5 paragraph essay about a rose for emily

A Rose for Emily

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Summary and Study Guide

Summary: “a rose for emily”.

Published in 1930, “A Rose for Emily” is one of American author William Faulkner’s most popular short stories and was his first to appear in a national magazine. Like many of Faulkner’s other works, “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the fictional town of Jefferson, which is based on Faulkner’s hometown of Oxford, Mississippi. Through the titular character Emily Grierson , Faulkner explores the complex relationships between individuals and society in the American South, and the tensions between tradition and change that marked the Reconstruction era. The story is representative of Faulkner’s Southern Gothic style and features themes such as The Reconstruction Era and the Decline of the Old South , Challenging Early 20th-Century Southern Gender Roles , and The Dangers of Social Isolation .

This study guide is based on the 2012 Modern Library edition of the Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner.

Content Warning : The source text contains depictions of intimate partner violence and racist language. This study guide obscures Faulkner’s use of racial slurs, which were common in both his time and in the story’s period.

“A Rose for Emily” is narrated in the first-person plural from the perspective of Jefferson’s townspeople. The story takes place in the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War. Faulkner relies on a nonlinear narrative structure; the collective narrative voice moves back and forth in a series of flashbacks and recounts Emily’s life from multiple points in time.

The story opens with the death of 74-year-old Emily Grierson, the last member of a once-respected Southern aristocratic family who fell from grace after the Civil War. The townspeople attend Emily’s funeral out of a sense of duty and curiosity, and the funeral becomes an opportunity for them to reflect on the curious details of her life. The narrator describes Emily as a “hereditary obligation upon the town” (48). Unlike the other residents of Jefferson, Emily did not pay local taxes. After her father’s death in 1894, she continued to live in a large, empty plantation house gone to seed since the Civil War. At the time, Colonel Sartoris , the mayor of the town, unofficially remitted Emily taxes out of sympathy for her unworldliness. He claimed that Emily’s father loaned the town money, which accounts for the tax remittance. Emily was survived only by an African American servant named Tobe and estranged kin in Alabama.

About 40 years later and a decade after the colonel’s death, the new political administration—“the next generation, with its more modern ideas” (48)—attempted to formalize its relationship with Emily and her estate to collect on taxes. When representatives visited her, her home “smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell” (49). Emily, believing Colonel Sartoris to still to be alive, claimed, “I have no taxes in Jefferson” (49). Emily stubbornly held to the former mayor’s promise that, because of her father’s position, she wouldn’t have to pay taxes. The town representatives were therefore “vanquished,” unable to make Emily see reason.

The story then moves further back in time, and the narrators recount Emily’s upbringing as the only daughter of a wealthy and controlling man. Emily’s father forbade her from socializing with the young men of Jefferson, who he thought were “not quite good enough” (51) for a Grierson woman. As a result, Emily became increasingly isolated from the rest of the town and was unmarried when her father died. After her father’s death, Emily’s behavior became increasingly erratic. She denied the truth of his passing and barricaded his body in their home for three days before finally allowing officials to bury him. Although her father left her their decaying family home, she had no money and, as a 30-year-old unmarried woman, very few prospects. The townsfolk speculate about her haughty loneliness and the fact that all her local suitors were turned away without consideration. Many in the town believe that her attachment to her father kept her alone.

Despite her isolation, Emily remained a subject of fascination and horror among the residents of Jefferson. Two incidents in particular caused fierce speculation and gossip. The first was Emily’s relationship with Homer Barron . Soon after Emily’s period of reclusive mourning, a charming Northerner named Homer Barron came to town, working as a foreman for public infrastructure work. Emily and Homer were seen together “on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy” (52). Emily picked out a few men’s implements (such as a nightshirt and monogrammed toiletries) and brought them into her home, even though Homer had admitted that he was “not a marrying man” (54). In addition, Homer admitted that “he liked men” (52) and was known to spend time with young unmarried men in Jefferson. The news of Emily’s potential romance generated debate among the townsfolk. Some were unhappy to see a well-born Southern lady like Emily with a Northern day laborer, while others were amused to observe the new lack of social standing such a match represented. The town ladies petitioned the Baptist minister to intervene. After an unsuccessful attempt to confront Emily, the minister never returned to the Grierson home. Determined, the minister’s wife wrote to Emily’s cousins in Alabama. However, despite the town’s disapproval, Emily continued to spend time and money on Homer, and the people of Jefferson accepted that the two would eventually marry.

Emily’s estranged cousins from Alabama came to visit her, and during this visit, Emily convinced the local druggist to provide her with arsenic. The druggist asked her how she intended to use the poison, noting her legal obligation to divulge this information. When Emily did not answer, he gave her the poison and wrote “For rats” on the box. Many in the town determined that she planned to kill herself to avoid the shame of her romantic mismatch and suggested that her suicide “would be the best thing” (54). One day, however, without any “public blowing-off” (52), Homer disappeared. After the cousins’ departure, Emily was left alone in her decaying house once again, triggering the second troubling incident.

After Homer’s disappearance, Emily refused to accept any visitors to the house. A strange smell began to disturb her neighbors, who complained to Judge Stevens, Jefferson’s elderly mayor. Stevens dismissed the odor, attributing it to Tobe’s negligence. When the smell persisted, the townspeople were forced to take extreme covert measures to eliminate the odor without offending Emily’s perceived feminine sensibilities. Four Jefferson boardmen snuck onto her property in the middle of the night and scattered lime, a strong chemical powder that they believed would destroy any odor-causing materials. As they crept away from the house, they looked up and saw Emily in the window, “her upright torso motionless as that of an idol” (51). The smell eventually dissipated, and Emily’s isolation continued.

Much time passed, with Emily becoming more reclusive and her hair turning an “iron-gray” shade. Years after Homer’s disappearance, Emily opened her home to give lessons in china painting. However, her principal point of human contact was with Tobe, who grew “old and stooped” with the passage of time: “He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse” (58). Eventually, the newer generation of Jefferson took over, and there was no longer any interest in Emily’s archaic tutelage. She became so wholly removed that when the town offered her a mailbox number, she refused to be a part of the newly adopted postal delivery service.

The climax of the story comes after Emily’s death, when the townspeople are finally able to enter her home and investigate. Tobe lets in the visitors and then quickly disappears, never to be seen again. After the burial, the townspeople explore the house, including the room in the “region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced” (58). Inside a room “furnished as for a bridal” (58), they find the skeletal remains of Homer Barron. In this rose-colored tomb, the townspeople observe Homer’s decomposed nightshirt, which is barely distinguishable from the rotted bed. The implication is that Emily murdered Homer with arsenic and kept his body in her house for four decades. Upon closer inspection, the visitors discover signs of cohabitation: “a long strand of iron-gray hair” (59) on the bed’s second pillow, suggesting that Emily slept next to Homer’s decaying body.

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Southern Gothic

The Symbolism of ‘A Rose for Emily’ Explained

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Rose for Emily’ is one of the most widely studied American short stories of the twentieth century, but the subtle narrative style and William Faulkner’s use of symbolism are often difficult to interpret. Starting with the ‘rose’ in the story’s title, the text is rich with symbols whose significance can only be determined through careful analysis.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most prominent symbols and images in ‘A Rose for Emily’ and explore how – and why – Faulkner uses them in his short masterpiece of Southern Gothic literature.

Emily’s House.

The narrator of ‘A Rose for Emily’ tells us that Miss Emily’s house was the only old house left in the street, and that ‘garages and cotton gins’ had sprung up and replaced the other houses that had once stood alongside Emily’s dwelling.

Emily’s house, then, symbolises the Old South, which is (literally) decaying and dying out. And replacing the pastoral homeliness of the old, post-war South is the new industrial America: cotton and gasoline are now the way the townspeople make their money. The new industrial South is replacing the older, simpler bucolic South.

The Locked Room.

But it is worth remembering that ‘A Rose for Emily’ is, at bottom, a Gothic story: an example of the subgenre known as Southern Gothic literature, which is associated with writers like Flannery O’Connor, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Faulkner himself.

And if Emily’s house symbolises a kind of modern, urban equivalent to the secluded Gothic castle in classic Gothic horror novels, then the locked room in the house’s attic is a kind of inversion of the crypt harbouring a dark secret beneath the castle. The room does indeed contain a terrible secret which will only be revealed at the end of the story, once Emily herself is dead and the townsfolk can gain access to the house.

But as well as being a narrative device, the locked room is also another symbol for Miss Emily’s determination to cling to the past (of which more below). She sets up the room as a bridal chamber for a wedding that will never take place, and then keeps her would-be groom – or his corpse, at any rate – inside the room, a symbol of her reluctance to let go of her romantic bond with him.

Emily Herself.

Miss Emily Grierson is herself a symbol of this faded glory of the South: a land that had been defeated militarily in the Civil War and whose old ways were being ousted by the new, industrial, mechanical age (those cotton wagons and garages selling gasoline for motorcars).

At the beginning of ‘A Rose for Emily’, the narrator describes her as a ‘monument’ for whom the men of the town have a kind of ‘respectful affection’. She has endured in the town during a time when many new generations have grown up and taken over the running of Jefferson. She remains largely unchanged; her death symbolises the death of another piece of that old world.

Why does Faulkner title his story ‘A Rose for Emily’? No roses appear in the story itself, although the attic room which features at the end of the story, the would-be bridal chamber in which Homer Barron’s body rots, is described as having valance curtains of a faded rose colour and rose-shaded lights.

Note that the curtains are ‘a faded rose colour’, not only because they have been in the attic room for decades (since Emily planned to marry, and then ended up murdering, Homer), but because they symbolise the faded dreams of sexual fulfilment and marital love which Emily, through her engagement to Homer Barron, had entertained.

But these rose-coloured details convey more than Emily’s thwarted sense of womanhood and romantic love.

William Faulkner himself provided us with a clue, and suggested, in an interview he gave at the University of Virginia, that Emily deserved to be given a rose as a ‘gesture’ or ‘salute’ because of all of the torment she had endured: at the hands of her father, perhaps at the hands of Homer as well, and as a result of the townsfolk treating her like an outsider. A rose is a decidedly romantic gift, one which a man might give to a lady as a mark of admiration or respect.

Indeed, roses are rich in symbolism : they are associated with love and romance, but also with an overly romantic view of the past, as in the phrase ‘rose-tinted spectacles’. ‘A Rose for Emily’ is a story about a woman who is, in a sense, trapped in the past: she is reluctant to give up the dead body of her father when he dies, and she is unwilling to let Homer leave her, being prepared to kill him in order to keep him in her life.

For the next few decades, she keeps him in the attic chamber so she can, in effect, arrest the passage of time and keep him close to her.

So the ‘rose’ for Emily also symbolises the romance of the Old South: a land of idealism and tradition, looking back to a feudal European past of the Middle Ages (as Mark Twain pointed out , it was Sir Walter Scott’s medieval romance Ivanhoe , more than Uncle Tom’s Cabin , that was really the book that caused the Civil War).

Emily’s Hair.

When the rotting body of Homer Barron is discovered in the bedroom of Emily’s house, the narrator observes that the pillow next to the body showed signs of an indentation, suggesting that Emily had been in the habit of lying next to the body with her head resting on the pillow next to his head (although not everyone believes this theory). One lock of her iron-grey hair is found on the pillow, confirming this.

The hair is described as iron -grey, symbolising the iron tenacity of Emily in keeping Homer close to her – in death, if that’s what it took (and it clearly did take that). The ‘iron’ is appropriate, since Emily is a character who is seen to be clinging to other things: to her father’s body when he dies (she is reluctant to give it up to the ministers for burial), to Homer when he rejects her, and, most of all, to a past that no longer exists.

The lock of her hair is also a symbol of Emily’s strange tenderness towards Homer – a man she killed in an act of mad, obsessive love. But Emily’s hair is significant throughout the story: earlier, the narrator told her that she cut her hair short after her father died.

This can be interpreted as a declaration of her independence – one cannot imagine her father letting her wear her hair in such an unladylike fashion – but as with so many of the details in the story, her actual motives are inscrutable.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Rose For Emily — A Rose For Emily: Foreshadowing Analysis

A Rose for Emily: Foreshadowing Analysis

• Categories: A Rose For Emily William Faulkner

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Published: Mar 16, 2024

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Foreshadowing in the Story

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A Rose for Emily Theme Essay

This essay delves into the themes of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” It explores the central themes of isolation, the resistance to change, and the decay of the Old South. The piece examines how Emily Grierson’s character and her actions reflect the broader societal shifts occurring in the post-Civil War South. It also analyzes the narrative structure and Faulkner’s use of symbolism, particularly the decaying house, to reinforce the themes of stagnation and the inescapable nature of change. The essay offers insights into Faulkner’s critique of Southern traditions and the damaging effects of clinging to the past. You can also find more related free essay samples at PapersOwl about A Rose For Emily.

How it works

Deep in the labyrinth of literary artistry, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” stands as a testament to the power of theme in molding character and story. The narrative unfolds in a Southern town, and through it, we step into the shoes of Emily Grierson, a woman confined within the iron bars of tradition, secluded from society’s vibrant hum, and entwined with death’s cold grip. This essay aims to unearth the profound layers of Faulkner’s tale, shedding light on how the themes of tradition versus change, social isolation, and death become the lifeblood of Emily’s character, casting long, introspective shadows on the canvas of the American South.

• 1 Tradition vs. Change
• 2 Social Isolation
• 3 Theme of Death
• 4 Love and Obsession
• 5 The Confluence of Themes and its Representation of the Southern Gothic Genre
• 6 Societal Commentary
• 7 Conclusion

Tradition vs. Change

Tradition versus change sets the background of “A Rose for Emily.” The story portrays the town of Jefferson, stuck between holding onto the old and embracing the new. Emily Grierson embodies this struggle, living in a decaying house reminiscent of a bygone era.

Evidence of this struggle is clear in the town’s interactions with Emily. When the new council tries to make Emily pay her taxes, they are met with defiance. She clings to Colonel Sartoris’s promise, made 30 years earlier, that she is exempt from taxes – a promise the new generation knows nothing about. This clash mirrors the town’s struggle, teetering on the edge of change but held back by deep-seated tradition.

Emily’s inability to accept change deepens the sense of mystery surrounding her. It shapes her life and contributes significantly to the story’s eerie atmosphere.

Social Isolation

Another potent theme in “A Rose for Emily” is social isolation. From the story’s onset, Emily is a figure of intrigue and pity. She lives alone, with only a servant for company, cut off from the rest of the world.

Her isolation is self-imposed and inflicted by her town. When Emily’s father dies, the town treats her with a curious mix of sympathy and satisfaction, glad that she’s been knocked down to “their level.” Yet, Emily’s aloofness only grows. She rarely ventures outside, and the inside of her house remains a mystery to the townsfolk.

The story portrays Emily’s isolation as tragic. It is her separation from society that ultimately leads to her demise, laying bare the harsh effects of solitude on the human psyche.

Theme of Death

Death is a constant in Emily’s life, another theme that Faulkner masterfully weaves into the narrative. Emily’s father’s death leaves her alone, and her suitor, Homer Baron’s disappearance—later revealed as a murder—makes her a figure of sympathy and suspicion.

Emily’s relationship with death is unusual and alarming. She refuses to acknowledge her father’s death initially, and later, it is revealed she has kept Homer’s body in her house. This unnatural acceptance of death adds a grim layer to Emily’s character.

The death theme also steers the story to its shocking conclusion. When Emily dies, the townsfolk discover Homer’s skeletal remains in her bedroom, cementing the gruesome truth of Emily’s twisted reality.

Love and Obsession

Love and Obsession emerge as a striking theme. Emily Grierson’s romantic endeavor with Homer Barron, a Northern laborer, paints a poignant picture of her desperate yearning for affection and companionship, a stark contrast to her secluded life. However, Emily’s love transcends into the domain of obsession, as Homer’s unwillingness to marry her triggers a drastic response in Emily. She purchases arsenic, and the town speculates a likely suicide, oblivious to the shocking outcome. When Emily’s life draws to a close, the gruesome revelation of Homer’s decayed body in a bridal suite shatters the town’s perception of Emily’s solitude. Her obsession had taken a dark turn as she chose to keep Homer’s corpse, signifying an attempt to cling to her love, even in death. The scenario unveils Emily’s profound loneliness and obsessive love that blur the lines between the living and the dead.

The Confluence of Themes and its Representation of the Southern Gothic Genre

The themes of tradition versus change, social isolation, and death don’t exist in isolation. They feed off each other, creating the tense atmosphere that pervades the story. Together, they make “A Rose for Emily” a representation of the Southern Gothic genre, characterized by its exploration of deeply flawed characters, decaying settings, and grotesque situations.

Faulkner uses these themes not just to tell a story but also to reflect on the American South’s societal norms. The struggle between tradition and change, the tragic outcome of social isolation, and the macabre fixation with death all serve as a commentary on the region’s culture during the time.

Societal Commentary

William Faulkner, a master of societal analysis, cleverly employs the themes of “A Rose for Emily” to critique the societal norms of the American South. The stony battle between tradition and change is not merely a character trait of Emily Grierson but reflects the collective resistance of a region hesitant to embrace the new. The reluctance to shed old habits and customs is a critical comment on a society clinging to its past glory, afraid of the future’s uncertainties.

Furthermore, Emily’s tragic isolation is not a singular event but a mirror reflecting the collective mindset. The town’s judgmental attitude towards Emily and their failure to intervene during her descent into madness reflect a society where gossip thrives over empathy.

The macabre presence of death, the grotesque acceptance of it by Emily, and the community’s muted response are powerful commentary on society’s apathy. The shocking reveal of Homer’s corpse in Emily’s bedroom underscores a culture desensitized to death’s finality, seemingly more intrigued by the spectacle than horrified by the tragedy.

In essence, the societal commentary embedded in “A Rose for Emily” extends beyond the tale of Emily Grierson. Faulkner lays bare the cultural psyche of the American South, weaving a powerful critique of its values and norms within the tapestry of his narrative.

In conclusion, “A Rose for Emily” tells the tragic story of a woman stuck in time, isolated from society, and living with death. Through the themes of tradition versus change, social isolation, death, and love, Faulkner paints a haunting picture of Emily Grierson and, by extension, the society she lives in.

Working in unison, these themes create a chilling narrative filled with suspense and surprise. They contribute to the Southern Gothic genre and critique the American South’s society during the period. “A Rose for Emily” remains a testament to Faulkner’s ability to weave complex themes into an unforgettable tale.

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A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast Essay

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Introduction

A rose for emily and the yellow wallpaper: main characters, works cited.

This essay aims to examine two short stories: A Rose for Emily, written by William Faulkner, and Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Both authors examine the relations between physical and psychological confinement. It is possible to argue that Faulkner and Gilman show that physical confinement can be primarily explained by psychological or social alienation an individual.

This is one of the central themes to which both writers attach importance. However, there is a critical difference that one should identify. In particular, William Faulkner describes the experiences of a person who voluntarily chooses seclusion as a way of escaping reality. In contrast, Charlotte Gilman focuses on the life of a woman forced into isolation by other people. That is the main thesis of this paper.

First of all, it is essential to examine the experiences of both characters. Both of them are physically isolated from other people. For example, Emily Grierson, who lives in a fictional town named Jefferson, does communicate her neighbors. She decides not to maintain any contacts with her neighbors, even though she is financially dependent on them. One should note that Emily belongs to an old Southern family that was prominent during the Antebellum Period.

However, these people cannot adjust to the new social, political, and economic environment. For instance, she says that Colonel Sartoris freed her from taxes without realizing this man died more than ten years ago (Faulkner 527). The narrator describes this person as “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation” (Faulkner 526).

To some extent, this woman is an object of curiosity because of her self-imposed seclusion (Faulkner 527). The main character of Gilman’s story is also isolated from other people. She cannot leave the upstairs bedroom. Moreover, her husband does not let her work or see other people. He only insists that she should stay within the house. This seclusion eventually proves unbearable to her. That is one of the issues that should be taken into account.

Furthermore, much attention should be paid to psychological confinement. This issue is particularly important if one speaks about the unnamed narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. She is denied the opportunity to interact with others. That is one of the reasons why she becomes so obsessed with the patterns of the wallpaper.

For example, she believes that these patterns begin to move; moreover, the narrator is convinced that there is some “woman behind” who shakes it (Gilman 735). To some degree, this behavior can be explained by the fact that she cannot communicate with any person except her husband. A similar argument can be made about Emily, whose mental problems manifest themselves thoroughly only after her death.

In particular, her neighbors learn that she kept the corpse of her lover in the house. Overall, it is possible to say that these short stories show that physical confinement is closely related to psychological isolation. Furthermore, they eventually result in mental impairments. That is one of the main dangers that people should be aware of.

However, several differences should be taken into consideration. First, it should be noted that Emily Grierson is not forced to live in complete seclusion. She does not want to accept the fact that the world of her youth disappeared completely. She kills her lover, Homer, in an attempt to retain him forever.

So, by living in isolation, she tries to turn a blind eye to reality. So, her physical isolation originates from her escapism or unwillingness to face the changes undergone by the society. One can say that Emily’s psychological confinement is the central theme which William Faulkner explores. This is one of the details that can be singled out.

In contrast, Charlotte Gilman describes a person confined against her will. This short story symbolizes the confinement of women in the domestic sphere. In many cases, they did not have an opportunity to participate in public life.

As it has been said before, the main character of Charlotte Gilman’s story is not allowed to work. Such situations were prevalent in the nineteenth century. So, her physical and social isolation eventually leads to her insanity. In turn, the author depicts the destructive effects of this ideology on an individual. This is one of the main points that can be made.

On the whole, these literary works show how different people can struggle with psychological and physical confinement. William Faulkner’s short story indicates that the physical isolation of a person can be explained primarily by social and psychological alimentation.

In contrast, Charlotte Gilman pays attention to the feelings of a person whose physical confinement turns into psychological alienation and madness. However, it is important to remember that these writers depict the life of people who are completely separated from public life. These are the main aspects that can be identified.

Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: The Human Experience. Ed.

Richard Abcarian, Andrea Lunsford, and Marvin Klotz. New York: Macmillan Higher Education, 2006. 526-533. Print.

Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Paper.” Literature: The Human Experience. Ed.

Richard Abcarian, Andrea Lunsford, and Marvin Klotz. New York: Macmillan Higher Education, 2006. 729-738. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2019, January 17). A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-rose-for-emily-and-the-yellow-wallpaper/

"A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast." IvyPanda , 17 Jan. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/a-rose-for-emily-and-the-yellow-wallpaper/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast'. 17 January.

IvyPanda . 2019. "A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-rose-for-emily-and-the-yellow-wallpaper/.

1. IvyPanda . "A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-rose-for-emily-and-the-yellow-wallpaper/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-rose-for-emily-and-the-yellow-wallpaper/.

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A Rose for Emily

William faulkner.

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