TITLE: A Rose for Emily

AUTHOR: William Faulkner

ELEMENTS OF FICTION
CHARACTERS
• The Narrator uses the pronoun "we," the narrator may be one of the
townspeople.
• Emily Grierson, a beautiful lady to a secretive old woman. Emily became
the object of the town's pity because she was devastated and alone after
her father's death.
• Homer Barron is a man with a dark complexion, a booming voice, and light-
colored eyes. Homer develops an interest in Emily. He disappears into
Emily's house, then is found decomposing in a bedroom where Emily killed
him.
• Judge Stevens, an eighty years old man and the mayor of Jefferson. He
handled the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson
property. Judge Stevens decides to sprinkle lime on the property in the
middle of the night to be respectful of Emily's pride and former position in
the community.
• Mr. Grierson is the father of Emily. He is a controlling man who chased off all
of Emily's suitors.
• Tobe is Emily's servant. He dutifully cares for Emily and tends to her needs.
After Emily's death, he walks out the back door and never returns.
• Colonel Sartoris is a former mayor of Jefferson. He absolves Emily of any tax
burden after her father's death.
Protagonist - Emily
Antagonist - Mr. Grierson, the neighbors, and Emily’s cousins

SETTING
The story takes place in Jefferson Mississippi and Emily’s house. The
atmosphere of the story was gloomy

PLOT
Exposition
The death of Emily Grierson, an eccentric woman, sent all the people in the
town of Jefferson to her house to visit her funeral. The female neighbors were more
interested in exploring the inside of her house, which had only been seen by one
other person, Tobe, the black servant. In the earlier years, Colonel Sartoris remitted
all her taxes, claiming that her father had loaned money to the town people. So,
she refused to pay her taxes for years until the alderman came to collect her past
due taxes. She vanquished them, telling them to speak with Colonel Sartoris who
had been dead for ten years.
Initial Incident
Miss Emily's father died, leaving her with the house but penniless. The
townspeople pitied her, sending their condolences to Emily who refused to
believe that her father was dead. She didn't want to bury Mr. Grierson because
she thinks that her father is still alive. After three days, her neighbors wanted to use
law and force, and so she broke down. And that is the time the neighbors buried
her father without her consent.
Rising action
Miss Emily lost herself the moment her father died. But she saw a glimpse of
life the moment she met Homer Barron, a North American citizen who's working
as the supervisor in the construction company. They are always going out every
Sunday using a wheeled buggy. The neighbors talk about them a lot like, "She will
marry him." But Homer himself said that he liked men, and that he was not a
marrying man. And they began to pity Miss Emily. Then, one Sunday afternoon,
the townspeople saw Miss Emily with Homer, and Homer was using a cigarette.
The townspeople are mad because what he did is a bad influence to the kids
and a disgrace to the town. So, they reported him to the mayor and the mayor
interviewed him. And the neighbors even called Miss Emily's cousin to separate
the couple.
Climax
Miss Emily came to a local pharmacy. She asked the druggist to give her an
arsenic. Skeptical, the druggist didn't want to give her the product unless she tells
the reason for purchasing such poison. The druggist ended up selling it to her
anyway in spite of her suspicious silent response.

Falling action
When the townspeople finally saw Miss Emily again after she had been
away from the streets for several months, it turned out that she was progressively
aging as they saw that she had gained weight and that her hair was beginning
to gray. It continued to get grayer over the following few years until it reached an
even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, at which point it stopped turning.
Resolution
Then, Miss Emily passed away and was found in one of the basement rooms.
Just like the hair of an active man, her hair kept a healthy iron-gray color until the
time of her death at the age of seventy-four. She fell ill in their dusty, shadowy
home as the elderly negro was waiting for her. Because they hadn't gotten any
information from the negro in a while and he didn't interact with many people,
the residents of the town weren't even aware that Miss Emily had become ill.
Denouement
After Miss Emily died, the door upstairs that had never been open in forty
years was broken down by the people in town. The interior is decorated like a
bridal suite but in an atmosphere of a neglected tomb. They’re shocked to find a
decaying corpse of a dead body lying on the bed which is surrounded by debris
and dust. Next to his corpse on a pillow is a single strand of long gray hair.

CONFLICT
• Man vs Self
The internal conflict for Emily is the struggle in reality that she is no longer in
the past and that she will not pay the taxes anymore. Also the acknowledgement
of her father's death that she is refusing to dispose of the dead body for “three
days'' because she believed that her father is not dead.
• Man vs. Man
There is a disagreement and problem between Emily and her father. After
her father dies, she's completely alone because all the young men who tried to
court her had been driven away by her father. Emily responds by dating a
Northerner and a laborer as a rebel after his father’s death.
• Man vs. Society
Miss Emily's neighbors always talk behind her back. They always monitored
her every action. And also, the letters or the tax notice that came from the sheriff
and mayor are ignored and refused.
Disobeying the law for buying the arsenic also refuses to give the reason, even if
the druggist says that “the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it
for”.

POINT OF VIEW
William Faulkner, the author, used a narration to highlight the plot's structure
and provide a character's point of view. With these, the story's point of view is
made in the first person, but it is told from the perspective of the town, by a
townsperson who talks in the plural voice by frequently using "we" but is actually
an individual.

THEME
The theme of the story is about hope. Despite its dark theme, the author is
indirectly telling us that there is still hope. That there is still a glimpse of life outside
our comfort zone. Miss Emily didn't bother to leave that dark and gloomy house
she called home, she lost herself the moment her father died and she gave up
life the moment she killed Homer. But little did she know, there's still a lot of things
and opportunity she can have but she chose to be stuck in despair forever.

NARRATIVE DEVICES
Tone
The tragic story of Miss Emily Grierson in the short story, “A Rose for Emily,”
was written in an obscure, grotesque, and cryptic tone.

Foreshadowing
The first foreshadowing can be found at the second section of the story
wherein a foul rotten smell was emanating from Miss Emily’s property. Then, on
section four, after Miss Emily’s transaction with a druggist, Homer entered her
house, and was never seen again.
The second foreshadowing happened when Miss Emily, a supposed to be
demure and elegant aristocrat, bought a rat poison from a local pharmacy.

Symbol
The symbolization of the rose is Homer himself because the flower
rose is known to be a symbol of love, and Homer was Miss Emily's lover. It was
mentioned in the story that Homer liked men and that he was not a marrying
man. The LIKED and WAS is in past tense form which means Homer changed. He
loved Emily, and the rose that the author used symbolizes him.