Through A Rose for Emily, Faulkner illustrates the fight that is brought about from an effort of maintaining culture and tradition when there is prevalent radical change. Characters such as Jefferson is seen to be at crossroads absorbing everything modern, hoping for a more commercial future while at the same time still holding on the edge of the past. Jefferson held on to the memories of a faded magnificence of the residence of Grierson towards the city’s cemetery where unidentified soldiers associated with Civil had been buried (Faulkner 11). This paper will analyze the plot, setting and the point of view of A Rose for Emily
highlighting how the Faulkner has incorporated various impacts to the readers.
A Rose for Emily’s Plot
The story is separated into five segments. In the first part, the author recalls the time of Emily's passing and how the whole town graced their presence at her funeral in her home. At her home, Emily had not had any stranger in for about ten years (Faulkner1). In a previously upscale, elegant, region, Emily's house has been highlighted as the last trace of the splendor of an era that was lost. Colonel Sartoris, the township's former mayor, had shelved Emily's tax tasks to the city following her father's passing, explaining the deed by arguing that Mr. Grierson had one time loand the society a considerable sum (Faulkner 2). As new township leaders assume the administration of the city, they make fruitless efforts to get Emily to recommence payments. After several associates of the Aldermen Board visited her in emily’s old-fashioned and dusty parlor, Emily reasserted that she was not obligated to contribute taxes in area and that the staff needed to communicate to Colonel Sartoris regarding the issue. Nevertheless, at that particular point, he had passed on for nearly a decade. Emily asked her servant, Tobe, to show the officials out (Faulkner 12).
The plot of A Rose for Emily
demonstrates the later years of the critical character, Emily Grierson, with flashbacks to her life mixed jointly between. The plot begins with the audience learning of her death, creating a story that offers insight into her reclusive nature and past dealings with family including the township of Jefferson (Faulkner 1). As a result of her cloistered life and high position in society, she is frequently the subject of gossip concerning her fellow townsfolk. All through the story, the audience is told about her domineering father, her unwillingness to change her ways for the township of Jefferson, and her new love interest Homer Barron. Coupled with clues of foreshadowing and learning about Miss Emily's past predicaments with allowing her deceased father go, the audience finds the story finishing at her funeral with the unearthing of the body of Homer Barron held in reserve in her house (Faulkner 13). Miss did not wish to lose her new love, so she resolved to poisons him besides keeping his body around, allowing her to sustain a relationship with him despite the fact that he had passed on.
A case for Emily’s Point of View
Taking into consideration the topic sentence of the narration and the rationales provided for the people living in the town attending the funeral of Miss Emily. In this context, the narrator indicator that ". . . the men [went] through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument." (Faulkner 1). Consequently prompting the reader to inquire whether the narrator demonstrated the men as individuals having respect for Miss Emily beside wondering whether they remembered her with affection. Also, the reader wonders the actions taken by Miss Emily did to justify the respect of being considered to as a "monument" (Faulkner 1). Once the audience or the readers find out that Miss Emily had resolved to poison her lover and then gone ahead to sleep with his dead body for an unspecified number of years, the readers are compelled to wonder how the storyteller could go on and feel affection for her. Besides, the audience is prompted to question why the narrator thought it was particularly significant to narrate Miss Emily's story.
A rose for Emily’s Setting
The setting within A Rose for Emily is Faulkner's conjured post-civil war Jefferson, which was a tiny town in southern part of the United States. Faulkner's utilization of this specific time-period was victorious in the process of providing the audience a background or an understanding regarding the beliefs and values of the characters within the story. The township of Jefferson has been illustrated by the author as a fallen legacy (Faulkner 3). Also, the hierarchical type of administration of the Griersons as well as the class system of that particular time-period whereby ordinance by the mayor- Colonel Sartoris, African-American women were not allowed to walk in the street without having an apron on.
Miss Emily's actions vary from unconventional to illogical, however, it is the audience understands of the set, which keeps the entire story realistic. Miss Emily became isolated and introverted as a result of the death of her father and the separation from the Yankee- Homer Barron (Faulkner 4). Besides, the author exposed in the ending of the story that Miss Emily poisoned Homer and resolved to keep his dead body in his house, and went as far as laying next to a corpse. Emily was doing what she felt essential in response to the strain placed in the neighbourhood. Miss Emily was also making efforts of maintaining the responsibility of the southern women, who were distinguished and proper. At the same time, Emily was stressed with all the other matters happening in her life including facing the issue of madness, which was said to be genetic. Additionally, Emily was adamant towadrs current changing times and flatly refused to modify her life like others (Faulkner 6).
Works Cited
Faulkner W. A Rose for Emily’s. London. Caedmon Publishers. 1980.
