Category: A Rose For Emily

Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” share many similarities but also differ immensely. Faulkner’s literary work of fiction is Southern Gothic, while Chopin’s work is a short story family drama. Here we can see one comparison between both works; they are both family dramas. Published in different centuries, the time period plays a massive role in the difference between both of these renowned works of literature. Some of these clear changes are the post-Civil War effects in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”. Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, shows how a woman in the 19th century was nothing without her husband and became free when he “died”. Faulkner’s story shows Emily desperately looking for a partner, leading to her demise at the end dying from old age. A large similarity between both works is how both women were controlled by men, and death was their true form of freedom. 

Faulkner’s work differs quite massively from Chopin’s short story because of its genre. Southern gothic pieces of literature typically consist of irrational thoughts from characters, with deep-rooted problems, and a large amount of dark humor. This is portrayed in the story when proclaimed, “Homer himself had remarked–he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club–that he was not a marrying man.”

This illustrates the sense of humor as it develops the big figure of a Homosexual fellow, to make fun of his big personality of a man that would not marry. However, Chopin’s family drama typically consists of conflicts between family members and the family’s relationships. This can be seen in Chopin’s story when it claims, “and she was striving to beat it back with her will—as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.” This showcases how she felt powerless when her husband was around, this demonstrates the fact that he is a family drama-driven author. Yet, in retrospect, both works have a bit of family drama within their pages. Taking into account that Emily’s suffering from their fair share of family issues and controversy between a past family contract and politicians with awaiting tax payments. Similarly, Chopin’s short story illustrates a wife going through the stages of grief after her discovery of her husband’s death via her sister. In this case, Mallard dies of a stroke. Seeing her husband and knowing her freedom had ceased to the oppression of a man once again, indicating some sort of relief within Mallard as if she has been freed. This demonstrates the issues that could have been present within the wife and husbands’ relationship. 

Furthermore, The difference in centuries and years has paved the way literature was written. This can be shown in Chopin’s story when Mrs. Mallard exclaims, “Free, free, free!’ The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes.” This illustrates how she feels free at the release of the slavery society places on women from the start to be attentive to their husbands. On the contrary, Faulkner states, “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument.” This depicts the impact she had even after the death of her father it didn’t matter, she had a reputation of her own.

Moreover, differences are expected as no story is the same. Yet! These similarities show the individualism of each story such as how death was their escape. This can be shown when in “A Rose for Emily” Faulkner proclaims, “Thus she passed from generation to generation–dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.” This establishes how she kept growing older and depressed, stuck on the same routine and time. In which death ends up freeing her from her sad and lonely life. Nonetheless, in “Story of an Hour” Chopin writes “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills.” This exemplifies how the joy she had due to her husband’s death due to her new-founded free will, was immediately killed by Mr. Mallard’s reappearance to the storyline. Moreover, is shown Jay Gilbert Ph.D., states “…but in both cases, there is certainly symbolism tied into buildings and the… women to these buildings” This demonstrates another similarity when it comes to symbolism. It is shown throughout the story yet it is connected to the persona of said character.

In short, Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” share many similarities but also differ immensely. Each is very impactful in its own way. Their similarities in control by a man cause the reasoning behind their occurrences. To demonstrate two amazing styles of writing, and a history lesson all in one. This is the reason why these pieces are timeless.

Works Cited

1. ‘A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner I WHEN MISS Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the.’ A Rose for Emily – cje.ids.czest.pl. cje.ids.czest.pl/biblioteka/7117936-A-Rose-for-Emily.pdf.
2. ‘Get an answer for ‘Compare the symbolism in.’ Compare the symbolism in. s://enotes.com/homework-help/compare-the-symbolism-in-the-story-of-an-hour-and….
3. ‘Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” was originally published in 1894. There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.’ The Story of an Hour Kate Chopin – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. s://my.hrw.com/support/hos/hostpdf/host_text_219.pdf.

Inequality headlines the media every day: racism, skin color discrimination, sexual preference, and gender. Women from the past, present, and future have been fighting against inequality. The Feminist Movement developed based on their battle for their right to be equal to males. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, the theme of gender equality can be seen through the townsfolk’s patriarchal mindsets, Emily’s struggle to survive in this society, and how the lack of equality against women lead to Emily rebelling against the patriarchal society.

On page 305 Faulkner writes, “So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with the insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down her chances if they had really materialized”. The townsfolks in Jefferson viewed Emily as an old maid, only because she was no longer young and hadn’t married. This is the first example of the firm patriarchal mindset and what they considered a violation of her gender role. In this society, if one didn’t live up to their gender role, it is considered unnatural and they are treated as outcasts.

Faulkner demonstrates this patriarchal mindset when he write, “Then some ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people”. During the Victorian era, the gender role of a woman included maintaining her purity before marriage. Once married, the husband dominated his wife’s body. The ladies of Jefferson believed that Emily failed to live up to her gender role by consorting with a Northerner named Homer Barron. Because of this, she continues to be an outcast and therefore begins Emily’s struggle to survive in this society.

A clear example of Emily’s struggle to survive in this society can be seen in the following scene: “The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him, erect, her face like a strained flag” (Kennedy and Gioia). The druggist looking down on her shows his disdain and rejection of Emily. Her determination and refusal to accept his reaction towards her allows her to rise above men and those who dismiss her because of her lifestyle and gender. Although she doesn’t back down and puts on a strong front, she struggled with social interactions which causes her to limit them and further her position as an outcast. “Patriarchy views women unfit for society. For patriarchy, women are considered too dangerous to be included within the civilized world until they subject themselves to discipline and accept its rules unconditionally” (Tsakitopoulou- Summers 41). In a man’s society. Women aren’t seen as civilized until they follow their gender roles. Emily doesn’t fit the stereotypical women in this society, therefore seen as uncivilized. This causes Emily to harden herself and rebel against the norm.

Emily Grierson rebelling against society, is a prime example of feminism. Emily fights to free herself from the constraints and expectations of the patriarchal society by going against what is considered the norm. Fighting against patriarchal oppression for gender equality is the true meaning of feminism. Emily’s new-found freedom and change in both personality and appearance begin shortly after the death of her father. Prior to her father’s death, Emily was considered a “good girl”, conforming to her father dominating her entire life, to the extent that he drove away any potential husbands and eliminated any opportunity that she had of living a normal life under the roles of a patriarchal society. Emily’s “good girl” persona prior to her father’s death is illustrated as the author writes, “Miss Emily a slender figure in the white background” (Kennedy and Gioia). Emily is being objectified via the description of her appearance with the narrator specifying her body type as slender and clothing as white. These two items are an indication that she is living what is a socially acceptable lifestyle at the time. Furthermore, the white clothing is symbolic of innocence and purity, classifying Emily as a good girl. On the other hand, evidence of Emily’s transformation after the death of her father are seen as Faulkner writes, “When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat, and her hair was turning gray… Up to the day of her death at seventy- four, it was still vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man”(Kennedy and Gioia). Patriarchy places great emphasis and vale on women who follow their roles by maintaining a particular appearance, their virtue and marry by a certain age. In contrast, Emily is past marrying age, has gained weight and cut her hair short like a man and, for this reason, is considered less worthy or depreciated in value. Additionally, the author is showing the complete transformation of a once slender, innocent young lady into a strong woman. At the end of Emily’s life, her features closely resembled those of a man, therefore making her a “bad girl”. The feminist theory indicates that both views of being a good or bad girl is a patriarchy objectifying women, in which Emily falls victim of.

Feminist theory in “Rose for Emily” is clear through the display of patriarchal ideologies of the townsfolks, Emily’s struggle to survive this patriarchal society and how her struggle ultimately leads her to rebel against the male dominated society that she lives in. The patriarchal beliefs of the townsfolks include gender roles that they believe Emily has violated. The breaking of these unspoken rules makes Emily an outsider to the residents of Jefferson, who treat her with contempt and force her into reclusion. Emily’s revolt against patriarchy includes a change in her appearance and her interactions with the men of Jefferson, therefore rejecting the scrutiny of objectification. In the end, Emily’s fight against the norm is what gives her freedom. From the Victorian era to the present-day women continue to strive for equality by fighting oppression. Only with the elimination of patriarchal ideologies will the real potential of a woman become evident.

In the story ‘A Rose for Emily’ major themes include death, isolation, and the decline of the Old South. Of these, death takes the cake, with the skeleton in Emily’s bed reflecting the decay and corruption of the Old South. Imprisonment and destruction are two important aspects of the story as well. Meanwhile, the style and techniques throughout the story help to get a comprehensive idea of what old southern towns were like in this era. An example of Southern Gothic literature is ‘A Rose for Emily’.

‘A Rose for Emily’ takes place in a southern town, and its decaying house left to her by her father signifies the Corruption of Miss Emily and the destruction she put upon herself. The house is more of a complicated and hidden symbol. The house is literally deteriorating the narrator even describes it as “an eyesore among eyesores.’ The story further describes the house as ‘encroached upon by garages and cotton gins, structures of industrialization, etc.’ The house is a significant symbol for specifically how flawed the culture and history of the Old South are, its offensiveness, the corrupt, and ugly accuracy in its institution of slavery, and its irrelevance in the face of the modern world. There are many similarities between the house and Emily, the more downhill and poor the year’s move, the frailer and worn out, both the house and owner present solely a pleasing face to the community which secretes unusual passions and appalling mysteries within.

Miss Emily refuses to admit the passage of time, She is locked in the past, by her own actions, by her father’s actions, and by the townspeople’s views towards her struggle with the present. Emily’s isolation fuels the curiosity of the townspeople, who becomes more interested in her as she becomes more and more withdrawn. Other conflicts are also portrayed by Miss Emily versus the townspeople each part of the story more is revealed about the townspeople and their attitudes toward Miss Emily.

Miss Emily’s engagement with the townspeople is a different one. They concurrently resent her, respect her, sympathize with her, and admire her. She is ‘high and mighty.’ Emily is in a perpetual battle with the townspeople, refusing to pay her taxes, denying to accept condolences when her dad dies, and opposing to justify why she buys arsenic, notwithstanding the townspeople’s efforts to control her. Any affection they seem to have for her is compelled by curiosity.

The narrator pays particular notice to the length and color of Miss Emily’s hair. The position of the hair, as well as its color and length, advises a progressive communication between Miss Emily and the corpse of Homer, again showing her opposition to accepting the entirety of death. Following the death of her father, Miss Emily’s hair is cut short; several years later ‘her hair was turning gray. During the next few years, it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray’ (148). The value of this description is unveiled in the final words of the story when on the pillow near Homer Barron’s decomposed body is found a long strand of iron-gray hair (150).

Faulkner uses imagery to show how Emily has started to take on an alike persona as her father. The narrator illustrates how townspeople envision Emily and her father. Emily, all in white, is in the background, while her father, all in black, rises in the forefront, ‘his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.’ The grim thought unveils that Mr. Grierson possesses the upper hand and constraints Emily’s life also within Emily’s adulthood. Grierson is the guard of the household. While Emily ages, she develops her father’s imminent nature. Meanwhile, when the aldermen confront her regarding the tax bill she ‘vanquished them, horse and foot,’ as though they signified troops and soldiers in the Civil War. The intensity of her behavior is more apparent. A light comes on in a darkened upstairs room, ‘Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her upright torso motionless’ essentially as if she signified a statue. Emily formed her individual cold glare ousting her father’s foreboding image.

Faulkner strengthens the suspense by imitating the southern storyteller’s style of depicting people and experiences through situations that triggered recollections. The most striking symbols are the locked room in Miss Emily’s house. The room signifies the strangeness and mystery linked with Miss Emily’s house and her bond with Homer. The cotton gin near Miss Emily’s house connects this development, as it links the cotton culture of the antebellum South with the emerging industrialism of the frequently growing urban New South.

Two generations do not seem like much of a big deal. To the common man or woman with children, it’s been this way for as long as we have known. However, in between our generational patterns, it seems as though some essential things have been lost. The way men treat women, and vice versa. A certain mutual respect has been forgotten and replaced with an ill-mannered temperament. This vastly shows in, “A Rose for Emily.” Emily’s authoritarian father and his disappearing presence cause Emily to catch up with the rest of society unwillingly; a society of rapidly changing views directed mainly at women. The Old South seemed to have found these things, and the upcoming generations would misplace them, as it seems, indefinitely. This is seen throughout the text in this short story.

The Old South admired women. They looked at them as if they were Goddesses. Men respected women in a sacred way. We see this at Emily’s funeral. The men showed a respectful fondness for a fallen monument. That monument would be the memory of the Old South’s distinction prior to the Civil War. Colonel Sartoris abrogated Emily’s taxes after the death of her father as his way of showing respect. Sartoris knew that Emily had been left alone. Emily, like many other thriving and muscular families in the Old South, wanted to safeguard her family heritage. Southern men with their etiquette handled these women as if they were glass. They treated them as if they were extremely fragile. These men went above and beyond to accommodate women such as Emily’s statute. Emily was lonely, and Colonel Sartoris saw that the men in the community should come together and figure out how to take care of her. The Old South also respected the fact that Emily wanted to be left alone.

The New South wasn’t what Emily was accustomed to. The Board of Aldermen didn’t comprehend the same level of thinking that Colonel Sartoris did. They didn’t care what Emily’s father contributed to the town, much less Emily wanting to be left alone to wither away. The Civil War impacted the Southern way of life for almost everyone. The New South had their sights set on progressing and moving forward. Without the existence of the slave population, last names and official titles did not come to matter to the New South. Mail service and sidewalks made of concrete paved the way for new things to come. Homer Barron is a great example in the fact that he represents this change. Townspeople were not willing to accept Homer because of his status in society. In the same way, they were having a problem adapting to the New South. This new generation even went as far as to criticize Emily for some of her mannerisms and attitude.

The Old and New South were as simple to distinguish as light and day. Life before the Civil War just wanted to be held onto. Life after the Civil War just wasn’t what it used to be. Emily got to experience both generational cues and mishaps. A beautiful rose at the beginning, only to end up completely and utterly wilted by society. Emily and the Old South fell as prisoners to a contemporary system.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed.
2. Robert DiYanni. 6th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. 79-84. Print.
3. Matthews, J. (2011). Faulkner, William (1897-1962). [online] Literati.credoreference.com. Available at: http://literati.credoreference.com/content/topic/faulkner_william_1897_1962?searchId=0839d8aa-05a9-11e7-8167-12c1f5c39a71 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2017].
4. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Rose for Emily.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 24 Jan. 2020.
5. Rewis, Dana. “Journal: A Rose for Emily.” LiveJournal, 5 Jan. 2012.
6. Madden, David. ‘A Rose for Emily.’ Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition, January 2004, pp. 1-3.

The story A Rose for Emily, written by William Faulkner, tells the story of the main character Emily Grierson. Emily was a staple character in the small town of Jefferson and the story follows the maddening acts of this sad woman caused by her want for love. In 1983, A Rose for Emily was made into a movie. The movie incorporated many of the main ideas from the story, however, some important ideas from the original were not included or made clear in the movie. Emily Grierson, the timeline of events, and Homer’s death were all focal points in the story and were presented quite similarly within the writing, there were also many differences.

William Faulkner made Emily Grierson out to be this crazy woman who did an unspeakable act. The writing portrayed her as this once beautiful young woman oppressed by her father. The movie showed this quite well by showing her and her father’s relationship and how his death affected her. Both the story and the movie also showed how the townspeople viewed Ms. Grierson. They perceived her as a deranged woman whom the ladies of the town felt bad for. However, in the story, the townwomen are often heard saying “Poor Emily” and in the movie, this statement was not said. Toward the end of the story, Emily gets fat and her hair turns an iron-gray color with age. The movie did not depict these important details. At the end of the story after Emily has passed away, her house is being cleaned out and they find the body of Homer. Next to him in the bed, was an iron-gray hair. This was supposed to relay the message that Emily had been sleeping with her husband’s corpse even into her old age. However, with the movie not showing her gray hair, this message is not made clear.

The setting that this story takes place in is the same for both the writing and the movie. The events take place in a town named Jefferson. The atmosphere that is illustrated within this town is eerie and kind of creepy feeling. This is important to the story because it adds to and fits Emily’s actions. However, the order of events that take place between the story and the movie is different. The story starts with Emily’s death and then goes into the story of her life going backward from chronological order. The movie starts in the morgue as well, then goes into Emily’s life but it is shown in chronological order. This is important that the movie was made in this way. In the writing, more detail can be explained that can’t be done within the movie. This was most likely done so the viewers had an easier time understanding the story. tax

Homer was Emily’s love interest and played a major role in A Rose for Emily. Homer was a foreman and a working man who showed up at Emily’s door one day. He showed interest in her and ended up taking her out in a horse and buggy. Later in the story, Emily ends up poisoning him and keeping his body locked away in a room upstairs. In both the story and the movie, Emily buys arsenic to poison Homer at a drugstore. The scene was almost exactly the same and had her telling the man behind the counter that she needed the strongest poison he had. The scene is very important because it is the first indicator that she is planning to poison Homer. This scene clearly shows you that Emily is not acting out of a sane state of mind. Another important thing that happens in both the movie and the story is Homer being found dead in an upstairs bedroom. This scene was pretty similar between the two, however, there were some differences. When Emily’s house is being cleaned out and her cousins find the locked door, in the writing they had a key that unlocked the door. In the movie, the door has to be knocked down. This change was probably done to make the scene seem more dramatic for entertainment purposes.

Overall, William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, it a good and thrilling storyline. The events that take place make you think and leave you wondering. Although some aspects of the original storyline were not incorporated into the movie, both give you the same creepy feeling at the end and get the main point of the story through.

“An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.” William Faulkner talks about demons in the previous quotation, specifically the demons of an artist. Artist and/or writers are often faced with the biggest demon of all- isolation. Can isolation and loneliness be reflected among artists pieces of work? In both “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner himself, and in “ The Death of Marat II”, painted by Edvard Munch, the audience can pick up on the artists loneliness and unhappiness by the colors and different devices each artist uses. The theme that is presented through these compositions is apparent if one knows the artists background and history. Their personal lives play a major role that reflects in their work. Although Munch’s painting “The Death of Marat II” and Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” are of separate categories, there is a connection between them, isolation and loneliness being the theme among them.

What is isolation exactly? Isolation is “the state of being in a place or situation that is separate from others, the condition of being isolated, or the act of separating something from other things.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). According to Collins Dictionary, another denotation of the word “isolation” could be “a lack of contact between persons, groups, or whole societies; the failure of an individual to maintain contact with others or genuine communication where interaction with others persists”. These definitions play out in both of the artists’ lives, which then translate into their art work.

William Faulkner is the author of “A Rose for Emily”. In his earlier pieces of work, he mainly wrote poetry (William Faulkner Biography). Poetry is often looked at as a form of artwork in itself. Through symbolism, colors, mood, tone, and many more elements, poems are formed. In Faulkner’s, “ A Rose for Emily”, the audience can see a clear picture of what is going on and all the symbolism behind each bit of the story. What really helped Faulkner into creating this great imagery is his actual artistic skills. Both his mother and grandmother were said to be painters, photographers, and diligent readers. They “taught him the beauty of line and color” (William Faulkner Biography). This will play a very important role in his writing.

Faulkner’s relationship with his Grandmother and Mother was said to be stable, unlike his relationship with his father. “His relationship with his father was inconstant, and according to one author, he sought out other ‘father-substitutes’ (Great Authors: William Faulkner). This was one of the relationships that has lead him to create the character for Emily’s father, an admirable man. This wasn’t the only inadequate relationship in Faulkner’s life. Although his relationship with Estelle Oldham was healthy, things didn’t turn out too well. As the two were dating, another man proposed to her, she was forced to accept it by her parent and she left Faulkner. (Great Authors: William Faulkner). At this point, Faulkner started to drink heavily. After a few months, Estelle divorced her first husband and married Faulkner. “But their marriage was far from happy: she tried to kill herself during their honeymoon. Like him, she had an alcohol problem.” (Great Authors: William Faulkner). This caused him to be isolated from everyone. This is what might have fueled him to write “A Rose for Emily”, where the main character, Emily, is assumed to have killed her lover and then went into “hiding”. Almost the same as Estelle did to Faulkner, only in a symbolic way. She killed his will to live and be happy, therefore Faulkner went into isolation.

Faulkner starts out with color imagery/ symbolism to set the mood and tone of the story.

“It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. 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-an eyesore among eyesores.” (William Faulkner)

The white house described is symbolic of Mrs. Emily’s past, when she wasn’t mentally ill. As time passes, and his father dies, it is when the house becomes dull and starts decaying. (Maria Magher). As the story goes on, Faulkner continues to describe the house in a very descriptive way going from the house being vibrant and fresh, with clean, white walls, which symbolizes Emily’s vibrant and fresh youth, and her pureness as the white walls to the house becoming dirty, smelly and foul as Emily is growing older and her spirit more deranged. (Maria Magher) The mood of the short story also becomes very deranged and suspenseful.

The audience can infer from the following sentence that after her father’s death, she went crazy because he was all she ever knew, he would keep her isolated from the world, and when she finally got out, she couldn’t handle it, “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” (William Faulkner). Because of her isolation, Emily “descends into madness, not only killing her fiance, but also sleeping with his corpse until her death.” (Maria Magher)

Isolation is directly linked to Emily becoming mentally ill, which then leads her to kill her lover and herself. Studies conducted by scientist have shown that “Loneliness is a common emotion when someone feels alone and when that becomes persistent it causes accelerated aging with multiple health consequences, including conditions that lead to death.” (Gary J. Kennedy).

Similar to Emily, the artist, Edvard Munch was also deranged, which was caused by isolation and loneliness from a young age.

“He sometimes defended his isolation as necessary to produce his work. At other times, he implied it was needed to maintain his sanity. “The second half of my life has been a battle just to keep myself upright.” (Arthur Lubow)

When he was a child, both his mother and sister died of tuberculosis. He was left with only his father and brother. His father suffered from mental illness and raised his kids with “ the fears of deep seated issues” (Edvard Munch), which refers to a religious context due to the fact that his father was a very religious man. Munch’s style of painting, symbolic and deep, arose from his upbringing and his views on life in general.

“My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness, without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder… My sufferings are part of myself and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art.”(Edvard Munch)

He hasn’t only had a toxic relationship with his father, but also his “lover”, Tulla Larsen. Their relationship was on and off and wasn’t healthy for either of them. Tulla wanted to marry him, but he didn’t believe in marriage, he hated the idea of it. She wouldn’t give up though, she chased him all around Europe. This only added to his lack in a healthy mental state. This went on until one day when she surprised him at his house and begged him to marry her. He refused and she pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot herself, in an attempt to get the gun away from her, Munch shot off two of his fingers. After this incident, the relationship was over and Tulle married one of his colleges, which only added to to humiliation. (Arthur Lubow) Munch’s paintings consist of “darker facets of human psychology” (Edvard Munch). They are a reflection of what he sees, and his repressed thoughts and emotions. His specific painting “The Death of Marat II” is a direct product of the events that happened with Tulle. Munch played off of the original painting by Jacques-Louis David, which was originally a painting of the death of a famous French leader, Jean-Paul Marat. The scene that Munch painted was changed to showing Marat as his own face, and his hand bleeding in a bathtub, with Tulle, standing there naked looking pale and blurry, reflecting the events that happened with Tulle the day he shot himself. (Edvard Munch)

In most of Munch’s paintings there is much symbolism. But what specifically is symbolism and what is a symbolist painter? “The Symbolist painters believed that art should reflect an emotion or idea rather than represent the natural world in the objective. In painting, Symbolism represents a synthesis of form and feeling, of reality and the artist’s inner subjectivity.” (Edvard Munch)

His painting mainly focused on internal views of objects. Much of Munch’s works illustrated life and death scenes, love and terror, and “the feeling of loneliness”. He represented this in forms of color, line, and shape. “These emotions were depicted by the contrasting lines, the darker colors, blocks of color, somber tones, and a concise and exaggerated form, which depicted the darker side of the art which he was designing” (Edvard Munch).

His use of color in the painting “The Death of Marat II” is almost anti-irrational – “as if Munch is cocking a snook at the power of human reason to make sense of our terrible, howling complexities.” (Michael Glover). The whole painting seems like it is coming at you all at once, with all the vivid colors- the “colors that live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied”(Edvard Munch). Munch intended for his intense colors, and mysterious meanings behind the paintings to serve as universal symbols of significance. His paintings, although reflecting his own personal experiences, “bear the power to express, and perhaps alleviate, any viewer’s own emotional or psychological condition.” (Justin Wolf). Munch not only used color to depict human psychological emotions, but also used a brush technique to blur or smear the painting to sort of hide what is really going on, and let the audience interpret it their own way. He paints with a wild whirling of brush strokes. This causes an emotional hurricane within the viewer. “Everything comes at us all at once, tipping and lurching, with great vividness and violence.” The marks of the brush are wildly apparent across the painted surface, like some “brutal ritual of scarification.” (Michael Glover)With the combination of the colors, brush strokes, and the overall idea behind the painting Munch seems like he is being haunted – “but the person doing the haunting, and the person who is being haunted, happen to be the very same man whose face he confronts in the mirror every wretched, workday morning.”(Michael Glover).

Both Emily in “A Rose for Emily” and Edvard, the artist of “The Death of Marat II” have had a traumatic experience as children. These traumatic experiences have caused them to go insane. They were both isolated from the world and because of that isolation, they were lonely. This deep loneliness can cause serious mental health problems, according to Dr. Patrick Allen. “Social isolation and loneliness have been associated with major negative health effects in study after study” he says.

There is another similarity in both the painting and the short story, both of these artists decided to make the women the murderers. In most of his work, Faulkner “ focuses almost exclusively on the female effect over a male experience” (Katie Kinkle). This shows that he sees women as the “problem” or “cause” of things that happen with men. Munch is not far off from Faulkner’s views. He was “afflicted with an obsessive fear of femmes fatales that seems excessive, even for that early era of the battle of the sexes.” (Dyneslines). There is clear evidence that both of these men did not view women as equals. They viewed them as “predators” or “the cause” of what men do. “An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.” He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.” (William Faulkner). Both of these artists are driven by the demon of their past. These demons have led them to create their life’s work. Both Munch and Faulkner use symbolic colors, devices, and styles of portraying their thoughts. Although they both have become very successful off of these pieces of art, is the isolation really worth it? Is the loneliness really worth it? Just by looking and reading their work, the audience can tell that they are not happy. The bottom line is, isolation from people such as friends, family, and community, can cause a person to go crazy.

To a young girl, her father will always be an essential part of her. To a father, their daughter will always be considered his little girl. In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson is neither considered a friend or a foe towards the townspeople. Due to the relationship Emily had with her father, his actions had quite an impact on Emily’s outcomes such as turning her socially unbalanced and unfit to make bonds with individuals. Emily depended on Mr. Grierson for most of her life and her dad was very overprotective towards her as well as great at boosting her ego. This ultimately had a bad effect on Emily when her father died since she never found that grief.

Emily’s youthhood was mostly controlled by Mr. Grierson which made her feel that she depended on him for everything and once he was gone, she began to feel lost. Emily’s freedom to have opinions were overridden by the impulses and wishes of her father, and he felt that no one was good enough for his daughter. The townspeople would recall that many “young men |were| driven away” by her father and due to this action, Emily had no companion close to her. Since she had no one to bond with and the only person that she felt safe with had died, she denied the death of her father for days and when people gave her condolences, Emily, showed “no trace of grief on her face.” By Emily’s father establishing these expectations on men it was difficult for Emily to maturely grow and this took away most of her young years.

Emily’s father also made her feel that she was better than the townspeople and that she deserved the best of the best. Years before Mr. Grierson passed away, he loaned the town some money and the catch was to not charge his family taxes. When both, Mr. Grierson and Colonel Sartoris passed away, Emily repulsively denied that “|she had| no taxes in Jefferson.” For years she consistently said the same things although people left bills and informed her of this information. Additionally, Emily considered herself so high that at one point she decided to ignore the horrendous odor that came from her home. When the townspeople confronted a judge about it, he denied the action to do something to Emily since his reasoning was “will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad.” This ultimately led the citizens to break into her home and fix the issue. The bond that Emily had with her father affected her by making her egotistical and rude to the people of the town.

From what started as egoism and codependence, ultimately led to Emily creating a thrilling and shocking environment. As a young girl, her father controlled most of her life and she lived up to that. When she fell in love with Homer, she ignored not only his sexuality but also how he felt towards her. Her actions resembled how her father used to treat her as an adolescent. Since she was afraid of losing another cherished loved one, her only ultimatum was to murder Homer. She did accomplish that, and when Emily died, the townspeople believed that she deserved an appropriate funeral. Only to find out that Emily wasn’t the only dead person in her home, but Homer was there too, and they found Emily’s hair next to his body, which made them realize what Emily had done. Emily’s insecure mental state can be seen as toxic as she grew up with her father’s expectations and set of rules in place.

The relationship that Mr. Grierson had with Emily was superfluous and dysfunctional. It is the key factor that causes Emily to turn into how she is and made her do these specific actions. Taking all things int consideration, the bond between Emily and her father was negative on her growth and was the reason why Emily was neither a friend nor a foe to the townspeople.

While reading “A Rose for Emily” and “Barn Burning” both by William Faulkner, I noticed there are several similarities and several differences in the fathers’ of Miss Emily Grierson and Sarty Snopes. Both stories took place in Mississippi after The Civil War ended. The stories do explain some of the main characters childhood. However, “A Rose for Emily” is more of a flashback to her childhood periodically throughout the story. In “Barn Burning” we witness Abner’s, the father’s, actions and how it will possibly effect Sarty throughout his life. Both main characters fathers raised them in a way that would be frowned upon now.

In “A Rose for Emily” we meet an elderly Southern woman who has passed away. The whole town attended her funeral, but why? The men saw her as a monument and the women were curious. Emily struggles with newer life and newer age, she refuses to let go of past traditions and refuses to be told what to do, which in return causes her problems in her community. Her father loaned money to the town, which after his passing the former mayor Colonel Sartoris, was attempting to remit back to Emily. Once he passed away the new mayor and the alderman insist that Emily pay the taxes she had been previously exempt from, she refuses to ever pay taxes again. When her father passed she inherits “a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spired and scrolled balconied in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street” (Faulkner). When her father was alive, he refused to let her to marry. He was very intimidating and manipulating and wouldn’t let her experience life the way she wanted. She couldn’t experience life until he passed away unexpectedly when she was 30 years old. However, she struggled with letting him go, therefore she held on to his corpse for three days, refusing to admit he is deceased. After his passing, she experienced the freedom of love, unfortunately this was with a man who was homosexual-Homer Barron. He wasn’t the marrying type, but she wanted to keep him forever. In order for her to do so, she would poison him, ultimately killing him. Again, struggling with letting someone she loved go, she held on to his corpse as well, sleeping beside of him until her passing.

However, the difference is, she took power in this situation. The pictures that hung in her house explain her upbringing and answered questions for the community. There is a picture of “Miss Emily, a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door”, and a “crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier” (Faulkner) . This shows the influence that Emily’s father had over her as an innocent little child, he was the ruler and the powerful one. There was a door in which no one had opened in over forty years, that had to be forced opened. “They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it” (Faulkner).

In “Barn Burning” we meet a young Sarty who is an afraid young child, he is small, has patched and faded jeans that are too small for him. He is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has to make the difficult decision of loyalty to family and loyalty to honor and justice. Sarty’s father, Abner, was a mercenary during the Civil War. Abner is not a good influence on Sarty and his siblings. Abner does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, and he doesn’t care who he hurts or what the cost is. He is an angry, jealous, vindictive, and bitter individual due to his position in society. He is stiff-bodied and bitter, because he walks with a limp that he received from getting shot while trying to steal a horse for money, during the Civil War. He supports his family by sharecropping, which isn’t the best source of income. Sarty knows his Abner is burning barns, he does this to show his power, he does this to destroy anyone that has wronged him. He burns the barns because they hold the livestock and crops that the farmers need to provide for their families to survive. Sarty wants to turn his father in but, Abner reminds Sarty that “You go to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you”. This is a very difficult ten-year-old child to be in. He ends up making the ultimate decision and betraying his father. Therefore, freeing the family, however they are still alone.

Emily and Sarty’s financial status were drastically different. Emily started off as a wealthy woman in Jefferson. However, that did start to decline after the Civil War. Emily refuses to accept that her wealth and social status in the town is declining. She was more than likely born into this status; she did inherit the house. Sarty unfortunately, was on the other side of the spectrum. His family was unbelievably poor. They are a sharecropper family. Sarty is a small child with uncombed hair, patched, faded jeans that are too small for him. Both of the main characters financial status has been influenced by their fathers.

The fathers in both stories have an immense amount of control over the main characters, which lasts throughout the characters lifetime. The control that Emily’s father had, ultimately passed onto her as well. Everyone in the town was afraid of her, they waited until she was decently in the ground before they opened the door in the house. Did Emily kill her father as well? Abner was a very negative influence in Sarty’s life, and Sarty knew that, even though he tried to change it, he had to make a difficult decision which means he would end up betraying his father in the end. The fathers symbolize power over innocent lives, which ultimately leads to their own demise one way or another.

Works Cited

1. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, Compact Edition, by Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig, Pearson, 2015, pp. 96–100.
2. Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, Compact Edition, by Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig, Pearson, 2015, pp. 462-472.

I hope you are doing well. My name is Spencer Crompton, and I am a student at Central Michigan University. I am writing regarding your short story “A Rose for Emily”. I have a few questions regarding your plot choice, the attitude of the characters used, and the racism involved in the short story.

“A Rose for Emily” was the most disturbing ending I’ve ever read in a short story. What made you feel the need to make the conclusion so creepy? The last paragraph of Part V made me open my eyes to how barbaric humans are. I’m curious to know what motivated you to include the vivid detail of the last sentence of the story. What was your goal, and do you believe you accomplished it? Your method of writing the story out of chronological order was unique. The building suspense kept me engaged the whole story. The occurrence of the smell erupting from Emily’s home followed by mentioning Homer’s disappearance kept me hooked and motivated me to read the story until the end. Emily’s purchase of arsenic made my mind crawl and desperately think of an answer.

In “A Rose for Emily,” how did you come up with the idea of a close community being a negative aspect of the story? An example of the negative aspect of the close community would be the first paragraph of Part IV when the narrator uses “we” when judging the actions of Emily. I have never thought of the negative aspects of a small town and close community until reading your short story. The short story’s community depicts a reality I can easily imagine a similar community acting the same way.

My final question is what was your purpose in making the characters of the story so close-minded? “no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron” (Line 81). Why are you implying that negro women are lower than white women, and why is Tobe only referred to as “the Negro”? What did race have to do with the story? It is unnecessary in my opinion. The close-mindedness pushes characters including Emily to draw themselves away from the community. Why was Emily the only character to refer to the Negro with his real name? The idea of racism has been nearly vanquished today compared to the level it reaches in your short story.

Although it’s 2019 now, your short story “A Rose for Emily” reminds your audience today of how close-minded people used to be and how fast a human is to judge and assume motives for somebody else. Today, the only way people judge and gossip the way they did in the short story is behind their computer screens on social media. It’s a lot easier to do nowadays, but it’s making my generation toxic toward each other. When you wrote the story in the past, it was meaner than it would be today. The use of racism adds a new level of close-mindedness that never went away when new technology was introduced to the same community of people.

In the short article by William Faulkner named A Rose for Emily, the leading character Emily Grierson displays an eccentric personality trait throughout the story by her actions and lifestyle. Her bizarre behaviors promptly steer people to create assumptions about her mental and physical health, although Miss Emily physically seems fine. According to the townsfolk in the story, they describe Grierson as very pretty when she was young and passed away because of an illness but one never came to a confirmed conclusion of what Emily is had. In fact, the Miss suffers from an illness which that none could figure out.

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that affects how individuals think, feel, and behave. It pulls a person from reality causing them to imagine other things from what a typical human should. There are two types of symptoms in what the disorders fall under. For example, delusions and hallucinations are positive symptoms causing a person to lost contact with reality reduced speaking and social isolation are negative symptoms dealing with emotion and behavior disarrangement. According to Emily, her withdrawal from society and odd behaviors prove to us why she carries this mental illness.

Miss Emily suffers from schizophrenia because she shows symptoms of withdrawing from society. Throughout Emily’s life, her aristocratic father the townspeople highly respected, kept Emily closed in believing no suitors are worthy enough for her. Her father serves as the sole source she connected with but when her father passed away, she realizes she lost someone dear who performed the most part in her routine life. The author states, ¨After her father’s death she went out very little¨ (Faulkner 805) proving that Emily began to separate herself from everyone and the world. Aside from her father, she meets with a blue-collar worker from the North, Homer Barron as her love interest; however, in the story Faulkner claims ¨…because Homer himself had remarked – he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks club – that he was not a marrying man¨ (809). Put differently, Faulkner implies Homer is not a man who intends to marry. Aware that Emily executes Homer, so he will be with her forever shifting us back to Emily dropping from society after she killed him. Although townspeople just pity her and no proper treatment was given to Miss Emily, she abundantly shows definite symptom behaviors of schizophrenia.

On the other hand, another specific symptom of why Grierson suffers from schizophrenia is her peculiar behaviors. Denial Emily refuses to accept the death of her father and kills Homer because she is fearful of letting him go just like her father. Corresponding to the story, she goes and buys arsenic although it is unsure if she used it to kill Barron, it is assumed she killed him with it. The day Grierson bought the poison; she communicates with the druggist in an unusual tone without providing an explanation why she required arsenic. After many years, it is later found that a long strand of iron-gray hair was on the pillow beside where Barron’s corpse sleeps indicates that Miss Emily has slept with him. When the spokesman tries to confront her about paying taxes, she refuses and demands the only person active in the house, Tobe to escort the men out. Faulkner states, ¨See Colonel Sartoris¨ (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years) (805). This quotation exhibits that Miss Emily is unaware of what has happened once she shut herself out from the world and this helps further our diagnostic of her illness. It is abnormal to her to not know about what happened to Colonel Sartoris because usually, people who lived in that town would know, but not Emily. Therefore, Grierson evidently shows us another symptom of why she suffers from schizophrenia.

Wrapping up, in the short story of Emily Grierson townsfolk constantly thought she was just ill and pities her for the passing of her father, Homer’s words, and other details but no one truly knew the substantial reason why Emily behaves how she does. Going back to her actions and behavior, Emily has suffered from schizophrenia for a long time throughout her entire life. She has given away many signs and symptoms to prove to us that schizophrenia was a valid illness in her.