Preview

The Use Of Foreshadow In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
601 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Use Of Foreshadow In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
In “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner includes multiple situations to foreshadow the short story’s ending when Homer Barron’s decomposed corpse is discovered. Faulkner makes it very clear to readers as the short story progresses, by addressing the smell, the poison, and Homer’s disappearance that foreshadow to the discovery of his body in Emily’s house. The short story starts out describing Emily and the home her father left to her, after his passing. The town’s people refer to this home as smelling very bad “it smelled of dust and disuse- a close, dank smell” (Faulkner 31). Many people living near Emily complain about this smell and speak to the judge of the town about it. The judge’s remarks are “it’s probably just a snake or a rat the nigger of hers killed in the yard” (Faulkner 32). The judge tries to take care of the issue by having a few men of the town go to Emily’s house and “they broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the out buildings” (Faulkner 32). However, sadly this does not take care of the problem. The author makes it very clear that the smell is very bad and it is out of the ordinary for it to be this strong. This suggests to the readers it is more than just a small animal dead in the yard or under her house. Thus, the odor foreshadows the ending. …show more content…
Emily does not like change and after her father died she told everyone in the town “her father was not dead” (Faulkner 33). Emily has a very hard time accepting this situation. She keeps the body in the house and for “three days… they tried to persuade her to let them dispose of the dead body” (Faulkner 33). They succeed after several attempts to remove him from the house and when they do, they quickly bury him. This is foreshadowing the fact that Emily has a hard time letting the people she loves go and offers a motivation for Homer’s body which is discovered in the upstairs

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When she begins spending time with Homer people believe she is desperate enough for any type of affection that she would completely forget about her family pride and associate with a Northerner, someone beneath her. Emily is seen buying arsenic, a poison and everyone presumes she will use it to kill herself. After Emily’s death the townspeople go to her house and break down the sealed door to the upstairs room. After getting into the room they see all the things for a wedding laid out around the room including a man’s suit. On the bed they find the decaying body of Homer Barron with an acrid smell of poison coming from him.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    6.Emily has a hard time letting people go. She didn’t want to bury her father. Faulkner says, “She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctor, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force, she broke down, and they buried her father quickly”. When she broke down it shows that she does have a hard time letting go. She does the exact same thing with Homer. In order to keep Homer with her , Emily murdered him with the poison she got.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a short story based on the acts of Emily Grierson, before her death. Through the use of foreshadowing, Faulkner creates a veil of mystery that and draws the reader in, keeping them guessing until the very end. The first instance in which Faulkner utilizes foreshadowing is when he writes, "Dammit, sir...will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?" (Faulkner). While it may seem as though it is unnecessary information, the pointing out of the odor in Emily’s house is later concluded to be an effect of Homer’s death. Another example of foreshadowing is when Emily is going to the druggist and insists on purchasing the strongest poison they have to offer, "I want some poison...I want the best you…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is the life story of Miss Emily Grierson. A woman whose life is fraught with tragedy and grief. Strategically told out of order, Miss Emily’s life draws us in, beginning with the end of her life and the opening of her house to the curious townspeople. The “scrambled” telling of this story serves several purposes in enhancing the story’s interest and depth.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Rose for Emily” is a mysterious and unusual short story. William Faulkner creates a character, Miss Emily Grierson, who is so significant to the town that she is referred to as a “fallen monument” after her death. Miss Emily is an eccentric character, and although she physically changes, her character nor her personality do. Miss Emily is a static character, with internal conflicts, and has odd relationships with her boyfriend and husband. For instance, Miss Emily kept her late father's body and refused to give him up, showing an inability to let go. She keeps his body because she also does not want to be isolated, even though she avoids interaction by staying in her home. Miss Emily's isolation is external with society and also resonates…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a surprising short story that begins with the funeral of the main character, Emily Grierson. Faulkner uses an anonymous narrator that is considered to be the voice of “the town” and tells the story out of chronological order. The story basically uses the life of Emily Grierson as a symbol for the changes in the South after the Civil War. Faulkner illustrates the South through the use of a series of symbols, such as Emily’s house, hair, and even Emily’s “rose”.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this paper, the story of William Faulkner “A Rose for Emily”, I will illustrate how Emily Grierson was living in the past. Firstly, in the beginning of the story, the author’s detailed characterization foreshadowed the irony at the ending of the story. Secondly, Emily’s whole life and faith was controlled and twisted by her father’s selfishness and when her father died, she refused to give up her father’s dead body. Thirdly, she ignored all the public notice and tax collection that was sent to her. Fourthly, she turned her affection and desire to possess Homer that leads him to his death. Finally, the story that started the end of Miss Emily Grierson life was unfolded and the author suggests that Emily’s…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily kills Homer Barron because of all the problems she had threw out her life made her isolated and with different perspectives of life. She knew that Homer will never be with her so she could not stand to be left alone again, when her father died and left her alone, she thought she finally had found her partner and then realized that he had no absolute interest in sharing his life with her. Due to her mental illness Emily decides to kill Homer and keep the body in a room in her house. This makes us seem she was living…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a mysterious and fetid smell around Miss Emily Grierson's house. When an elderly neighbor complains to old Judge Stevens, he asks, "But what will you have me do about it, madam?" The next day there are two more complaints. Finally, at midnight one evening, four men sneak around and sprinkle lime near the foundation, the cellar door, and all the outbuildings. When they recross the yard, the men see a light on in a window; Miss Emily's upright torso is "motionless as an idol." In a week or so, the smell is gone, and the source of this odor is not determined.…

    • 215 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Rose for Emily” is a Southern Gothic story since the themes of murder and death are present. Throughout the story, the Faulkner describes Emily as lonely. “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough.”(Faulkner). When Emily goes into the store and buys poison this leads the readers to believe that something bad is going to happen. The ending of the story also makes it Gothic. Emily secret is revealed that she has had a dead corpse in her house for several years. Emily also slept with the corpse a long grey hair was found next to Homers decaying body. The Gothic elements help give this story a gloomy and creepy tone.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Grierson is a mentally incapable woman who has abandonment issues. She killed the man so he could they could be with each other for all time. The entire time that Homer Barron was dead on Miss Emily’s bed she slept next to him. This shows that she is crazy and will do anything to preserve the ones that she lover because she cannot let go of the past and accept that Homer will leave…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Miss Emily's relationship with her father is not described lengthily. He is described as "a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to [Emily] and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door." This seems to suggest that her father was a rough, loud-spoken, harsh man, and as such, had harsh rules. Though there is no proof, the towns-people come to believe that Miss Emily's supposed refusal of all her suitors is false. They begin to believe that her father was the one who turned all potential marriage partners down. He was a controlling man. When he died, Miss Emily seemed to reverse. She could not let him go. He lay dead in the house for three days before Miss Emily let officials take him to be buried. She might have been afraid to be alone. When Homer entered her life, he was a breath of fresh air. He is described as being the center of any laughing crowd. He was popular with people and good natured. The townspeople were elated to see Miss Emily with a beau, even if they did not believe that an individual as proper as Miss Emily's family was would marry Homer, a lowly street worker. The townspeople were not very surprised when Home disappeared. Later, the reader finds out that Miss Emily poisoned Homer, and laid him on a bed in the upstairs room. The townspeople, who find…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Rose for Emily Essay

    • 290 Words
    • 1 Page

    The reader feels empathy towards Emily for killing Homer, because she is scared he is going to leave her. She is so insecure and unstable that she cannot deal with the possibility of him leaving her, so she resorts to the only method that she knows. She kills him and makes him hers forever. She kills him out of love, which is evident by her housing the body in her home for years.…

    • 290 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rose for Emily

    • 629 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Her home is described in the second paragraph as “big, squarish frame house that had once been white… heavily lightsome style of the seventies” and “an eyesore among eyesores” as it is said to be decayed. To place Miss Emily in a run-down home like this is important to the story as it allows for the reader to infer mystery, darkness and a cold unknown to her life and who she is; the house itself seems somewhat creepy, abandoned and wasting away. The house is then later described to have a smell, a complaint from many in the neighborhood, and is described as the smell of a decaying animal “probably just a snake or a rat”. The smell was so bad a few men snuck around her place one night and sprinkled lime everywhere to try and mask it. The detail of rotting smell may allow the reader to wonder what type of person can live like that…

    • 629 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The theme of this fantastically written story is isolation. In this story, it is talking about Emily being isolated from everyone she knew, including her father due to his death. I believe that Emily felt so isolated that she killed Homer to always keep him “with” her. In her mind, I think she thought if she killed him she could keep his body with her up until her own death and kills her loneliness. Isolation drove Emily to extremes and I believe keeping Homer’s body only gave her a bigger sense of…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays