Introduction
“A Rose for Emily” is a short story by William Faulkner. The plot centers on a woman living in the southern United States of America. The unexpected death of her father and the fact that a female begins a romantic relationship with a man from the north arouse the suspicion of the surrounding residents.
This story is dramatic yet subtle, combining first- and third-person narratives, Gothic literature and realism, flashbacks, and present events to confound the reader. While reading the story, it becomes apparent that the whole town serves as the narrator, which, together, reveals the cause and effect of Miss Emily Grierson’s strange behavior, culminating in the gruesome finale with the death of Homer Barron.
Narrative Perspective and Decontextualization
I was most impressed by the inability to grasp the specific periods covered in each chapter. It is evident from the story that the prejudiced narrator, like Emily, is a member of that town, considering house inhabitants to be gossipers. Faulkner can convey this assumption by repeating “we” and “our.” This approach, called decontextualization, can be traced to the end of the fifth chapter, where the narrator begins referring to the townspeople as “they” in relation to “the violence of breaking out the door” (Faulkner 6).
This attempt at disconnection reveals that the narrator cannot justify the townspeople’s actions, offering insight into the narrator’s thoughts and mentality. Such a subtle shift to “we” is used to show that the narrator has shown some concern for Emily Grierson. I was also affected by a lot of gossip, which influenced the plot’s development. Moreover, after reading it, I assumed the story might have been passed down by word of mouth.
The characteristic that affects writing development is the most moving and memorable. Three prominent characters shape the story; for example, Emily Grierson is recognizable through the narrator’s eyes. All descriptions and facts about Ms. Grierson are biased and may not fully reflect her real character. The narrator’s nature is revealed through subtle hints in the story, as the narrative alternates between “we” and “they.” Therefore, such words greatly influence the perception of the plot and the story of a woman, suggesting that many people tell the story.
The story begins with a description of the main character’s funeral. The author employs various literary devices to convey and develop the plot. The story’s opening sentence immediately informs the reader that Miss Emily Grierson has died. Most of the following events depict her early life and are based on the reader’s knowledge of her death. The author used this approach to affect the reader’s ability to piece together the fragments of the protagonist’s life through the non-chronological arrangement of the story.
In this way, Faulkner does not take a direct approach to presenting the story, but instead manipulates time to spread it over several decades, creating a plot of development. The story is divided into five chapters, a series of memories. Only after the beginning of the fifth chapter does the reader learns that even the first one is a memory. This effect is quite substantial because the reader cannot tell which period the story is set in.
Symbolism and Characterization
Even though this writing is rich in symbolism, the rose, mentioned in the story’s title, reflects its tremendous significance. In this way, the reader may compare Emily Grierson to a rose full of thorns, trapped all day to wither like a flower; however, the author does not make such a comparison directly in the text. The plot makes it clear that a woman’s life is compared to a rose: when the owner takes care of it, it blooms; when the owner leaves it, it withers.
The text shows that the woman is slowly losing her mind as the flower dies. This degradation leads to her killing a man and sleeping next to his body. This argument is supported by the fact that Faulkner writes that “on the second pillow was the indentation of a head” (Faulkner 8). With this evidence, Faulkner compares Emily Grierson to a rose that has already died.
The background and setting of this story play a decisive role. Using words like “Negro” suggests that the story takes place in the South (Faulkner 8). Faulkner’s use of this specific setting and period provides the reader with insight into the characters’ mentalities in the story. Moreover, through such descriptions, I could imagine not only the lives of the people but also their motivations, actions, and thoughts.
It is clear that the townspeople are fascinated by Miss Grierson and hold her in high esteem. Although the servant is the only person in direct contact with Miss Grierson, others are still interested in her life and death. Faulkner not only enhances characterization but also helps demonstrate the influence of setting and period on the story.
Plot Development and Townspeople’s Role
The story ends quite dramatically; after the funeral, everyone is eager to look inside Emily’s house, which had been closed to outsiders for many years. After the ceremony, a group of townspeople entered the house, and the door to the upstairs bedroom was closed. Therefore, the townspeople knocked to see what had been hidden behind them for so long. Inside, in addition to the things Emily had bought for the wedding, they found the corpse of Homer Barron sprawled on the bed, and on a nearby pillow was the imprint of Emily’s head.
It is depicted in the following quote, “What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust” (Faulkner 8). The writer ends the story by describing the picture of the corpse and the traces of how the woman slept with him in bed to add drama and emphasize the inevitability of revealing the terrible truth of the murder, which the residents of the city learned about.
The ending was reasonably expected, considering the genre and development of this story. The story is cynical and painful, and I am not emotionally invested in its plot or meaning. This writing is concentrated on death, and the story’s development revolves around the end of Emily Grierson’s existence.
The characters’ defining choice is decisive for the plot. A woman chooses to be a secret killer with signs of insanity, from whom her lover, who simply lived with her, suffered. The townspeople choose to gossip about Miss Grierson and break into her home after her death to prove their true nature. The author hints that the main character lived with the dead man for a long time, which stands out the most.
The first sign is presented in the second part of the story, when the house begins to smell a grotesque odor: “That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart— the one we believed would marry her — had deserted her” (Faulkner 3). The indication of Homer Barron’s death recurs in the third part, when Miss Grierson buys arsenic without explanation. Such a hint offers the reader a critical insight into the story’s development and helps convey the narrative’s morbid tone.
Some metaphoric mistakes stand out from the ending of the story: “one of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 8). In this quote, the hair color is compared to iron, which is not correct. It would be relevant to expand the metaphor and add that the hair is gray like the fog that covered the city on the day of the woman’s funeral, and that the hair belonged to Miss Grierson. So the reader is left with guesses at the end of the story.
Conclusion
Overall, I do not relate to the characters of the story, given that the protagonist had a mental illness. My reaction to the characters is adverse, as the townspeople are full of gossip, and the main character is mad. Furthermore, to advance the story and establish a connection with the reader, Faulkner employs an omen to suggest that Emily Grierson may have been living with a deceased man. After reading this story, I learned to appreciate life and its moments, no matter how difficult they may be.
Work Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Gothic Digital Series, 1930.