Summary Of William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner skillfully depicts the changes of Emily, who becomes a victim of the transitional period from the old pre-war society to the new post-war society. The author depicts the process of how an aristocratic lady becomes a killer. The story revolves around the life of a troubled and stubborn woman named Emily. After the death of her father and the disappearance of her lover, Emily becomes increasingly isolated from the society. She persistently lives in her self-made shell so that she can preserve her past and protect herself from the changes of society. By using peculiar factors, overcast atmosphere, and the contrast of desolate and modern life, Faulkner exposes the isolation of a woman trapped in the past, her desire for a happy life, and the degradation of the South after the Civil War. In the story, Emily is cut off from social contact and courtship because her father has driven away any man trying to approach her. Therefore, when her father …show more content…
In the story, Faulkner cleverly exposes the problems in the South after the Civil War through the story of the life of Emily Grierson. Faulkner deliberately reverses the order of timeline so that readers easily leave out details of the story; however, this “complicatedly disjunctive time scheme” makes the story more interesting by making the readers string all incidents in the story which seem almost unrelated to each other to find out the content of the story (Dilworth 252). Revolving around the life of Emily, Faulkner’s story reveals the isolation of Emily, her desire to be happy, and the decline of the South. Living in the period of switching from the old to the new, Emily has become a typical victim of that society. Through the tragedy of Emily’s life, Faulkner also highlights the importance of the interaction between the old and the new so that one does not completely brush off the values of the past nor is lost in the new, modern