“A Rose for Emily”William Faulkner

The Setting --

Jefferson The county seat of

the imaginary Yoknapatawpha County (Faulkner often used this setting in his works)

Jefferson resembles William Faulkner's real-life home of Oxford, Mississippi

Late 1800’s – early 1900’s

The story is told in five sections

Sections 1 and 5 are the present Sections 2-4 are flashbacks to various points in

time Is similar to gossiping . . . A chunk of info from

here, a chunk from there The townspeople only discovered details of her

life in bits by watching her We find out the details of her life in bits in

pieces like the characters do

Fractured Timeline/Nonlinear Structure

Faulkner calls “A Rose for Emily” a ghost

story Faulkner’s stories often included these

characters: The reclusive spinster The black loyal worker The southern gentleman The intruder from the North

Ghost Story

Colonel Sartoris remits her taxes She didn’t have to give a reason for

buying the poison No one approaches her about the smell

in her house

Why Emily Feels above the Law

Foreshadowing

Not admitting her father was dead/keeping his body for three days

Buying arsenic The smell

In general, roses often symbolize love and

honor but are also used in funerals The rose in the title of the story could

symbolize both love and morbid tragedy The “rose for Emily” could be Homer & the

vision of marriage she has with him (love) The “rose for Emily” could be the tragedy of

killing him to keep him with her forever (“funeral”)

The Rose

The Rose

In medieval times, the white rose was a sign of secrecy

The rose could be Miss Emily’s secret The rose that she

loved, kept, and cherished

In 1955, Faulkner said the rose was a tribute

for Emily “[The title] was an allegorical title; the

meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute . . . to a woman you would hand a rose” (Faulkner at Nagano 70-71).

http://ww2.faulkner.edu/admin/websites/cwarmack/William%20Faulkner%20speaks%20on.pdf

The Rose

Emily represented the “Old South” – how it

was slowly dying & making way for the newer, industrialized South Emily’s life, defined by death, is like the Old

South – she fades from real life although continuing to physically exist Faulkner refers to her as a “fallen monument” –

connected to the ways of the Old South Modern townspeople don’t know what do with

her, so they just leave her alone

Miss Emily

Miss Emily

Reluctant to change Refuses to pay taxes

when the new aldermen try to collect – “Talk to Colonel Satoris”

Won’t let the town put numbers on her house for modern mail

Her bridal chamber is an attempt to stop time from going on and a refusal to accept change (Homer leaving)

Her House

Her run-down house in the middle of a town that was changing/growing is the last sign of the Old South Before the Civil War was

beautiful and fancy Part of a rich, privileged

neighborhood Now decaying and out of place

amidst the gas pumps and cotton wagons

Also represents mental illness and isolation Her bridal suite, lack of visitors

and outside connections