A Rose For Emily

by William Faulkner

Stundent: Carauş Doina EF201SE

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 William Faulkner – A rose for Emily
The American novelist and short story writer is considered
one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He joined the
Canadian and British Royal Air Force during First World
War and worked on his novels and short stories on a farm in
Oxford. In 1949, Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for
Literature.

‘A Rose for Emily’ is a short story by William Faulkner,

originally published in Forum. The story concerns an
unmarried woman living in the American South who attracts
the concern and suspicion of the townspeople after her father
dies.
 “All the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no
winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the
most recent decade of years.”

—William Faulkner
“A Rose for Emily”
 Memory and the Past
The theme of memory in the past is a very frequent one used by the author
in his works because he, being a participant in the First World War, wants to
expose to the readers with desperation the way to honor the past.

In a rose for Emily this theme is very visible because the author extends the
action in the short story over several years, he often goes back in time which
makes the reader understand in more detail what happened. The author
shows us that southern city and the events in it both now and in the past, this
being as a memory of that city.
 Memory and the Past
“She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the
doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. “

Here the author present us to Emily herself who lived in the past for three days, she refuses to believe
that her father is dead and no one can convince her that her father is no longer alive.

“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating
from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris ...

Here the author also goes back to the past, and even details the year when this action took place. In
these verses Emily is described as an object that is passed down from generation to generation as a
tradition.
 Memory and the Past
“Already we knew that there was one room in that region
above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and
which would have to be forced.”

The author in this passage gives us a common memory of

the city which is the room closed for forty years, it is the
only thing that hides Emily's secret because in it is the body
of Homer Barron who was killed by Emily.
 Symbols
House
Miss Emily's house is an important symbol in this story. We
find almost all of Emily's actions in her own home. Also
throughout history, even the townspeople and the readers
observe the house only from the outside, so there is an
interest to penetrate inside the house, to see how Emily lived
and what secrets she hid in it. The house presented to us by
the author is an old one which is one of the main elements in
Gothic literature.

“It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies
in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street.”
 Symbols

Rose

The story never reveals a real rose that narrator use in the title.
The rose is symbols of love in this short , because people in
love offer roses to express their affections. In the case of Emily
with so many suitors in her youth, Emily does not accept any
of them and when she meets Homer, it seems that she could
have true love but it was not so.
 Symbols
Gray Hair
Another important symbol in this text is Emily's hair. The
narrator shows us the moment when Emily disappears
into her house when her hair turns gray. Her hair exposes
time because it has turned gray with the passage of time,
just as that strand of hair found on the pillow next to
Homer shows Emily's desire to live life in its own
conditions, along with the body of Homer Barron, locked
in this house .

“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 irongray hair.”
Thank you for your attention !