A Rose for Emily

Introduction

This paper tells gives a brief summary of the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. It gives a sketch of the character of the Emily, a courageous woman, represented as a “Southern Belle” in the story. She faces all types of adversaries from the people, but she never lets herself let down and stands against the ill-standard norms of the society. Miss Emily's story is certainly bizarre, suspenseful, and mysterious enough to engage the reader's attention fully. She is a grotesque, southern gothic character whose neurotic or psychotic behavior in her relationships with her father, her lover, and her black servant may elicit many Freudian interpretations (Meyer, 17-34). For example, her affair with Homer Barron may be seen as a middle-aged woman's belated rebellion against her repressive father and against the town's burdensome expectations.

Main Body

The title of the story makes it clear that the narrator's story as a last homage to Emily understands as a kind of rose, which he puts her on the coffin. He is by no means an admirer of Emily; a split has special relationship with her. At first, he describes the ornate, old wooden house Grierson, which are a last monument of the past glory of the southern states. So Faulkner characterizes the same house resident Emily: She is a fellow, a remnant of the old upper class, for their stubbornness, the narrator, however, has sometimes sympathy. It is a relic of the middle of the industrialized modernity with their cars and cotton factories. Emily is a wilted “Southern Belle” whose life has faded beyond recognition as a rose fades without nutrients. She has fallen into disrepair just as her house has become a decaying shack. A woman who longed for a complete life filled with love and adventure, ended in a tragic death. Miss Emily slipped into a fog of depression and isolation when she realized her life would not continue with Homer as she had thought. Simply put, Miss Emily lost her sanity.

This Gothic plot makes serious points about woman's place in society. Moreover, the narrator does not have direct access to Emily's private life, he seems to be dependent on the few public appearances, and gossip. Often you do not know whether he has observed the narrative itself, or whether he recounted the talk of the people. In this respect, the anonymous narrator moves into the vicinity ...