A rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” the focus is on Miss Emily and her Southern upbringing. In the South during Miss Emily’s life time for a woman not to be married was socially unacceptable. In Southern society during this time, and even today, it was encouraged and believed that to be happy it was necessary for one to be married. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a classic example of Southern literature because of the importance of family, community, religion, time and place. Miss Emily represented the importance of all of these things on Southern society. Miss Emily, is forced to conform to her father’s Southern societal values. Her family represented a monument of the past; Emily was referred to as a “fallen monument.”. She was a relic of Southern gentility and past values. She was considered fallen because she had been proven susceptible to death and decay. Like the rest of the world Miss Emily’s father chased away any and all men that tried and wanted to marry her. Miss Emily was very controlled by her father. He was very protective of her and extremely dominating. This kind of family environment for women was typical of southern society. Miss Emily herself represented, “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation". Miss Emily was merely a product of her environment. William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” displays an ideal of the antebellum Southern society that is often still associated with the south. Faulkner succeeded in writing a work of Southern literature that displays a romantic pull of the past and the idea that submission to this romance was a form of death thematically, death conquers all. The story of Miss Emily Grierson from Yaknapatawpha County is a tale depicting the romance of the South combined with the story itself created a captivating atmosphere, a world where no one wants.