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Elise Brown

Mrs. Pettay

Dual English 112 2B

April 21, 2016

Analysis of a Rose for Emily

Rose for Emily contains the aspects of dark romanticism through the euphoria of an

equally intense fascination with a mystic atmosphere. The setting takes place in the South. The

old plantation home of the Griersons was beginning to look rundown. Emily is represented as a

phallic image such as a fallen monument. A monument that was once highly admired. The

effect of her fathers hold stretches to the end of Emily's life and the absences of a mother figure

effects how Emily acts and deals with emotions on her own. The mother is not mentioned in the

story,but the loss affects Emilys youth development; while the community watches from a

distance as Emily crumbles. The Narrator is not given a name, however, it stands to be

interactive along with the community is in Emilys life. The cause of Emilys downfall starts

from the actions of her father.

In A Rose for Emily the force of her father was evident by the name of family ,

Grierson. They held themselves a little too high... She didnt have a social life and townsmen

who were interested in were driven away. Her father was around until Emily hit her thirties.

Thirty years of isolation and having to depend on her father to live. According to Laura Getty, a

publisher for Heldref Publications, says The rose was also carved over the Roman Catholic
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confessional as a symbol of silence, and sub rosa became well known as a term for "strict

confidence," "complete secrecy" or "absolute privacy. Silence and being alone is all Emily has

ever known.

Emily is used to having her father be there for her, she figures saving his body he can still be

part of her life. Being dependent on someone for a period of time can affect the way a person

lives. Emily needed a transition, a physical ,and emotional contact with someone. She didn't

develop those adapting skill because she never had to. In the act of trying to keep her fathers

body Emily gives in, because she is forced to face that fact that she is alone. In the community,

after her fathers death they had hoped that Emily would know how it feels to be unwealthy.

Now she too would know the old trill and old despair of a penny or less ; and that she would

soon marry a southern gentlemen. However, the very opposite happened and the community

continued to look on to watch Emilys psychological state.

After the death of emilys father she grew very ill and cut her long hair. Emilys is going

through the signs of a mental break down without some type of guidance from a male figure.

Homer Barron, comes into the picture and starts to interact with Emily. The Community notices

that Emily is going out a little more and I buying odd items commonly used for marriages. We

see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy Now

that Emily has a male figure present its like a breath of fresh air and she starting to go back to

being half-way normal. However, the community at the time was unsettled by her actions the

ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people.

Homer is a african american male and Emily Grierson is a white female. The story takes place

after the Civil War and racial tension is thick.

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This community clings to the old values of tradition. Of course a Grierson would not

think seriously of a Northerner, a day labourer. The Ladies have to marry young, go to church

meetings and participate in community functions. Emily has never been apart of that. The

Community from a distance tries to guide Emily into a model citizen, so they contact Emilys

family in Alabama. Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her She had blood-kin under

her roof again and we sat back to watch developments. again the community watches Emilys

developments. The interaction between Emily and her family was strained and it was not the

reaction the community had hoped. However, the change they want is not the change they

hope for. At first they see Emily ordered a mans toilet set in silver, with the letter H.B on each

piece. At this time Emily is starting to become comfortable around Homer and wants to keep

him around. She sees the roads in front of her house are almost done signalling that Homer was

close to departing.

The change in Emily occurs when she asks for the poison. Emily knows she can't face

another round of abandonment without going into turmoil. The same turmoil that took a male

figure to bring her out of. I want Arsenic Emily had made up her mind on how she was going

to get Homer to stay. At first, she used bribery to get homer to stay by purchasing clothes, and

silverware, but it didnt work so her had to resort to plan B. She opened the package at home

there was written on the box under the skull and bones: For Rats . Plan B was the death of

Homer Barron. It was by that death that she vowed not to be left alone again by someone she

loved.
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The community noted that Homer never came back from entering the house of Emily.

According to Getty The fact that certain people in town knew that Homer was in the home

argues a similar recognition of Emilys need to cling to her father: only, this time, they let her

keep the body. The community was able to make the connection soon after they entered the

house and opened the bedroom door to find Homers body along with a single iron-gray hair on

the pillow by Homers body. Also, in the action of putting lime in her basement they saw Emily

sitting by her upstairs window for days at a time, but slowly she transitions to the downstairs

floor. ...we would see her in one of the downstairs windows- she had evidently shut up the top

floor of the house-... looking or not looking at we could never tell. Emily passed away on the

downstairs level. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the

long sleep that outlast love. She only removed herself from Homers body until the smell,

decay and perhaps the maggots made it unbearable to lie next to.

Its was by the curt actions of her father and not having a motherly role that casted

Emilys down fall. The whole community attended Poor Emilys funeral. For it is the pity

they feel for her, because she never got to live like the rest of them being closed off. Emily

grabbed a hold of the one thing that made her feel uplifting emotions. The emotion of love, that

surpassed the love she held for her father. She didnt want to be alone anymore.

A rose is a symbol is silence. Emily suffered and died in silence. A Rose for Emily.
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Works Cited

Falker, William. A Rose for Emily

Getty, Laura J. "Faulkner's a ROSE for EMILY." Explicator, vol. 63, no. 4, Summer 2005, pp.
230-234. EBSCO host search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu.