Reader Response Criticism: A Rose for Emily

It’s hard to tell if someone is just grieving or if they are just absolutely crazy. “A Rose for
Emily’’ is a mysterious horror story of Miss Emily Grierson of small town. The story is written
in very unusual & interesting style. The events are not pictured in a chronological manner. The
readers have to think little more for understanding the scenario. In this story a woman named
Emily has just died. She is rarely seen by the townspeople, which causes whisperings and rumors
about what she is up to. This story is based on rumors, whisperings, half-facts. Emily’s father
passes and her lover is soon to leave her too. She is so scared of being alone she actually pushes
everyone away & become anti-social. Everyone is curious to see inside of her house as no one
visits her for the longest time. Upon visiting her home they are acquainted with something so
terrible to believe. Using reader response criticism, the reader can analyze William Faulkner’s
“A Rose for Emily” through character, secrets, and anthropology.

Connecting to Emily I can feel how painful it is to lose somebody that was cared about. People go
through a sense of refutation, and it doesn’t feel real. In case of Miss Emily she didn’t accept her
father’s death. She told people her father wasn’t dead. And in her head she believed that was true.
She didn’t want them to take her father’s body. She was acting like a hoarder. Everyone believes
that she was acting normally & no one considers her crazy. It is one thing to grieve & hold onto a
person in your heart but to physically keeping body in home is insane. Emily was left alone &
hopeless as her father was the only person she had. Also, her lover wanted to leave her made
things much harder on Miss Emily. She did want to accept what was happening. Emily just
pretended it wasn’t real. If I were in that position I would have acted the same way. I wouldn’t
have accepted it. Emily was going through was much more than just grief. Facing the facts is the
hardest part but denial is the one thing that will ruin a person. “A Rose for Emily” also holds a
hidden message about change. Emily tries so hard to hold on to the past, which is destroying her.
The harder she tries to hold on the more she digs herself into a hole of denial. To prevent things
from changing Emily kills him. She is so scared of change and being lonely and in the result she
turns to murder to stop it from happening. The moral of this story is that everyone needs to accept
change. Miss Emily refused to accept change. She didn’t accept it because she doesn’t like
change. She broke down because something changed in her life. She was crazy. She didn’t know
 how to accept things. This story showed me that some people can’t accept change and that it can
drive someone crazy. Change is not always a bad thing. Change is important to me because when
things are bad I know that it will get better. When you have hit rock bottom there is nowhere to go
but up. Emily did not comprehend that change is good. She drove herself crazy and killed a man
that she loved. All because she was scared. The only thing that will not change is change.

References:

"A rose for emily: reader response."StudyMoose, 7 Apr 2016,https://studymoose.com/a-rose-for-

emily-reader-response-essay

"A rose for emily: readers response. Samsno,

https://samuelsnowcronin.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/reading-response-4-a-rose-for-emily/