"A Rose for Emily" - Fiction Essay
Deborah Austin-Barbour
Toni Williams
ENG 113-I5
September 5, 2012
Fiction Essay
“A Rose for Emily” was written by William Faulkner in 1931, “It is not unusual to find degraded, sullen, disturbed, and degenerate characters in Faulkner’s fiction” (Roberts and Zweig 91). Emily Grierson’s character is rounded and the summary of the way Faulkner chooses to portray most of his characters is accurate for her. As the story unfolds we see that Emily had and insane great aunt, been sheltered by her father, unwilling to accept the death of her father after his passing, protected from paying taxes by the Colonel Sartoris, the mayor, left by a man whom many thought she would marry; only for him to return and then later be killed by her. Mr. Grierson sheltered his daughter from possible suitors because:
“None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized” (Faulkner 93). We see the next element in Emily’s character when her father dies, she is left with only the house in which they live and with no money to live on. Also, after his death it seems as if her mind slips a little more because of the way that she treats the towns’ people who come to call. “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the
Toni Williams
ENG 113-I5
September 5, 2012
Fiction Essay
“A Rose for Emily” was written by William Faulkner in 1931, “It is not unusual to find degraded, sullen, disturbed, and degenerate characters in Faulkner’s fiction” (Roberts and Zweig 91). Emily Grierson’s character is rounded and the summary of the way Faulkner chooses to portray most of his characters is accurate for her. As the story unfolds we see that Emily had and insane great aunt, been sheltered by her father, unwilling to accept the death of her father after his passing, protected from paying taxes by the Colonel Sartoris, the mayor, left by a man whom many thought she would marry; only for him to return and then later be killed by her. Mr. Grierson sheltered his daughter from possible suitors because:
“None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized” (Faulkner 93). We see the next element in Emily’s character when her father dies, she is left with only the house in which they live and with no money to live on. Also, after his death it seems as if her mind slips a little more because of the way that she treats the towns’ people who come to call. “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the