Miss Emily Grierson in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

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• A Rose for Emily Emily Grierson Essay

  ...January 14, 2011 Emily Grierson “A Rose for Emily” is a horror story by Faulkner. Emily Grierson, whose life story is told by an anonymous narrator, who represents the attitudes and ideas of the community. When suppressed by her father until his death, she takes up with a Northern laborer, Homer Barron. When she is faced with desertion from Homer, she turns to murdering him by arsenic. It was later discovered after Emily’s death that Homer’s rotting corpse was in the upstairs bedroom for nearly forty years and lying on the pillow next to him was an iron gray hair considered to be Emily’s. By examining Emily’s relationship with her father, her place in the community, and her problem with distinguishing the present from the past, a lot is revealed about the character of Miss Emily in the story. The Grierson family had a streak of general insanity along with an insane pride. Miss Emily’s father, a selfish and dominating man, thought that none of the young men who came courting her were good enough for their name. So he discouraged them. When he finally died, Emily was still unmarried and with nothing more than a house. Homer, Emily’s suitor, with his strong masculine presence and whip-welding skills are an interesting resemblance to Emily’s domineering father. We see Emily’s crime as a final...

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• A Rose for Emily Miss Emily Grierson Essay

  ...Miss Emily Grierson Perhaps, the most enticing word for Emily isn't “sick”. Demented and perpetually disturbed appears more appealing to a novice that does not understand the true depth of Emily's nature. The narrator that speaks of this story has a personality that of the old with an age of the young. Whether it may be a man or woman, the rose symbolizes praise to Emily as a maverick in early women's movement. The type of person Emily is, is wholly due to the men that have left a drastic yet resonating impact on her life; them being her father and Homer Barron. With their coexistence in her life, she became the woman that she is at the end from their impact and the town’s comments. Borne into a family of great wealth with a well pronounced rich lineage; a duty of any woman of her age was supposed to follow, was expected to be followed and with exact precision. However, with Emily being highly concealed by her father, she had to live with many restrictions of life, resulting in a pronounced backlash and profuse alteration of her personality. Giving the reader a limited impression that as a character, she is shown with excessive pride, leaving an enduring imagination to readers, as to what she was as an adolescent; but imagination does permit us to consider her as any young child; easily manipulative. Yet as a person Emily reacts to her...

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• A Rose for Emily the Mystery of Emily Grierson Essay

  ...The Mystery of Emily Grierson As remarkable a story as A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner was, the irony presented about Miss Emily's life was truly remarkable. The life and death of Emily Grierson drew a lot of attention from the entire town. Faulkner's description of the women in the town seemed to make the audience feel as if they were curious about her way of life. This short story was set in the town of Jefferson where for many years Miss Emily lived with her father. When her father passed away Faulkner described the decline in sanity Miss Emily endured. The mystery of many unanswered questions all came out following her death. The story starts by giving a lot of information on the house and town Miss Emily lived in along with the details about her life and death. When reading the story a person can tell that this is written by someone who lives in the town and knows of the family. The narrator has possibly been around for a number of years. The protagonist seems to be Emily in this story because of the chain of events she has endured leading to her mental instability. The narrator also gives information about the mental state of her family. The narrator described Emily when she started getting interested in boys by saying, "So when she got...

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• Character Analysis of Emily Grierson from a Rose for Emily Essay

  ...In this essay I will be talking about the character Emily Grierson from the story “A Rose for Emily”. A Southern Gothic short story written by William Faulkner. This story was Faulkner's first short story to be published in a national magazine. Taking place in Mississippi in the fictional country of Yoknapatawpha County, this tale tells the story of an elderly Southern spinster life and her relationship with a town of people up until her death. The main theme of the story revolves around the fact that this women refusing to change and cope with the changes around her. Due to her father refusing to allow anyone to marry her, she misses every chance at being married. Becoming desperate, she settles for the man known a Homer Barron. But problems occur when Homer himself admits he liked men and was not a “marrying man”. This caused Emily to reach desperate measures and she murders him and keeps his body. After this she stops leaving the house and refuses to let anyone in. A few years she died within her home from sickness. This sad story end with the towns people finding out that Emily kept Homer's dead body to sleep next to it. Tragic end for a once proud and beautiful woman whom one would hand a rose to. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town . . .”(1). I...

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• Faulkner s a Rose for Emily Essay

  ...Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” was one of the most anthologized short stores in history. After its publication in 1930 it has been deeply analyzed the writing. Faulkner has successfully grabbed the attention of critics with the twisted plot. The use of flashbacks, symbolism, and characterization keep the reader stuck in the story until the end. With a reoccurring theme that some are resistance to change , when Emily’s father refuses any suitors to propose, she eventually settles for Homer, the towns people offense to her heritage so she murder him then dies a recluse. With her unable to realize her dad died and refused to adapt to the changing world her became more and more secluded. In this analysis of “A Rose for Emily” we will explore the literary devices used in the text to get a better understanding of the story. Faulkner doesn’t use the typical chronological order for his piece instead, he relies on flashback. He starts the story with “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral…” He does this throughout the entire text stretching the story through several decades. Next we learn about how Miss Emily was a woman of tradition. "None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and...

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• "A Rose for Emily" Emily Grierson Essay

  ...Shaw                 Emily Grierson from William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” couldn’t accept death; she just could not believe it when those around her, particularly her loved ones, passed away. Emily’s denial of death has many causes and consequences. When her father died, it took three days and the intervention of the people of Jefferson for her to give up the body because she refused to believe he was dead. When the townspeople attempted to offer their condolences to Emily, as Faulkner says, “she told them her father was not dead.” After she murdered Homer to keep him near her, she didn’t, in her life accept his death and continued to have unnatural relations with his lifeless corpse.   Even ten years after the death of Colonel Sartoris, she denied his death because she had no concept of the passing of time. She refused to acknowledge the passing of her loved ones; it stands to reason that she would not acknowledge the passing of time. Her ignorance towards the passage of time has a lot to do with her denial of death. When the Board of Alderman visited Emily to ask her to pay taxes, she exemplifies her denial of time by repeating, “See Colonel Sartoris” despite the fact that he had been dead for many years. Emily didn’t seem to realize just how much time had passed since she had last laid eyes on colonel Sartoris. This was probably mostly caused by the...

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• A Rose for Emily Essay

  ...Edgar Delalamon A ROSE FOR EMILY BY WILLIAM FAULKNER The narrator describes what happens after Emily dies. Emily’s body is laid out in the parlor, and the women, town elders, and two cousins attend the service. The narrator describes the fear that some of the townspeople have that Emily will use the poison to kill herself. The narrator recalls the time of Emily Grierson’s death and how the entire town attended her funeral in her home, which no stranger had entered for more than ten years. The narrator describes a time thirty years earlier when Emily resists another official inquiry on behalf of the town leaders, when the townspeople detect a powerful odor emanating from her property.  The narrator describes a long illness that Emily suffers after this incident.  After some time has passed, the door to a sealed upstairs room that had not been opened in forty years is broken down by the townspeople. The room is frozen in time, with the items for an upcoming wedding and a man’s suit laid out. Homer Barron’s body is stretched on the bed as well, in an advanced state of decay. The onlookers then notice the indentation of a head in the pillow beside Homer’s body and a long strand of Emily’s gray hair on the pillow. The summer after her father’s death, the town contracts workers to pave the sidewalks, and a construction company, under the direction of northerner Homer Barron,...

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• Essay on a Rose for Emily

  ...“A Rose for Emily” Character Analysis of Miss Emily Grierson “A Rose for Emily” written by William Faulkner, is a story of Miss Emily Grierson, a woman who was born into a wealthy family in the town of Jefferson. She grew up and lived in a huge Victorian home with servants. After the Civil War, it seems that her family’s wealth started to diminish but the Grierson’s were still trapped in the past of their family’s wealth. Emily Grierson’s past and present life is being recalled by a narrator who expresses the attitudes and ideas of the community. The narrator uses phrases like “We knew”, “We said”, and “We believed” to show the towns involvement. The townspeople pity Miss Emily and look at her as “fallen monument. Miss Emily is from a classic wealthy southern family, whose name was well respected in the town of Jefferson. Miss Emily had been placed on a pedestal all her life. Because her family held itself higher than what they really were, Emily’s father thought no man was good enough for her and drove all the male suitors who came to court her away. When Miss Emily’s father died, she kept the body in the house for three days not allowing anyone to come and remove him. Faulkner gives us a peek into the depth of...

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