily is approached to give an assessment installment. She doesn’t just cannot; however, she does as such that says she ought not to have even been posed the inquiry. These ‘new’ specialists should realize better at that point to ask the ‘old’ Miss Emily for a wonder such as this. ‘I have no duties in Jefferson€¦’ (Faulkner 147). No additional data is looked for after on the grounds that they realize that old trumps are new. A comparable event emerges when Miss Emily buys rodent harming; state law says that she should give the explanation behind her getting it, but Miss Emily doesn’t, she essentially pays and leaves. The most emotional act is Miss Emily slaughtering her sweetheart. Miss Emily is making a decent attempt to remain old and live how she knows how, and this like this makes her homicide her sweetheart. The primary way she realized how to keep him with her was to slaughter him. This was how she was raised.

Miss Emily was raised by a controlling dad, who did not release her out of the house, significantly less dating anybody. When he bites the dust, she doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what to do. To such an extent that she keeps his body for a brief timeframe. Her general surroundings are changing and developing; however, she is not. Faulkner utilizes an extremely particular image of this in his opening sections. ‘A little chubby lady dressed in dark, with a slight gold chain diving to her midsection and disappearing into her belt’ (Faulkner 147). Time is actually not in the vision for her. It has ‘disappeared into her belt,’ where she cannot see it. Miss Emily is lost, and the primary way she realizes acceptable behavior is generally. When she meets Homer Baron, he is everything that she realizes she ought not to be doing. He is tentatively gay, he’s a lone ranger of certain sorts, and he is a straightforward development specialist. In dating him, she is conflicting with all that she has been instructed; either to give just desserts to her dad for protecting her so much or in light of the fact that she is so uninformed of what she ought to do. As the story unfurls, Homer beginnings investing less and less energy with Miss Emily, and they separate. Emily isn’t finished with him, however, and needs simply to wed him; she even ventures to purchase a wedding outfit for him. Be that as it may, Homer was not of the wedding type and had no expectations of wedding her. The main way she knew to keep him with her was to slaughter him; thus, she did. ‘At that point, we saw that in the subsequent pad was the space ahead. [And on it lay a] long strand of iron-silver hair’ (Faulkner 152). She lay by Homer’s dead, rotting body until she could never again do as such. She harmed him, because for her, this was how she knew to stop time, and thus she could remain with Homer for whatever length of time she needed to.

Looking profoundly into the setting of the story, we see a gigantic change period for the South as a rule, which would incorporate Miss Emily and the townspeople. The time this occurred was somewhere close to the 1860s and the 1930s. Subjection had quite recently finished, the white-collar class was winding up increasingly unmistakable, and society all in all was ending up less cliquish. The Grierson family was one of high status, in all probability with heaps of cash and numerous slaves. After Miss Emily’s dad passes on, everything that they had faith in is flipped around. Subjugation, which was extremely reasonable, is presently thought of as an underhanded, barbarity. The townspeople appear to progress well overall; however, Miss Emily, with nobody to control her, isn’t. ‘Alive, Miss Emily had been a convention, an obligation, a consideration; kind of genetic commitment upon the town¦’ (Faulkner 146). Her dad bites the dust, her compass to life, the New South develops, and she is forgotten about to figure things out on her own. This was hard for her and added to her frenzy and the awful feeling of judgment. Miss Emily just realized how to pursue; she didn’t have the foggiest idea of how to lead. This is plainly found in her association with her dad. ‘Miss Emily, a thin figure in white out of sight, her dad a straddled outline in the closer view, his back to her, gripping a pony ‘ (Faulkner 148). Her dad unmistakably controlled her like a steed, and this is the manner in which she carries on with her life. At the point when Homer tags along, she feels as though she has somebody to lead her once more when he chooses to leave her; she needs to execute him. She slaughters him since she needs a male figure in her life, and for her, this is the best way to keep him around.

The last edge I need to take a gander at the ‘A Rose for Emily’ would be the general public’s view of females. Each human lives in a specific culture and is affected by its customs and standards. A general public is a ‘foundation’ which has the privilege to pass judgment and support the weight. Hence, individuals make a solid feeling of one’s obligation regarding another. In ‘A Rose for Emily’, Miss Emily gets into this snare. Jefferson’s people group feels an incredible commitment to deal with her and control her activities. All through the story, she is seen by her condition as a powerless and ward lady. At the point when her dad kicks the bucket, she is disregarded. She doesn’t have a man to think about her, so the town gathering chooses to pardon her duty obligations. The individuals of the town endeavor to suit her needs by offering their assistance and compassion. They additionally attempt to be tolerant of her unconventionality – dating a Yankee, purchasing a toxic substance, or keeping the carcass of her dad. This caretaking of Miss Emily delineates the impression of a lady during that timeframe. A lady without a man is vulnerable. She isn’t capable acquire her living just as to remain rationally well and capacity appropriately in the general public.

William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’ is loaded up with character, plot, and setting imagery. They all appear to state that Miss Emily is stuck in time, with no chance to get out. She harms Homer Barron for various reasons. She needs a male in her life to lead the pack since her life is being flipped around, and she has nobody to look to. Was this carry-on of adoration or sheer childishness? She was clearly rationally flimsy, yet she additionally had heaps of weight on her with each individual around her tattling and making a decision about everything she might do. Possibly she did it for the stun factor. Whatever the explanation might be, she surely got the opportunity to keep her ‘rose,’ Homer Barron, until the end of time.

In analyzing and understanding literature, one of the critical factors is the concept of point of view. It shapes the readers’ perception of the story, based on the attitude the narrator has toward the themes, and events described in the story. There are several types of the point of view concept. First, it depends on the one that is telling the story (first, second, or First-person); on the opposite hand, it’s determined by the amount of the narrator’s awareness). This essay addresses the concept of point of view in “A Rose for Emily” – William Faulkner’s story. It’s a curious example of First-person because it is demonstrated below within the analysis. The narrator’s point of view in “A Rose for Emily” brings the readers closer to the related events on the one hand, and demonstrates his own mysterious nature on the opposite side.

Importance of Point of View during a Rose for Emily

Throughout the full plot, the narration occurs in person plural: ‘we’ is the pronoun Faulkner uses to stress that the events are related by an eyewitness or a full group of eyewitnesses (451-456). This ‘we’ represents a composite image of the town society and provides an account of not only Emily’s story but the history of several periods. The collective character of the narrator reveals itself in such phrases as “our whole town visited her funeral”, “we weren’t pleased exactly”, “as is our custom”, “we believed”, “we remembered”, “we knew”, etc. (Faulkner 451-456).

The outward authority of such statements, along with the confident predictions of this composite image concerning Emily’s private life, creates a control of a know-all narrator who is farseeing enough to produce for the long-run course of events. The tone of this collective reaction to each little occurrence in Emily’s life suggests that the pronoun ‘we’ may indicate the community of town gossip who want everything done their way and are outraged if things move out of their control.

The outward authority of the collective narrator, which should generally look reliable and encourage the readers’ trust, is therefore shaken by the thought that this narrator could be a mere town gossiping, spreading the rumors just for the fun of it. Thus, the suspicious character of the narrator as a gossip questions the narrator’s opinion of Emily’s actions as weird and noncomplying.

Moreover, several small details within the story further complicate the mystery of the narrator’s personality. Within the majority of ‘we’ statements, Faulkner introduces such phrases as “people “people in our town … believed”, and “people were glad” (455). And here emerges a question: why should Faulkner use the word ‘people’ rather than the conventional ‘we’? Why is he employing a literary device that produces a message somewhat inconsistent? The clear answer is that this can be done to contrast the narrator with the remainder of the group.

Adding to the current contrast is the final scene of breaking into the key room in Emily’s house. For one thing, the narrator provides a foreshadowing by saying, “Already we knew that there was one room in this region above stairs which nobody had seen in forty years” (Faulkner 456) — how on earth did they comprehend it? In such light, the narrator appears to be someone introduced into Emily’s mystery.

For another thing, within the scene of breaking in, the narrator suddenly switches to the pronoun ‘they’: “They held the funeral on the second day,” “They waited until Miss Emily was decently within the ground” (Faulkner 456). Although the conventional ‘we’ reappears soon afterward, this sudden change in the narrator’s relationship with the town crowd cannot go unnoticed.

The difficulty of the narrator’s point of view in “A Rose for Emily” Analysis shows that the mysterious First-person narrator, who represents the town, intrigues the reader with the knowledge of intimate details and casual opposition to the remainder of the people. In summary, this feature has a crucial impact on the readers’ opinion of Emily since it suggests that she must not be seen as the way gossip is describing her and it requires a more detailed understanding of Miss Emily.

Works Cited

1. Barnet, Sylvan, et al. Literature for Composition: an Introduction to Literature. Pearson, 2018.

Modernism is an interesting genre of literature as it is presented not only through the themes and subjects of a text but also in the actual way in which it was written. Indeed, the focal point of any modernist work of fiction is a clash of the traditions and innovations, the subjectivity vs objectivity of reality, and the biases which deny the existence of the objective truth. But it is also a genre that goes against the tradition in its very form: modernist stories are rarely written in a classical fashion, where the chronology of the events mirrors the beats of the story. The cuts, flashbacks, and time displacement are all traits inherent to modernist literature. William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is ultimately a textbook example of modernist fiction as it utilizes all the elements mentioned above to tell a story about a woman who had clung to the past so much that she had lost touch with objective reality. Despite her delusions and insanity, Faulkner manages to convince readers to empathize with her through the means of non-linear storytelling.

At the core of this tale is the endless battle of old vs. new. The story opens with an announcement of the death of the main character – Emily – who is called an ‘Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town (Faulkner). From the get-go, Faulkner set-ups a conflict between the modern people and Emily who is a product of the past. Even her house is a relic, which stands out like a sore thumb among the modern buildings of the industrialized era: ‘But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps…’ (Faulkner). All in all, the first chapter paints a picture of a stubborn, old lady who refuses to accept the new era, to the point of rejecting reality, as she vehemently believes that she does not need to pay taxes.

Her refusal to see the future is not simply a product of senility, but of a much more deeply ingrained trauma. Emily’s father died when she was still relatively young. When the people from the town offered to share their condolences, she refused to accept this fact, claiming that her father did not die: ‘with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will (Faulkner). This is another trait of modernist literature, a conflict of realities. Emily was not in denial but legitimately thought, to the very end, that her father was alive and well, creating a version of reality where that is true.

The structure of the story also makes it easier for readers to empathize with Emily. The short story sort of loops back as it starts with the very end – the death and the last days of Emily – and recalls her history from the beginning, from how she lost her father and met Homer. That structure makes readers pay more attention to the events which turned Emily into an old lady that they meet at the beginning of the story, thus explaining how she becomes as miserable as she is. This structure also presents an idea about the non-linearity of time: while for most people it flows directly, people like Emily are stuck in one particular point of time (before her father’s death). The almost cyclical structure of the story reflects the endless loop in which Emily’s mind is stuck.

The Rose for Emily is a prime example of modernist literature because it demonstrates and describes the conflicts most commonly associated with this literary genre. The conflict of traditions vs modernity, the subjectivity of reality, and the relativity of time. It also utilizes an unconventional story structure, which is told through flashbacks and not chronologically, a typical trait of modernist literature. Faulkner utilizes those characteristics to make readers emphasize more with Emily, more and not treat her as an oddity or simply an insane person.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner, William. A Rose For Emily And Other Stories. Random House Publishing Group, 2012.