“A Rose for Emily”
description
Transcript of “A Rose for Emily”
“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